MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 28, 2026

Kevin Cash

Tropicana Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. How did you come to the decision that Drew was the man?

KEVIN CASH: Kyle had mentioned something to him pregame yesterday about going short. Ras was supportive of it. I walked down and talked to Nick after Nick had pitched, and Ras, and said how do you guys feel about tomorrow? I think there was some thought process, pitching Ian Seymour last night in the game, that we were going to cut into whatever he had available if he came in the game. And both guys gave a thumbs-up up we're good to go.

Then afterwards, the celebration of the win, sat down and talked to our group and then called Ras right after he'd left the ballpark, and he was 100 percent on board wanting the ball.

Q. Will he be on a pitch limit or what's the plan?

KEVIN CASH: I wouldn't tell you if I had that answer regardless. Ras is going to take the ball and give us what he can give us.

Q. I'm sure there are a few guys who came in your office and said they have a few innings. Any of those conversations you can share? I'm sure Nick Martinez was in there, yes?

KEVIN CASH: Nick is in the clubhouse right now with a stim machine on his arm and no shirt. He's ready to go, pumped up.

I think I'm going to hear from all of them at some point throughout the day that they're good to go and eager to help in whatever way possible.

Q. When you sat down with your pitching group last week, was Drew coming back on short rest among the things you had in mind as a possibility, or did that just develop the way the series developed?

KEVIN CASH: I think it's more of the way the series has gone. He knows that. We know that as a group. I mean, there's a lot of people that have contributed to why we're here right now. Ras might be at the top of that list.

It just shows a lot about him knowing the situation and wanting. He can make our decisions very easy by being there to take the ball, and we're going to give it to him.

Q. Does him in the past being an opener, relieving, coming back on short rest two years ago just put you more at ease for deciding something like this?

KEVIN CASH: I think what puts us at ease is we know that he does everything between his starts even though it's shaved a day shorter to prepare himself. He held out from throwing a bullpen yesterday with this possibly in the back of his mind that he's going to go out and prepare.

I think Ras, knowing him, he's pretty motivated to get back out there and give us what he can. He wasn't satisfied with how maybe Game 2 went.

Q. Having so many arms go up last night, pun intended, about pitching today and about lending their arms today, what does that say about your pitching staff and this team's mentality after last night's win?

KEVIN CASH: It shows what they've shown consistently, all hands on deck. They're going to do whatever they can to help us win another game. I mean, with the exception of Bryan Baker, and that wasn't even the start of the season, having a closer, everybody else has just pitched in whatever role they're asked to do, whatever is best to win that night, and we'll do that again today.

Q. Ben hadn't had a lot of success to this point, and he referred to that, but just your confidence in him using in that situation and how cool was it to see him come through?

KEVIN CASH: That was very cool. Very cool to see the reaction, how that played, hitting the ball over Bauers' head, the ground ball over his head. Ben's skill set is kind of made for that situation. You're going to get contact. It doesn't matter how elite the strikeout quality, the pitcher on the mound, it seems like Ben can really have a good at-bat and put pressure on the pitcher to get him to swing and miss.

I applaud Ben for going up there ready to hit. The last thing you want to do is go down 0-1 and then you're starting to expand because it's just the pressure of the moment. He was ready. Like he alluded to, he was ready from the fifth inning on. The entertaining part is he was so ready he had his batting gloves and his helmet on sitting below the dugout.

Q. What did you like about your at-bats against Misiorowski in Game 1, and what do you want to see more of this time as you see him a second time?

KEVIN CASH: I hope we can use the reps from not too long ago to our advantage, knowing that Jacob Misiorowski is better than anybody in baseball, if not the best.

I thought we did a good job of not helping him out by not expanding at the top of the zone. If we can take that similar approach today, make sure he gets the ball down, and then we're ready to hit.

Saying that, being overly patient doesn't work because if he gets ahead of you -- there's a reason why he's got so many strikeouts.

Q. Is there a time in your managerial career where you've had such an all-hands-on-deck approach entering a game like this? And can you take us through the process of how this works and how you plan to navigate something where anyone and everyone is available to some degree?

KEVIN CASH: I think we've been built for many years where we've talked about it during regular seasons. Our roster is built to help us win every single night. Certain rosters in this league are built where you roll out eight or nine guys every night, and then you're resting guys with your bench. That's not how we're built.

We're built to use everybody on a given night. And talking to the front office, there's a lot of nights where we feel our best chance is to utilize our entire bench. Last night was a pretty good example of that.

How to navigate it, I think at this point in the season, we can do all the preparing we want. We are preparing and trying to understand, but that Milwaukee pitching staff is elite. Don't know which way they're going to go on a given night. You've got to be a little bit reactive.

Q. Why do you feel like your team is better than most teams in Major League Baseball with its back against the wall?

KEVIN CASH: I think our team has proven we're better than most teams because we have better players. Our players have performed very well all season long.

With their backs against the wall? I don't know if we've had our backs against the wall too often. We won almost 100 games, came just short of 100 games, so a lot of things went well for us in the regular season.

Our backs have been against the wall in this series because that's a really good Brewer team, but that doesn't jar our confidence whatsoever.

Q. Tonight is the final game at The Trop this season. What has it been like to play here this year and just how special is this place?

KEVIN CASH: It's very special. We've played really well here. We've won a lot of games here. I'd like to find a way to win one more.

Q. How's Junior, and how did he hurt the foot?

KEVIN CASH: Junior, he's fine and obviously in the lineup today. Really impressive that he went first and third right there, very instinctual play.

He's been dealing with some lower extremity injuries, but there's a lot of guys that are nicked up right now playing through a lot and know that Cammy will be ready to go today.

Q. Jonny DeLuca's overall play, he's made some really impressive catches, come up with some clutch hits for you. What would you kind of say about him?

KEVIN CASH: Jonny is -- I mean, the defense we don't talk about. Him and Chandler last night, the plays that they made to keep it a low scoring game, the jumps, the reads that they got really kept us in that ballgame.

I feel like the at-bats are trending in the right direction. I've got to think that last night's 12th inning is going to jolt some positivity into our offense, and hopefully it carries into today, and Jonny was right in the middle of this.

Q. You've been in this community the whole time the Rays have been in existence. Dewayne Staats is throwing out the first pitch tonight. What do you think about that?

KEVIN CASH: No better guy to have. For him to be the voice of Rays baseball for so many years, I think is awesome. I'm happy that -- Patrick and Bill and Ken, probably a pretty easy decision on their part. Hopefully the fans and the crowd gets behind him.

Q. After a game last night with all those decisions, are you so exhausted you fall asleep immediately, or are you so wired you're up till dawn?

KEVIN CASH: I was up till 4:00 last night contemplating whether I was going to wear the My Dawg T-shirt.