Rays - 3, Guardians - 1
Q. You've seen Ras good. The way he limited hard contact tonight, what made him so effective?
KEVIN CASH: I mean, a lot of what we've already seen in this postseason, mixing -- got the change-up -- I felt the change-up was better today than his first outing. Didn't necessarily -- they got a bunch of hits with limited runs. But today, the way he limited anything was really, really impressive.
But he got in rhythm with the fastball. A lot of power to everything. Then the depth on the change-up on the side, talking to Kyle and Tomas, throughout the outing was a big pitch for him.
Q. Your guys talk about the confidence they have when they know Drew's pitching. Do you feel that, too? Do you see that?
KEVIN CASH: I feel the same confidence with Drew, with all five of those guys. We're so fortunate to have such a group of starters that have contributed in big ways. You can add certainly Ian there as a fifth and Shane McClanahan.
There's just a lot of confidence in the pitchability that they show and the ability to adjust on the fly and make big pitches in the most pivotal points of the game.
Q. You mentioned how scrappy the Guardians lineup is. To have a middle infield that can take away hits in those kind of capacities, what does that mean to see Taylor --
KEVIN CASH: Look, I'm careful with the word "scrappy." I don't think they're scrappy. I think they're good. They're really good.
But our guys can cover a lot of ground in the infield and the outfield. And when you've got a team like we're playing that's very talented, hits the ball hard, can move the baseball all over the field, the benefit is to have a lot of speed on defense, and I think we saw that today.
Q. What does it say about your offense that you guys have had two home runs in this series and you're a win away from the World Series. That's pretty unusual?
KEVIN CASH: Hopefully they're coming.
(Laughter).
That's what I'll take from it. We know how good Parker Messick is. I think we took advantage of getting ourselves in some favorable counts and getting some big hits.
We probably left some opportunities out there, and then they go to the bullpen, and it's really challenging to piece together big innings when they're mixing and matching from the third or fourth inning, whatever it was, on.
But we've got a very good offense. I'm hoping the home runs are going to start coming.
Q. How important was Chandler's infield single bunt down the line in the first inning, which obviously led --
KEVIN CASH: Yeah, I mean that's Chandler. One little hiccup. And I don't even think Rocchio made a hiccup, it was just a double clutch right there. He's going to beat every shortstop, middle infielder, third baseman in baseball, just how he gets out of the box.
But not surprised. He doesn't assume anything. His 90s down the line are as impressive as anybody that I've ever seen.
Q. To follow up on the offense, there were a lot of hands in it, Aranda, Yandy.
KEVIN CASH: Aranda and Yandy, really nice that they've backed it up two big nights. They come through for us in big ways. Really wanted that ball that Mesa, for obvious reasons, to carry out of the ballpark. But hopefully he looks at that as a good sign for him. He can get back in there and do his thing.
Q. That one rally in the second, it was three opposite-field hits. I feel like that's just kind of taken what they're being given, maybe kind of sticking to their approach?
KEVIN CASH: Generally, I mean, yeah, with all of them -- I think that's Ben's skill set -- a lot of our right-handers, to be able to shoot balls the other way. Jonny comes up, takes the ball the other way, getting thrown out at home.
But still a bunch of good at-bats. We piled on the hits, but runs are tough to come by because this team is so good at -- their team is so good at preventing runs, similar to us.
I mean Kwan, the play that he made getting rid of that ball off the bat, I thought there was no chance of a play. And it's a credit to him to get it to Bailey as quick as he did.
Q. Yandy has 11 hits in eight postseason games so far this year. Just another night him making an impact. What did you see out of him tonight?
KEVIN CASH: I mean, Yandy's -- I've said it for many seasons, he goes, we go. We talk about leaders on the team and how they go about their business.
And what Yandy does at the top of our lineup, it ignites everybody. Not surprised that he is starting to see the ball well. I mean, that bat right there at the end with Cade Smith, it was very similar with the broken bat, the pause, the delay. He comes up and comes up with a big hit.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports