Q. Alex, you have been here before, elimination games, right, facing with another one tonight. What are your emotions going into this one? How are you feeling about the team and the adversity you guys have faced all year?
ALEX CORA: Like I said after Game 1, we had two shots to make it, right? And it didn't happen yesterday. Today we have another great chance to advance.
The guys are excited. I remember as a player, you had this weird feeling throughout the day of anxious, nervousness and ready to go, right? You should feel that way. It is the nature of the sport. It is how it works, you know.
And then when 8:00 gets here, they are going to relax. They are going to play the game they have always played, and we are going to manage the way the game will dictate and see what happens.
Q. Alex, how are you? You have been here before. How do you prepare the younger players to mentally be in this sort of do-or-die-game situation?
ALEX CORA: I think nothing changes. You don't overdo it. You treat it just like another game, although it is not. If you try to manage the game differently, or manage the day differently, it doesn't work, because they are going to feel like, okay, he is nervous. He is acting differently.
Today was just a regular day. You prepare. You talk to them about certain things that are going to happen during the game, how are we going to attack the opposition and go from there.
Q. Alex, I know every day you are trying to figure out the best way to 27 outs. Do you try to script it out any more in a game like this?
ALEX CORA: No, it is like yesterday. We are going to react to the game. That wasn't scripted. That was just the game dictated what we had to do. Of course you have different scenarios. I wasn't expecting Brayan to struggle yesterday. I expected him to go five, six innings and then manage the last three. But we had to be aggressive.
It is Game 3. We know what it means. What happens in between the lines is going to decide what we do.
Q. Looking at the usage from the last two days, do you feel like you have what you need to get through it?
ALEX CORA: We used him yesterday. They can go back-to-back. Chapy, he is rested. There's guys that they're feeling it, but they are ready to go. Let's put it that way.
Q. In 2021 against Tampa, you had the postseason experience of going to the bullpen really quick in back-to-back days. How hard is it to do that to a bullpen? Like, do you need to get length from Early at this point, or are you in a position where managing the game could mean another very quick hook?
ALEX CORA: I think we are in a good place, regardless, either/or. So hopefully he goes deep into the game and don't have to make too many phone calls to the bullpen.
Q. What do you remember about those two games in Tampa? You had Eduardo you pulled in the third, and then Chris you pulled after the first inning.
ALEX CORA: Yeah, Chris wasn't good. Tanner was great. Right? Until Cruz hit the roof. Right? The one with Eduardo was what, Game 1?
Q. Game 1.
ALEX CORA: They struggled. They struggled. Obviously that lineup you mix and match with them, and we did it.
Q. As a manager, what are your emotions like in game? Are you able to kind of just leave it to the players, and are you finding yourself, like, engaged from an emotional standpoint of not being able to -- you know, of trying to dictate the outcome?
ALEX CORA: It seems like I am not engaged from here out, right, for the camera, but here, here and here, I am very engaged. I feel it every single game. Every single day. That's the reason I am doing this. I love it. And, you know, I enjoy when they do well. I suffer when they struggle.
The goal was for us to make it to October and have a deep run in October and make it to the World Series and win it. So you guys have no idea how it feels in that dugout just watching games like the last two.
I would love you guys to have that feeling at least once, because it's different. It's different. It is different than as a player. As a player I had control of, you know, making a play, not making a play, putting a ball in play. I had control of that.
As a manager all we can do is make decisions based on the information and what this game dictates. Then you want your players to do it, to be successful, and do it right and to win games.
For example, yesterday, you know, we didn't make that play in left field. For me, I was like -- inside I was with the kid. Ceddanne doesn't get the bunt down. I was right there with him. Because I still I remember a game against Houston in the regular season in Dodger Stadium in the ninth inning. I was asked to bunt, and I popped it up to first base, and I felt like shit.
It is hard to describe the feelings in that dugout, to be honest with you. I would love you guys to do that, yeah, to have the opportunity to do that, because it is a unique experience.
THE MODERATOR: Alex, thank you.
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