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AL DIVISION SERIES: RAYS VS ASTROS

October 5, 2019

Kevin Cash

Houston, Texas - postgame 2

Houston - 3, Tampa Bay - 1

Q. Kevin, what made Cole so dominant tonight?
KEVIN CASH: Power. A lot of power. He had his fastball really going at the mid to top of the zone. Threw his breaking balls at will. I mean, I don't think anything he did was surprising. He's just that good.

Q. I assume you take some solace out of the way you guys rallied in the ninth inning. Quality at-bats.
KEVIN CASH: We had some good at-bats, no doubt. There at the end, we just came up a little short. Too late, really. But really, really good at-bats. Put pressure on. Just a big hit eluded us. But part of the reason is because their pitchers are really good.

Q. What did you think of Blake? And then also you guys played a lot of good defense, obviously. But the Willy error and the ball in front of Austin.
KEVIN CASH: Well, I thought Blake was really good. We kind of had a sense he was going to be able to get a second gear. It looked like he did tonight. Got us a lot deeper than maybe what I was anticipating.

And then the Willy error, he's been tremendous for us all season long. They're really good and they capitalize on those little things.

The ball in front of Austin, I thought, was a hit off the bat.

Q. Kevin when you get into a game like that, you get into the third, fourth, fifth inning and realize, I mean, this guy's as on top of his game as he's ever been, is there anything you can do other than just to fight through every pitch, every at-bat, things like that? Is there some sort of thing you say to anybody on your bench or anything about --
KEVIN CASH: Well, I think you give them, the best thing to do is give the hitters the freedom to go up there. You're jut not going to put together good at-bats against them. Might as well go up there, look for a pitch. If you get it, hope you're on time. Waiting around to, you know, see pitches and get to two strikes, that's just not going to be successful.

Q. Kevin, just building on Blake again, efficiency was some of his biggest issues in his past two starts. How important was the first inning for him?
KEVIN CASH: Huge. He was really, really good. We haven't seen that other than his first start back against the Dodgers. But it looked like he had everything dialed in, threw a slider, which I know Kyle and Blake go back and forth on, trying to get that usage up. He was outstanding for us.

Bregman got a 3-2 pitch, didn't miss it. He's done that a lot. But we'll take that outing for sure out of Blake, and knowing that if he's full health and full strength, he's getting a lot deeper in that game.

Q. Kevin, you have some things that you can build on here. What do you tell the team, down 0-2? What's the mentality, the message that has to be driven?
KEVIN CASH: Get some sleep, first and foremost. Get on the plane and get home. These guys do a good job of controlling the situation. I don't think there's a real message. They know what's at stake. They've played so well all season long.

We're going to have to have some things go in our favor now going forward, but we're capable of playing a really good game on Monday and see where that takes us.

Q. Kevin, you speak about how good Verlander and Cole was and how it makes you feel that you were right there. I mean, a hit away both nights.
KEVIN CASH: They're good. It's all we hear is JV and Gerrit Cole and the Cy Young race, and for good reason. Similar to the MVP chance with Bregman coming up. They've got a great team.

It's tough to -- you don't want to come up short. But we've come up short the last two nights. But you got to credit those guys for really quieting what I, we consider a good offense.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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