AL DIVISION SERIES: RAYS VS RED SOX

October 7, 2021

Nick Pivetta

Christian Arroyo

Tropicana Field

Boston Red Sox

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Rays 5, Red Sox 0

Q. Nick, how pleased were you to keep the team in the game there? It was a tough start for Eddie, just to be able to eat some innings too tonight.

NICK PIVETTA: Yeah, I mean, that's what it's all about. Just going out, competing, doing my job. It was exciting to be in that position. It was an exciting game to be a part of. I mean, ever since I was younger I've always wanted to play in the playoffs, and I think that's a lot of fun at the end of the day to be able to experience this and go out and compete against those guys.

So I did the best I could. You know, things didn't go my way certain times, but I tried to keep us in the baseball game and just tried to go as deep as I possibly could.

Q. Nick, obviously, things didn't go your way today, but the hope is always to split on the road the start of the series. How comfortable do you feel given the fact that Chris is going to be on the mound tomorrow?

NICK PIVETTA: Yeah, I mean, Chris is an extraordinary pitcher. He has been his whole entire career. I think it's going to give us a lot of confidence going into that game tomorrow, and, you know, it's just being positive and going out and just having fun at the end of the day and really, like you said, splitting the series is a priority for us. And I think that's what we need to focus on going forward and it's just not making the moment too big, but just having fun and going about it because this is what everybody dreams of.

Q. Nick, do you feel like your outing sets the bullpen up to be rested and ready for the rest of the series?

NICK PIVETTA: You know, I think me providing some depth really helps that. Otto was able to go out there get an inning in. J.T. came in quickly after me, as well with Richards just coming in shortly. So I think that's really important in that situation to be able to do that and help with the bullpen and then see where we go moving forward.

THE MODERATOR: Joined by hometown guy Christian Arroyo.

CHRISTIAN ARROYO: Sorry I'm late.

MODERATOR: Welcome, Christian. Next question.

Q. Christian, do you feel like this was kind of a weird night for you guys offensively in that it seemed like you were hitting a lot of line drives and didn't end up scoring my runs tonight?

CHRISTIAN ARROYO: Yeah. I mean, I think I looked back. I think we left eight on base or something like that. Obviously, situations like this you have to score runners. You know, as an offense I thought we did a good job of getting our knocks, but you got to have that blow, you know?

Arozarena hit a homer. Cruz hit a homer. They started off the first inning with a couple of knocks, RBIs and stuff, but, yeah, we just didn't have that gut-punching blow with runners in scoring position to get stuff rolling. It's baseball.

Q. Christian, Nick just said that you can't make this moment bigger than it is. You have to move on to tomorrow. How does one do that?

CHRISTIAN ARROYO: I think at the end of the day, I mean, you know, it's the postseason. Obviously it's a lot different than the regular season, but you got to stay within yourself. You got to realize we're still playing the same exact game. We played 162, 163 games now, now 164. You know, you go into it with the mindset of tomorrow, obviously, you know, we want to come out and we want to win, but we can't do that by putting too much pressure on ourselves.

You can see it over the course of a season. It's just one of those things. You got to come out and play your game. We have a really good team. We're in the postseason for a reason, and we got to stick back to what we do, and one of the things that we do best and that we've done really, really well this year is hit with runners in scoring position and score those guys.

Again, you know, hats off to this Rays pitching staff. They have a really, really good pitching staff. The numbers speak for themselves. They keep runs off the board. You know, it's just one of those nights, and look to reset and get back after it tomorrow.

Q. Christian, I know you used to play here, but just to see the ball go off the catwalk there, how strange is that? Annoying is it when you are on the other side and not playing for the Rays?

CHRISTIAN ARROYO: Obviously, that's always like a topic of discussion whenever you're coming to play here, but, you know, I mean, that's the ground rules. That's what they've set. You know? It's part of it. You know, it's the same thing when you get three strikes and you take a third strike, you're out. So it's part of the game, and it's part of the ground rules here. You know, I mean, there's really nothing you can do about it, know?

It threw me off because I thought Duggie was camped under it, and then I saw the ball bounce, and then I saw Nelson Cruz jogging, so I was really, really confused, but, you know, it is what it is.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much for coming in. We appreciate it.

CHRISTIAN ARROYO: Thanks for having us.

NICK PIVETTA: Thank you.