AL DIVISION SERIES: RAYS VS RED SOX

October 9, 2021

Ryan Brasier

Fenway Park

Boston Red Sox

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Just after everything you've gone through this year, it's been a lot, what does it mean to you just to be kind of sitting here right now, kind of a key part of a playoff team right now?

RYAN BRASIER: Honestly, man, it's super gratifying. Working hard to get through the calf thing and then taking the line drive and adding another couple months to the rehab and trying to get back to normal, and then kind of struggling a little bit when I first got back to finding it, now back to where we planned on being before I got hurt in Spring Training. That's pitching in big games in the playoffs.

Q. What has made you so effective against -- like the last ten-plus innings I don't think you've allowed a run. What has been the key to your success as of late?

RYAN BRASIER: Really just finally getting into where I like my mechanics and feeling comfortable on the mound and kind of taking each outing and finding out something that is either helping me or not helping me, and just trying to continue the process of staying where I want to be and keep being effective.

Q. How difficult was that considering you missed so much time and then sort of had to play catch-up at the end of the season?

RYAN BRASIER: When you're going through your rehab, you don't really think about it. You think you're just going to come out of it and be the same as before you got hurt or how it was last year or whatever. Finally some stuff clicked, and I could feel it physically and obviously see it with how I've been pitching.

Once I kind of found out that medium where I want to be at, everything kind of turned around.

Q. In 2018, you guys obviously had Craig at the back end and then figured out the rest for a lot of the year. How different is this bullpen? How would you describe the roles in this bullpen this year?

RYAN BRASIER: Everybody wants the ball, and so far whoever has got it, whatever the situation is, go out and perform. It's that next-man-up mentality that you always hear about in sports. Not just baseball, but every sport. I think just that's kind of how we go about it in the bullpen. Nobody really cares where or when they throw.

Q. Along those lines, it's been an interesting year in terms of changing roles, changing personnel over the course of the last month, COVID. How would you describe the role that Alex Cora has played in terms of helping you guys to sort your way through that, I guess?

RYAN BRASIER: Huge. Not just AC, but the whole staff. We've got guys playing positions they may not be playing on other teams or in other years. As you guys have seen, AC has that something about him that he always finds a way to put guys in the right spots to succeed.

Q. Ryan, I saw something about pitching at Tropicana Field, how that was a little emotional for you because of your dad and everything. I guess that was the last place he had seen you pitch. Can you just talk about what that had meant to you.

RYAN BRASIER: In '19, the last time we were there -- obviously, we went there last year in '20, but no fans and stuff. My mom and dad came to the last series we had in Tampa in '19, and that was the last time he saw me pitch in person.

Yeah, we've been back there since that happened, and obviously thinking about it, and my mom was there yesterday and my whole family was there. Definitely thinking about him yesterday -- not so much while I was pitching, but before and after for sure.

Q. We've seen kind of the numbers about Tampa Bay's offense late in games, how they score so many different runs after the seventh inning or whatnot, which would usually coincide with some of your appearances. What makes this team so difficult to approach from the mound?

RYAN BRASIER: Really it's how they play the game in general. You see them, they hit weak ground balls, and they bust their butts to first base every single time. They play super hard. Their whole team, you feel like they never let up on a pitch or a play or anything.

They do the same things in the box. Those guys, they're aggressive, but at the same time, they're going to make you be in the zone or be around the zone. They just kind of take what they can get.