AL DIVISION SERIES: RAYS VS RED SOX

October 10, 2021

Kevin Cash

Fenway Park

Tampa Bay Rays

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Red Sox 6, Rays 4

Q. First, can you just explain the situation on the ball Kiermaier hit, why discretion wasn't allowed and what factor it bouncing off Renfroe had.

KEVIN CASH: By rule, it's just a ground-rule double. The umpires met and got together, and said, you're more than welcome to challenge it. I saw the replay. Obviously there was nothing intentional by it. That's just the rule. That's the way it goes. It was very unfortunate for us. I think it was fairly obvious that KK or Yandy was going to come around to score, but it didn't go our way.

Q. There's no umpire discretion at all allowed?

KEVIN CASH: No. I asked. They said they had it as a ground-rule double. Obviously, they went to New York to look at it, and they confirmed it.

Q. Obviously, the situation you're in this game with so many twists and turns, but the reality is you're down 2-1. Could be eliminated as soon as tomorrow after the season you had. How do you kind of assess that?

KEVIN CASH: We've got to win tomorrow. We don't really have many choices. Today was a really big win for them and a really tough loss for us.

We put ourselves in a little bit of a bind. We did a great job of having some big at-bats from a little bit there to get back in it. Look, we had opportunities. We just didn't capitalize. Their pitching was tough but just a lot of swing and miss. When you're swinging and missing, there's not much you can do.

Q. Where does this game leave you guys pitching-wise, obviously having to empty the bullpen the way that you did heading into a bullpen game tomorrow?

KEVIN CASH: I'm sure we'll have a lot of discussions into the night and into tomorrow. Confident everybody that threw one or one-plus is fine to bounce right back. We've got McHugh down there who didn't pitch, Wacha, who didn't pitch, and we'll find a way to piece it together.

Q. Kevin, obviously the outcome isn't what you wanted, but considering the way that game started, just the fact that the guys fought back, even after two straight losses now, do you have a sense that there's still a lot of confidence in the way they played over those last ten innings?

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, there's plenty of confidence, and there should be plenty of confidence. This is a very good team. We're playing another very good team. We get out to a 2-0 lead with a big home run by Meadows, and then Eovaldi kind of kicked it in gear, and they had good at-bats against Ras.

For all the missing that we did, Ras couldn't create too much miss, and the Red Sox throughout their lineup continued to put pressure with quality at-bats.

But always encouraged with this group of guys. Nobody thinks they were out of it today. We certainly don't feel like we're out of anything. Our goal now is let's find a way to get this back to the Trop.

Q. Kevin, with the Arozarena double in the eighth, it looked like Schwarber made contact with him. What was the ruling? What did the umpires tell you about that?

KEVIN CASH: Well, it was obstruction, but they also didn't feel that he was going to get to third base. Had Randy kept running and he gets thrown out by 20 feet, you're making a judgment call. The umpire, I don't know if that's the best thing to happen.

Him and Schwarber collided. Randy fell down and got back up. They certainly marked the obstruction, but I think he probably belonged at second.

Q. Also the Margot play with the overslide.

KEVIN CASH: Yeah, that one was a little confusing. It certainly looked like he kept his foot on before the tag. I'm not privy to what they see in New York, but from the big screen here, it looked like -- it made sense why he was originally called out, but it felt like his back foot actually was on the bag at the time. I'm sure we'll talk about that, and we'll have video and images to review, but they saw something to confirm it.

Q. It just seemed like there were a lot of kind of weird things that happened as well as you guys not getting some base hits that kind of contributed to you not being able to convert here a little bit.

KEVIN CASH: I agree. I can't deny that, but at the end of the day, you've got to capitalize when there's guys on base, and we just didn't. Pivetta was just really, really good for them.

Q. I know you said you guys will talk about it overnight, but what kind of options do you have for tomorrow's game? Is it possible that McClanahan comes back on short rest or Baz?

KEVIN CASH: Like I said, we're going to talk through it. We're going to prioritize each individual pitcher, check on them, see how they're doing, and then go from there. We have not even had one single conversation about either one of those guys as of this moment. I'm sure we'll discuss many options over the next couple hours.

Q. I'm sorry if you were asked this at the very top, but the rule is what it is on the ground-rule double, but did you agree with the rule? Do you wish it could be different? He was clearly going to score.

KEVIN CASH: Oh, I definitely wish it was different. Certainly in the moment -- you can appreciate somewhat of a blanket rule, but we put a lot on these umpires, and now we've introduced video to umpires. I think it would be a very easy call if somebody stepped in and said it was stating the obvious that he was going to score. Saying that, it's been a rule for a long time, and we're going to play within the rules that are presented to us this season.

Q. Also about that rule, I know the rule is what it is, but it also seems like you could possibly interpret it like entitled to advance two bases could absolutely mean from the moment the ball goes out of play and not from contact. Like if he had thrown the ball away, throwing it back into the infield, wouldn't they have advanced two bases?

KEVIN CASH: Yes, that I believe is correct, but it was unintentional, or they deemed it as unintentional, which I agree with. I don't think Hunter was trying to ricochet the ball out of the ballpark. You could tell he went and grabbed it -- or tried to reach over the wall trying to get it.

It's a quirky play. I wish I had a better assessment or opinion on it. I don't think I've seen that and certainly not seen it with the magnitude it was played tonight.