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NL WILDCARD GAME: ROCKIES VS DIAMONDBACKS

October 4, 2017

Torey Lovullo

Phoenix, Arizona

Rockies - 8, Diamondbacks - 11

Q. The decision to go with Robbie, I'm guessing you made that decision, if you needed him, you were going to go with him and worry about the Dodgers series later?
TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, this is an all-in moment. I felt like he was the best guy to put back in the bullpen, and I felt like if things didn't go our way, and need to maneuver in extra innings we'd have some pieces left and it's not a time where you need to save pieces and you just manage differently, in your head, and I felt like Robbie was the best option for us. And he did enough to get us to that moment where Archie took over.

Q. Do you think Taijuan will start Game 1 Friday?
TOREY LOVULLO: It's too hard to say right now. I haven't really gotten that far, I'm going to enjoy this and enjoy this moment and celebrate with my family. But we have a couple of candidates. They're obvious, we haven't totally walked through that yet. But a couple of conversations, we're going to get that going in the right direction and I'm sure we'll announce that as soon as possible.

Q. Who are the obvious candidates besides Walker, and when do you reasonably think Greinke could be able to pitch if they go to Game 2?
TOREY LOVULLO: They were both short outings, so I think that we're going to talk to them and get a feel for how they feel and walk through the next steps. The candidates would be Walker, Godley or Corbin. But we're going. We're going to go back to the drawing board and come up with the best solution and best options possible. But Zack and Robbie are certainly candidates, and we've just got to figure out how they're doing and how they're feeling.

Q. What was your take on Zack? And you basically got to a point where you said I'm going to limit the damage here and you just brought in Chafin to cut it off? What was the whole thought process on that?
TOREY LOVULLO: I think in this game it was my mindset and kind of a strategy that I had that you were going to try to cut off moments. And this is a ballclub here, the Rockies can really turn innings sideways in a hurry. And I felt like they were starting to get their motor running, and I wanted to turnoff that moment, and I felt like the best option was to get Zack out of the game at that point in time, and then we'd reload and figure out what to do the next thing.

Q. Crazy things seem to happen in the postseason, but of all crazy things, could you have imagined a key two-run triple by a relief pitcher?
TOREY LOVULLO: To tell you the truth, I'm not totally shocked. It was a slugfest. And it was a tremendous baseball game with a lot of highs and lows, and you're trying to manage those through the course of the game. Then Archie walks up there in a situation where I feel like he's prepared for and we talked to him during the course of the year. Especially as were winding down and aiming toward the postseason that he might have moments like that and get some swings and continue work and know that could come up, but what I want to say is Archie he's built for that moment, that's his personality. You're talking about an elite high school athlete that understands what it's like to be on the big stage. He steps up, and he likes to be in that environment and it translated.

Q. Archie gets the big three-run triple and comes back in the next inning and gets the back-to-back home runs. Were his emotions too high? Was it legging out a triple? What did you see from Archie when he gave up the two homers?
TOREY LOVULLO: A little bit of what you're talking about. I think he's got to go home to third base, and for those that have ever tried that, it's not a very easy task. It takes a lot out of you, and he's a very emotional guy, and he connected with the fans. I just felt like that may have taken something out of him. Then he had the extended inning where he's making good pitches and good hitters hit good pitches. I just felt like it was the right thing to, you know, call it the way I did. Get him out of the game and hand it over for Fernando.

Q. You've had some success against the Dodgers this year compared to a lot of the other clubs. Does that mean anything or does the postseason a different animal and what happened in the regular season is irrelevant?
TOREY LOVULLO: No, I think what I talked about with these players over the past couple days was you've got to go out and earn things and the records, the match-ups, the success, the failures, it doesn't matter. Everything a brand-new season. It's the start of season two for us. So we've got a few boxes to check, and we've got to go out and earn things just the same we did all year long. That was my message to the team. We know that we played well against the Dodgers but that's going to probably prep them to be ready for a team that going to come in and battle them for as long as we possibly can.

Q. How do you handle how well you did play against them since no one else in the league did seem to figure them out?
TOREY LOVULLO: I don't know the exact reason why we did. I just think we have good players. I just think we have guys that like to step up and they're not intimidated. Look, the Dodgers got on a tremendous run there, and I think they were steam rolling teams and intimidating teams, and I don't think we have that mentality. We love that battle mindset. We love that challenge, and I know that there are four teams left in the National League and we're one of them and I'm proud of that, and I think our guys are as well.

Q. You said you weren't totally shocked by what Archie did at the plate. What shocked you more? His performance at the plate or his performance on the mound?
TOREY LOVULLO: It was probably more shocking. When Archie gives up runs, it kind of leaves you a little startled but how did that happen? Like I said, the Colorado Rockies are a tremendous team loaded with offensive talent. You can make quality pitches and they're still going to do damage. I think the first pitch was a breaking ball that Arenado hit out of the ballpark, the second pitch was a quality fastball down to Story. So I think those were fairly startling to me. But that's just the nature of playoff baseball.

Q. Archie prepared himself for that moment, all good, all fine, the ball goes in the gap. When he turns second, did you at least think to yourself, oh, really?
TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, yeah. I was thinking, please stop right there. I was thinking we're good. We're good. I could see him turn that corner and pull a hamstring sliding. Our pitchers don't practice sliding very often. We do in spring training, but that was six or seven months ago. So I think we were collectively holding our breath to make sure he got up from that dust storm at third base healthy. But like I said, this is an elite high school athlete. But that's high school. Don't take it the wrong way. He knows what he's doing. He's equipped to handle that type of situation.

Q. One of the unusual stats in this crazy game was the four triples, what do you think about that and the fact that you're able to -- Archie, obviously, but you're able to accomplish something like that?
TOREY LOVULLO: I just think that's the nature of the game. The nature of this game, the nature of this environment, the excitement. People are going to walk up there ask do extraordinary things. Ketel Marte had a great day. This ballpark with big gaps, the ball can move quickly through the grass. I think triples in this ballpark don't totally surprise me. If but if you compile four in one game, it's a little bit of a shock. After one day, I think I've seen everything, and this was an incredible game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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