NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 8, 2021

Kevin Gausman

Oracle Park

San Francisco Giants

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Now that you guys know that it's the Dodgers, first of all, what are your reactions to getting another start against the Dodgers, knowing the season series to date and how tough a battle it was down the stretch and your own personal games against them.

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, I mean, I don't think anybody in our clubhouse is surprised. We obviously know how good of a ball club they are. And coming off the season that they had last year, winning it all, have a little bit of experience of what to expect.

But, yeah, I feel like we've played them great all year. It's been, I mean, all those series were really exciting, and especially in L.A., robbed home runs and home runs that we hit. I mean, it was just a roller coaster of emotion every time we played them. So I think everybody's prepared for that going into this series and we're expecting a dog fight for sure.

Q. What was your reaction when Gabe decided that it be would Logan 1 and you 2. It probably doesn't matter that too much to you guys. I guess his rational was the extra day of rest would be good for you. What was your thought process when you found out which day you were going?

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, like you said, it didn't really matter. I think each one of us knew we were probably going to be 1 and 2. It just was a matter of how they were going to line it up. For me personally I think Webby deserves it. With the last couple months that he's had and what he was able to do on Sunday really just kind of put the entire team on his back, and what he did at the plate also.

And I think part of it is he's from Sacramento. Like he's watched the Giants his entire life. So have I, but I think it's just a little bit more special for him that he's starting Game 1 and very deserving. I think every guy in the clubhouse would agree that he has been our best pitcher, especially in the second half.

Q. We know that in times of the second half your split in particular has been a little bit of a work in progress. Was there anything in particular that kind of really helped you regain it? Was there a particular moment or something somebody said? What was the key for that?

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, I mean, really it was my other starters that watched me. We watch each other's bullpens every day. And so it's just an extra eye is watching you. So a couple of those guys came to me one day and were like, Hey, we think your glove tap is getting too big. That's why you're not able to get your arm in the same position that you were earlier in the season.

So that's the mechanical adjustment I made before my start in Colorado. I tried to make my glove tap as small as I could to get myself in a position to get back on top of the ball and I think the last two starts you can kind of see that it kind of came back to what it was.

Q. You mentioned the home run robbery in LA, and the fan base looks at Tauchman's catch as kind of a turning point in your season. Do you guys in the clubhouse look at it the same way?

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, it was huge. To do it in that spot in Dodger Stadium, obviously it was a huge series, to come back and win that game, I mean, it just seems like, obviously our motto has been resilient the whole season, and that's really what these guys have been, especially our hitters.

It doesn't matter what guy's on the mound, especially the Dodgers, some of those guys that they bring in late in the game, I mean, they're throwing whiffle balls and it's a hundred Miles an hour too. So for them to put quality AB's against them, really the whole season that they have, is really impressive and the reason why we are here.

Q. We know that you obviously went through a lot right around the All-Star break right afterwards and thankfully everything is okay. But could you kind of talk a little bit about that time and sort of the ups and downs you had to deal with between all the travel and obviously a family emergency and trying to deal with that and then get right back into basically a pennant race?

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, I mean, it was tough. To go from obviously being at one of the highest points of my career, making the All-Star team in Denver where I grew up, just so much excitement, and then having to go home and really stay home for the next couple days and really kind of have to wait and see how my wife was doing was tough.

But one thing I'll say about Kap and everybody here, they were a hundred percent in my corner, and they were like, Hey, if you need to be there a week, you need to be there a week. And obviously, we want to get you back and we want you to pitch, but there's more important things.

So I owe them a lot for the way that they handled it, the way that they were just so on my side and didn't really care about baseball in those moments. So I'm very thankful for that.

Q. How tough was kind of the rest of that month too as you guys were waiting for him to be born. Was that still on your mind for awhile there for those next few weeks?

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, it was on my mind every day. Every single day I came here just knowing that I couldn't be with him. They were back home and my wife had to go get checked into the hospital every two days. It was tough. It was a grind, but that's what baseball is.

So you kind of just got to expect that at some point during the season something's going to happen that you haven't accounted for and you got to be able to adjust. And I think baseball players are used to having to play a 14-inning game and have to play a day game the next day or fly across the country and have a night game the next day. That's just kind of what comes with the territory.

Q. Shifting topics pretty entirely. Obviously most of the year when you guys saw the Dodgers they did not have Turner. How much difference does Trea Turner make in their lineup when you're looking at them now?

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, obviously he's a guy, can change the game himself, and they have a lot of guys in that lineup that can do that. But for him to be able to do it, he's got speed, he's got power, he's great on defense. You can essentially on defense put him wherever you want and he would probably have success. He's tough. He doesn't strike out very much and when he does put the ball in play, even if you beat him and he hits a weak ground ball, he's probably going to be safe at first and he can steal bags and stuff.

So, yeah, obviously them bringing in him and Scherzer is, just adds a whole other level of competitiveness to their team. And bringing a bulldog like Scherzer, a guy who is obviously done what he's done in the past and in the postseason, I think all of us knew, like it wasn't going to be easy. We were going to have to do something special to win the Division and we did. We never really, never stopped. And I think a couple days ago they said like that they were right on our heels, which they were, but we just kept winning and that's really, we kind of knew that they weren't going to lose. They weren't going to just give us it, and so in our minds we just knew we had to win as many games in the last two weeks as we could.

Q. You were talking about the mechanical adjustments you made. How is your Giants' pitching, I mean Giants' coaching staff, when you're making mechanical adjustments like that, what's different about the communication here versus maybe other places you've gone and how, what's the process with all the coaches?

KEVIN GAUSMAN: Yeah, well, I feel like we don't really have -- obviously Andrew Bailey is our pitching coach, but I wouldn't say that J.P. Martinez is like an assistant pitching coach, I mean he's really just like 1 A and 1 B. I mean, they kind of feed off of each other. And, listen, we have so many coaches that, there's so many different specialists in that clubhouse, there's a hitting guy, there's a catching guy, there's four hitting guys. And we have just so many people who know analytics.

Brian Bannister, who isn't necessarily a pitching coach, but, I mean, I think he's helped out maybe more of these guys in this clubhouse than he gets a lot of credit for. So he can make a quick adjustment on a grip in your bullpen and you see it right away. So that's one thing about technology nowadays is that it's right there. You can throw a pitch and you turn around and we got a TV out there that you can see the grip on Edgertronic cameras going a millisecond at a time. So you can really see where that pitch is actually coming off, what finger it's actually coming off, what I'm doing different on my fastball than I am on my slider. So I think when you have people that can break it down, but also relate it to themselves and they have done it before, I think that's another element too. Andrew Bailey was Rookie of the Year, one of the best closers in baseball for a period in time and Brian Bannister obviously had a great career too. I think when you have people like that, I think it's just a little bit easier to kind of relate to them because they know what you're going through.