NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 8, 2021

Gabe Kapler

Oracle Park

San Francisco Giants

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. Looking at your lineup, it looks very balanced, kind of left, right, kind of thing. The first base, what was the thought process as you look to a large number of guys potentially that you could have put there?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, I think we have some good considerations at first base. Obviously Flores is in there, but Darin Ruf is certainly a good consideration. If we wanted to, we could have Lamont Wade Jr. play first base, and then potentially push an additional left-handed bat to the outfield. We just felt like Flores has been, and I've been talking quite a bit about this, but happy to reiterate it, he's been so good for us in such big moments and I think he's been a good hitter against left-handers and right-handers.

We've talked a lot this year about the veteran presence, of course, guys like Crawford and Buster Posey and Brandon Belt and many others who have had really, really good years, and I think sometimes guys like Wilmer Flores and Donovan Solano, even Darin Ruf, to some degree, get lost in the shuffle when we're talking about veteran bats and personalities.

So I think Wilmer kind of represents exactly that, a veteran guy who's been in some of the biggest moments, come through in those big moments, trusted on defense to know our bunt plays and where to deliver the baseball. So it just felt like all of those things in aggregate made good sense to have Flores in the lineup.

Q. You've faced these guys so many times. Did you leave any surprises in the bag?

GABE KAPLER: Wow, I don't even know where to go with that. What do you mean?

Q. Is there any surprise left? Do you just know sort of what they're going to do and what you're going to do?

GABE KAPLER: I don't think you know for sure, right? One of the questions that came up yesterday and over the course of the last couple of days is what do you learn from watching the Dodgers play? I'm sure you could ask the Dodgers a similar question about watching us play, what do we learn when we play each other? I think the Dodgers have a lot of trust in both their bench and in their bullpen, but their starting lineup is a group that could obviously see the entire game and that wouldn't be a surprise either.

Are there any surprises left? I'm sure. And we're trying to think of all of them, but it's baseball and sometimes you see things that you haven't seen before, so be prepared for as many as we can.

Q. So you know the fans have always fueled this rivalry. How do you expect their impact to be this week, including both places, what do you think the emotions are going to be like out there?

GABE KAPLER: I think what's happening on social media right now is a good representation of what we can expect over the next couple of days, very passionate fan bases on both sides, very excited about this matchup, looking forward to see it unfold on the field, and it's two very invested fan bases.

Our fans, it's easier for me to speak to our fans, have been really influential for us this season, not just in the ballpark where they have made a real impact and we felt that impact and their support, but also kind of in the online world. We all pay close attention. I think we're all following stories and how fans are feeling about our team and we appreciate it. We have seen a lot of support in recent days and it's really cool.

Q. Every team has tough roster decisions to make going into the postseason. Obviously you guys leave Cueto off the roster. He had the injury. I'm sure it was probably tough to get him stretched back out the way you wanted to. But how tough a decision was that, given what he sort of meant to the organization over the years?

GABE KAPLER: Very tough decision. And you're right, I think we would have liked to have had him stretched out and perhaps considered him as somebody who could start one of these games for us. We just weren't able to get there, and that's tough. In particular it's tough because Johnny has meant so much to the organization and in particular the last couple of years we've come to really depend on him as a guy who can keep the mood light, just incredibly entertaining and so fun to watch on the field. And we've talked a lot this season about players expressing emotion and I think Johnny embodies that and I think in a very good way.

The playfulness that we have seen on the mound from him has spilled over into our dugout and into our clubhouse at times. We talked about the fans already but just hit that one more time. Our fans love watching Johnny pitch. So we'll miss that and we will ask him to bring as much of that as possible. Hopefully we see him taking some ground balls at shortstop and second base pre-game.

And it's interesting, veteran players can make contributions in a lot of different ways, so that's one way I think Johnny can make contributions. Yesterday, Brandon Belt kind of held court at first base and we had, one of the things that Kai and I had talked about was really getting squared away on our bunt plays, really getting squared away on our pick-offs and where the ball could be coming from and where it should be going. And we wanted to make sure that we got with all of our first basemen and discussed that because some of them haven't had a lot of experience there recently.

Kai got out there with our first basemen and with Brandon, and Brandon ran it. And you say, well, you're going to lose Brandon Belt and that's a major blow, and of course it is and has been, but there are a lot of different ways these guys can contribute this time of year and I think Johnny has a chance to do that as well.

Q. How much do you manage Game 1 with Game 2 on your mind, if at all, including the bullpen?

GABE KAPLER: Some. So I was thinking about this, and one of the things that we did a lot of, particularly down the stretch, was think about how few off-days that we had naturally. So we were going to have to find ways to get some of our bullpen arms days off. We know we have an off-day coming up in a couple of days for sure.

So I think we can be, and this is not specific to the Giants, it's all teams, can be as aggressive as needed with our bullpen, and our guys can be up if needed, and I don't think that's a detriment for tomorrow's game.

One last thing I would say on that front is I think our bullpen have done a nice job on back-to-backs. We really haven't wanted to push our guys back-to-back-to-back. We've done it at times. You get into the like five out of six and sometimes six out of eight and it gets a little scary. I don't think that's going to be as much of a concern here. I think just knowing that we have an off-day coming up is reason enough to be as assertive as we need to be with our pen.

Q. And what would you look for differently with Gausman than you would with Webb, 2 versus 1, a veteran presence versus a guy who is kind of just doing this for the first time?

GABE KAPLER: Well, I would say very similar to the way we manage our starting pitchers during the regular season. There are some nuances in the postseason. I think to your question about being aggressive with the bullpen, you can do that a little bit earlier in the postseason if you want to.

But what I say is we have paid attention to a number of different signals during the season with both Logan and Gausman, but not exclusively those two, our entire rotation and anybody that's made a start for us, and we've just tried to examine as many factors as possible when deciding how long they can go in the game.

So the writers that have been on our beat probably heard me say this too many times, but we'll check in with our starting pitchers and find out how they're feeling during the game. We're going to be paying attention if they're able to stay in their delivery. We're going to be talking to catchers, having conversations with pitching coaches, and paying attention to the things like velocity, and then we'll make the best decision for the Giants, and that will be true for Webb and Gausman.

Q. You mentioned knowing the posts of the fans on social media. How busy you are the last few days, when do you have time to monitor Twitter or Instagram? How do you do it?

GABE KAPLER: First thing in the morning. Yeah, I mean, I guess, like this is sort of where we are, and if I had more discipline, I would probably put my phone away. And we all strive to like be more present. I can say I'm not always the greatest at that, so I pick up my phone and take a look and read.

But we tend to get news from social media as well, so if we're reading articles, I read like most of the things that our local writers write on a daily basis, and it's just part of my routine on a daily basis.

Q. What's the biggest factor in a short series, five games, starting the first two at home and having home field advantage to start?

GABE KAPLER: It's better than being on the road. The biggest advantage for me about being at home is the fact that you hit last. I think that's always going to be the biggest advantage in baseball.

Second and very obvious advantage as well is having the support of your fans in the building and we're pretty grateful for that.

Q. This isn't a ploy to find out who your Game 3 starter is unless you want to tell us, but would you, you have a few guys that can go multiple innings maybe in the bullpen, but you don't have a traditional long man. Would you put like maybe your No. 4 potential starter in the bullpen for one of these games here?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah. No, I can share that one of the reasons -- and this is really tough, but one of the reasons that we are able to have additional bench bat and not have, lose a guy as valuable as Johnny Cueto, is because we do have guys who can pitch out of the pen if needed. Not saying that that's the strategy that we're going into this with, but I'm not concerned right now about getting into the 12th or the 13th inning and not having somebody who can pitch out of the pen. I think that, again, not specific to us, but I think we, all teams, can think about the starting pitchers who aren't going in Game 1 and 2 as possibilities late in games.

Q. Here's one of esoteric questions. So much has been written and talked about in baseball about regression to the mean over the last couple of years. Why did the Giants never regress to the mean or is this the mean? Is it an anomoly? What's your take on it?

GABE KAPLER: I guess I don't know what the mean would be for our team, to be honest with you. And what if you didn't preface that question with the esoteric stuff? How would it be different?

Q. That changes the whole concept of the question.

GABE KAPLER: Maybe. I don't know. (Laughing).

I don't know. At this point I'm just not sure what our mean is.

Q. Is it one of those questions you would rather think about over night and answer tomorrow?

GABE KAPLER: No, I mean, I really genuinely -- well that comes from past conversations Barry and I have had where I'm like, Hey, man, I'm not ready to answer this question right now, let's talk about it tomorrow when I've had some time to think about it. I really think that the mean, the mean for the Giants is not the same as it was in 2020 or in spring training or three months ago or two weeks ago. So I really, yeah, I really don't know. I think we're a good baseball team with a lot of players who pull real hard in the same direction and a lot of unselfish players who have stepped up through out the season. That's the best way I can answer it.