NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 8, 2021

Gabe Kapler

Oracle Park

San Francisco Giants

Postgame 1 Press Conference

San Francisco Giants - 4, Los Angeles Dodgers - 0.

Q. Kris Bryant was just in here and he was saying how impressed he was with Logan and his demeanor, especially considering it was his first playoff game. What are your thoughts on Logan and his evening?

GABE KAPLER: I think the demeanor and the composure really stood out tonight. I thought the dribbler that he wasn't able to execute on in the fourth, at times in the past has kind of frustrated him and visibly frustrated him, and tonight you could just see him turn the page in his mind and get back to executing pitches in the zone and I thought he had a really good changeup-slider combination working. Obviously he went especially secondary heavy.

But again, the things that stand out for me, not the stuff necessarily because we have seen that really good stuff essentially all season long, but for me, it was definitely what Kris said. It was the composure. It was the demeanor. It was the poise and like big stage, incredible atmosphere, and Webby just kind of channeled all of that into his performance tonight.

Q. Buster's at-bat, can you kind of take me through it, and how does that kind of exemplify the selective aggression that you guys talk about?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, obviously we want to be looking for a pitch that we can drive early in the count, and I think Buster went up there ready to swing from Jump Street. He didn't get a pitch that he could do anything with, so he got into a good 3-0 count, and I think at that point he was looking for a pitch to elevate and stay on and got a four-seam fastball up and out over the plate and put it over the wall.

I think your first swing of the night, to be that accurate with the barrel is incredibly impressive. But I imagine that Buster, along with the rest of our hitters, were kind of thinking about moments like that before they happened. And Buster's lower half has been working really well for the last week or 10 days, and I think the explosiveness is there. The bat speed is there. And I think both him and Craw tonight is a perfect example of how the biggest stage brings out their best.

Q. Kris was talking about the double play that La Stella and Crawford turned. He thought it was going up the middle off the crack of the bat. Did you think that was going to be a hit? And since it ended up turning into an inning-ending double play, how valuable was that in terms of getting your guys back in the dugout?

GABE KAPLER: I thought it was a very instinctive play by Tommy. I mean, so I get to watch these guys do their defensive work every day. I try to get the best perspective, and one of the good perspectives is over there at first base.

So I can see Tommy's routine on balls to his right, balls to his left. It's not a play that you practice all that often. You're not flipping the ball with the glove with your, all of your momentum going up the middle all that often. So it really is an instinct play. It really is an athletic play. It's not a practiced play all that often.

So it was pretty impressive for him to kind of feel Crawford's presence around the bag. I don't think it was a perfect feed, by any means, but like how could it be? He's shoveling the ball with his glove with all of his momentum taking him away from the play.

And then obviously Crawford with excellent foot work was able to complete the play. I thought it was one of the better plays we've made all year.

Q. Obviously Ace or number one starter are terms that we maybe use more than you guys, but in such a big series that's discussed so much, does it almost mean more to have a guy just go out there and go lights out? I mean, does it carry through a series? Do players, other players, maybe take a ride on that momentum?

GABE KAPLER: I think it's interesting that you're bringing up momentum because I don't think there's any question that the last game of the season for Logan carried over into this one. We talked a little bit about, at the end of the last game, the last game of the regular season, how much confidence he has.

But that's kind of been building for quite some time. So every start seems to be, he seems to be grabbing momentum from the previous start to kind of propel him in the next one. I think in this particular case it was a combination of that momentum but also confidence and clearly stuff. I mean, you could be as confident as you want and have as much momentum from the last start as possible, but if your stuff isn't there, it's kind of the talent part coming through, the movement on the sinker. And we saw that, and I think the evidence of that was some of the swings that the Dodgers' hitters were forced to take.

Some of the balls running in on hands, and then the combination with the slider and the changeup off of those pitches, all of those things are kind of leading to this level of performance, in my opinion.

Q. Following up on that, was it knowing how aggressive the Dodgers like to be offensively was the game plan for Logan to do that slider-changeup combo as the majority of his pitches tonight?

GABE KAPLER: I think the first game plan for Logan continues to be get in the zone, stay in the zone, force hitters to compete from behind in counts, and then once Buster and Logan have a good feel for what pitches are working best and what combination of pitches are working best, they may lean a little bit more heavily on secondary weapons like we did tonight.

What I'll say is, I think one thing that is really helpful for Logan is for every hitter that walks up to the plate that he's facing to have to make a determination what pitch might be coming. So obviously you're not going to have a coin flip between three pitches, but any of those three pitches could be coming at any time and hitters have to account for them.

Q. Aside from La Stella's, that great defensive play, what did his presence mean in the lead-off spot? He draws the walk to start the game and, a walk that starts the momentum and the singles.

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, Tommy, this is sort of who we thought Tommy was going to be. He's had some challenges this season that he's had to overcome. We've talked a little bit about being gritty as players and I think Tommy has had to be gritty because he's had injuries and his body just hasn't cooperated all that well with him for a good portion of the year. So much so that even down the stretch we were having to kind of take care of him so he wasn't compromised on defense by way of example.

But his at-bat quality has been pretty consistently good and I think on a night like tonight you could kind of see a different level of concentration from him. Look, he's always focused both in his preparation, but then also at the plate. But tonight it did look like he had even a different level of concentration and I think that led to some barrel accuracy. He was able to hit the ball on the line and draw a huge walk for us.

Q. How, I guess, ideal is it too, great outing by Logan, but it also sets up, your bullpen's pretty rested obviously. You only had really winning and then one batter by Rogers.

GABE KAPLER: I think that's true. Again, we talked a little bit about this pregame and I probably will share it again now, I think in the playoffs, just knowing that you have an off day coming for sure makes it a little bit easier to -- guys can pitch almost every day. I don't think you necessarily want them to, I mean, obviously you would like to have cleaner innings, more efficient innings for your relievers, but suppose we had used four relievers today, I don't think that there would be any reason that we couldn't use those same four relievers tomorrow since we have the off day. Not saying that that's how we would do it, but it's just not as big a concern as it was down the stretch for us.

Q. Your first postseason game here, what would you, how would you describe that atmosphere and was it -- Kris Bryant said it was at a next level, in his opinion. What did you think?

GABE KAPLER: I mean, I think it's notable that Kris said that obviously because he's played in some pretty intense playoff environments, so we definitely felt it in the dugout. I think particularly the moment when Buster hit the home run you really could feel the energy in the ballpark and I think the intensity sort of grew as Logan got through the outing and continued to execute pitches. Now it's a lot of fun and obviously two great teams who are, who want this and are prepared for it and I definitely think the environment was right where we wanted it to be tonight.