NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 9, 2021

Gabe Kapler

Oracle Park

San Francisco Giants

Pregame 2 Press Conference

Q. We've asked you a few times about Kris playing right field. What was the alignment today, Austin's maybe more comfortable and has played out there more often?

GABE KAPLER: I think Austin's really comfortable out there in right field and as we know there's quite a bit of ground to cover out there, so Austin's speed plays really well.

We've also seen some opposing teams come in and have their really good athlete out there in right field and we have seen that work out well. Not that that's the determining factor. Mostly this is about taking advantage of Austin's skill set. He can go very well to his right over his right shoulder, but also cover a lot of ground to his left and towards the line. And in our ballpark that corner is really important to cover.

So also, KB feels very comfortable in center field, so the combination of those two things has us set up this way.

Q. Obviously Bryant wasn't real, hitting great in the end of the season, and then he gets the two singles and the home run yesterday. Did you see something in his swing? Do you think something was worked out or is it just a matter of kind of balancing out?

GABE KAPLER: I think his pitch selection has gotten better. He's been more disciplined and then I think as a result, he's getting his A swing off his most athletic swing off more frequently and obviously it was just this one big game, but it was a meaningful one.

Sometimes I think just a little bit of reset. We saw KB struggle just a bit down the stretch. The reset of the postseason, looking up on the board seeing a fresh set of numbers can be a nice confidence boost for players, and in this particular case I think that may have helped.

Q. Are you ready yet to announce a Game 3 starter or do you want to get through this one and see where you are first?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, I think I would like to chat after the game about that one. Happy to share then.

Q. Belt mentioned he was going to get a scan at some point soon. Do you know if that's happened?

GABE KAPLER: He's seeing the Dr. Hansen today and so I believe today is the two-week mark. We said that we would get a reevaluation at that point.

Had a conversation with Groesch about this earlier. We're not ruling anything out for the next series or anything like that. At the same time, there is going to be a hitting progressions once we get the green light that he can start swinging and at that point we're going to have to factor in when the right time is to allow him to face live pitching.

So those are the conditions that are upcoming, but we're going to get good direction from Dr. Hansen.

Q. Urías is the type of pitcher that gets stronger as he goes along. Have you stressed to the team to try to get to him as early as possible like in the first couple innings?

GABE KAPLER: We'll keep our same approach that we roll out against any starting pitcher, and having a lot of familiarity with Julio for many years in player development, I remember thinking about Seager and Urías. It was like these guys are both going to be excellent Major League players, and at the time there was like, who is going to be the better Major Leaguer, knowing that they were both going to be great, and a lot of that had to do with Julio's fastball. He was able to execute it in a couple of different locations in the zone. Obviously we have seen the great curve ball this year, and a great competitor.

Independent of who we're facing, and obviously, like I said, we had good familiarity with Julio. We simplify an our approach against all starting pitchers, all pitchers, in general, really, and that's hunting pitches that we can drive and do damage on and being especially assertive on those and then being comfortable with a patient approach against pitches that we can't drive.

Q. Tyler was in here talking about the atmosphere and the buzz he feels around the city and the ballpark. You posted a cool picture of you and Steve Young on Instagram and wondering what that meeting was like?

GABE KAPLER: Sorry, did you say Tyler?

Q. Tyler Rogers, yeah.

GABE KAPLER: Okay, cool.

Q. Talking about the pre-game.

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, that's cool. You guys talked to Tyler up here?

Q. Yeah.

GABE KAPLER: Oh, so cool.

Well, I mean that was very cool for me to sort of bump into Steve Young and Jerry Rice pre-game. We had our meeting at home plate right after, so there wasn't a whole lot of time to stop and chat.

But I'll say, like, those two guys on the field at the same time is a real thrill for me having, growing up and watching those guys. So mid-'80s to mid-'90s football and basketball, kind of my sweet spot growing up, and it was kind of a little bit surreal feeling compelled to walk over there and shake their hands. They were kind of both engaged in their pre-game activities and I knew I had my pre-game activities, but that was a very cool and special moment for me and one I won't soon forget.

Q. Talking about the La Stella-Crawford double play last night, you mentioned your time in the pre-game at first base. Have you always done that as a manager and what are the specific things you get out of actually being involved on the field with your guys before the game?

GABE KAPLER: As much as possible, whenever I can and sometimes I'm just not able to get on the field, maybe there's meetings happening or every once in awhile there's some media obligations and I can't get out there.

But when I can, it's a really good vantage point to see the way the ball's carrying, to see how our defenders, our infielders, are moving through the baseball and some of the tricks that they bring out.

So when I was mentioning Tommy, the perspective was helpful because those sort of plays are just not practiced on an every day basis. When I watched like Brandon Crawford, he's not always practicing his, like all the tricks that he has in his bag, but what you do see is like how good the throws are carrying, how confident the infielders are in their hands, their footwork, etcetera, and it's just a nice way to kind of observe and evaluate.

So one thing that I've become much more comfortable with over the course of the last couple weeks is Donovan Solano at shortstop, just watching him do his work over there. It's not going to be super rangy, crazy athletic diving all over the place, but he's got really good feet and really good hands and like a lot of carry on his ball. He can make a throw from any spot from the shortstop position. So like over the course of the last couple weeks, I've been more and more comfortable with that. So it's helped from an evaluation standpoint.

Q. You mentioned pre-game yesterday that you would have relievers up sooner than you usually would and maybe more often than usual. Wondering, did you have to talk to your starting pitchers at all just because Logan was at 60-something pitches last night, he might look out there and see Dominic warming up.

GABE KAPLER: It's something that Bails and I discussed. It's something that we discussed in our pre-game meetings, and I have a lot of trust that, between Bails and J.P. and Craig Albernaz in the bullpen, we touch our pitchers. They get the information they need to be ready for those moments so they're not getting caught off-guard.

So Logan looks up and sees somebody -- and I'm not saying this happened, by the way, but Logan could look up and see somebody warming up or today Gaus could see somebody looking up, and I'm confident that they understand it because of the way that our staff as a group communicates.

Q. Going back to Julio, when you watch him now, is he a different pitcher at all than the young guy you saw or is this kind of what you envisioned he would look like at this point in his career?

GABE KAPLER: So his first couple of years in the big leagues it looked a little bit different because of the shoulder injury in a lot of ways. I think it was him establishing himself as a Major League starter, but then also as a dude with different physiology because of what happened with his shoulder injury.

Now you're starting to see kind of the guy that you sort of dreamed on and one of the better left-handed starters in baseball.

Q. Missing Brandon Belt, you guys don't seem to miss a beat whenever he's hurt because of the depth at first base and elsewhere. But having him unable to play this series, but looking across the field and seeing Muncy not being able to play, do you see that as a wash?

GABE KAPLER: Gosh, it's so interesting. I don't think about it like that, and the reason -- these are kind of, the kind of questions that you kind of stump me with from time to time because you think about things like that and I don't think about things like that.

So I just think about Brandon like, hey, it's really tough that we don't have Brandon out there, but we've done a nice job covering for Brandon with Flores and it's nice to know that Ruf can go over there, Kris Bryant can go over there and play first base for us. We've got a lot ever ways to cover that.

And then I think about the Dodgers don't have Max Muncy available. It leaves a tough spot in their lineup, but they're able to cover it at first base with Cody Bellinger and Matt Beaty who I believe is a really good left-handed hitter. If those guys are out of the game then maybe it's Albert Pujols.

So I just don't, I'm not necessarily comparing the two. I'm thinking about them more in isolation, if that makes sense. Does that make sense? Okay.

Q. Let me throw an easier one at you. You mentioned mid-'80s. Who were your good guys other guys in maybe the three major sports?

GABE KAPLER: Charles Barkley was my absolute favorite athlete growing up, so I was a Sixers fan. I grew up in Southern California, a Sixers fan. And then when he went to the Suns I followed him to the Suns and when he went to the Rockets I followed him to the Rockets. And, yeah, I had posters of Charles on my wall.

And then I was a New York Jets fan, so it was Ken O'Brien and Freeman McNeil and Al Toon and Mark Gastineau and that crew.

And then randomly a Toronto Blue Jays fan. I didn't really like have, I wasn't like the hometown guy where it would have been the Raiders. I mean, I followed the Raiders, Dodgers, the Angels. My favorite memories are of my dad taking me to Anaheim Stadium to see Fred McGriff play first base. He was my favorite baseball player growing up. George Bell first, but it was like when I was really young when it was George Bell and then it transitioned to McGriff. And then I followed McGriff from the Blue Jays to the Braves to the Padres and I was more player-driven than I was team-driven at the time.

Q. Tyler was mentioning after the blown save in Los Angeles how appreciative he was that you got him right back out there and he said that you do that a lot with the relievers, get them right back out there after a rough outing. You guys are so matchup oriented, I'm curious, will you ever do maybe even an inferior matchup to get a guy out for a second game if he needs another outing?

GABE KAPLER: Sure. I mean, one thing that I've, that I'll continue to stress is I think there's a balance between matchups and what's happening on paper and sort of the way our players are feeling about themselves, their confidence levels, because we're not just trying to help them perform in that one outing, we're trying to see what they can do over the course of a long period of time. And then also you become very invested in the people and you want to see the people succeed. So some of that has to do with like helping the person be the best version of themselves as an athlete, as a baseball player, but then kind of also as a man. That comes with more opportunities.

Q. Johnny told us that he found out that he wasn't on the NLDS roster over the phone and that was a little bit uncomfortable for him. I know you don't take those conversations lightly, so could you explain what happened there and have you had a chance to talk to him in person about it?

GABE KAPLER: Sure. I'll answer the first, the last question first. The answer is yes, I had a chance to talk to him in person. By the time we had made the decision on the postseason roster, most everybody was gone from the ballpark. Gave Johnny a call, asked him, said I wanted to chat with him. He was, he's like, I would prefer to have this conversation in person. I said, Great, I'll come meet you wherever you are. Johnny decided that he wanted to have that conversation on the phone because obviously like it would have taken some time to go out and meet him, but I would have been happy to go have a drink with him and chat through it with him. Then we talked about it the next day in person, sat down and discussed it and he was a total pro about it.

Q. I know here and also in Los Angeles you and Farhan talked about building a sustainable winner. What tells you right now that this team is on the verge of sustainability and this isn't a one-year thing?

GABE KAPLER: I think we're working hard to build processes that we can refine and repeat. I think that's just going to take some time for us to really hone in on, but I think we're on the right track.

Q. What do you see now, for a fan who looks ahead and says, is this a two-, three-, four-year run starting or is this just a good year?

GABE KAPLER: I actually think it's an awesome question, but probably one that is going to be easier to answer like when we get through the finish line of this season and have a chance to go back and kind of evaluate things like processes and see where we can improve. Not to say I wouldn't be happy to talk about it. The step right in front of us is where we are, just really focused on tonight's game.

Q. Kind of piggybacking off Bill, is there, despite the competitive nature of where you guys are right now, is there a pride in the fact that you look across the dugout and what you and Farhan built over there parallels what you're building over here? Do you get a sense of that or is that also something that you really don't pay any attention to?

GABE KAPLER: It's similar to the way I answered John's question. I think you can always reflect on work that you've done in the past and I think that's an important, it's an important process and I also think we can keep a soft focus on that or kind of a gaze on it and our real focus is on what we're doing here in San Francisco and that is a work in progress and we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do and we've taken a lot of important steps this season and the next step the one right in front of us is Julio Urias tonight, the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight and being the best team that we can be in Game 2 of the NLDS.

Q. Were you a Chris Mullin fan? He came here last night and LeBron and Stef were squaring off a mile down the road last night.

GABE KAPLER: That was kind of cool to look up and see Chris Mullin on the board and obviously he was sitting with Barry Bonds, so that made it even cooler. But, so the 1992 Dream Team, because of Charles, because of Barkley, I just like could not take my eyes off of that team. So I got to know Mullin a little bit and just the sweet left-handed stroke and, yeah, no, that was actually a really cool moment too. Like those are people that, people and players that I really respect and I feel kind of lucky to be in the same ballpark with.