NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 11, 2021

Gabe Kapler

Dodger Stadium

San Francisco Giants

Postgame 3 Press Conference

San Francisco Giants - 1, Los Angeles Dodgers - 0.

Q. You've known Evan for so long going back to when you played together. You've been very supportive of him here while he's been in this funk. What are your thoughts on his night tonight and being able to give you guys the win with his offense?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, we talked about it a little bit pregame. I think his swings have been more on time recently and he has run into a stretch where some calls haven't gone his way and as a result he's kind of fallen into some disadvantage counts. It's hard to climb out of those against the caliber of pitchers that we've been facing.

But you did kind of see the bat speed and you saw the explosiveness and you saw the good decision-making, and eventually a caliber of player like Longo is going to run into a good pitch to hit and put a really good swing on it. And obviously that was the biggest one of the night and happy for him, as a friend, also know that he puts a lot of weight on his own shoulders trying to come up big for his teammates. So happy that he was able to do that and obviously that swing led to a big win for us.

Q. Can you talk about just Alex Wood's outing and what impressed you the most about his outing tonight?

GABE KAPLER: It just kind of looked like many of his outings in recent memory. He attacked the strike zone with a lot of sliders tonight, but also like ran that fastball up and away to their right-handed hitters, and they had a lot of right-handed hitters in the lineup.

He was pretty comfortable getting up and above the zone but then getting back in the zone. I think changing the eyeline or the site line of the hitter and then going back into the zone is important for Alex Wood. And he's just so incredibly competitive, so fiery, always feels like he's the best option to get the next three hitters out. I think you probably saw that he still felt like he was a good option to get more hitters out and we love that about him. I wouldn't take away any of that fire, any that have competitiveness. I was telling Bails, before anything happened in today's game, I said no matter what happens in tonight's game, I love having Alex Wood on the mound because of how quickly he works, how much he attacks, what a great teammate he is, how competitive he is, and he kind of brought all of those characteristics to the mound tonight.

Q. You've seen Brandon Crawford make plays like that the last two years. Just given the stakes of the situation, how do you put something like what he did in the 7th inning into context?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, he got little boosters there. He got it pretty good. And I think he also got a great read and perfect timing on that ball. The ball was hit really hard and had good carry to it. Just another exceptional play from Craw and another play that was really meaningful in our season.

Q. You talked about Camilo Doval a lot recently, but again, tonight two scoreless. Just what do you make of this run he's on and what he did tonight?

GABE KAPLER: I think tonight was particularly impressive because it's one thing to ask a guy to close out big games without a long track record of success and it's kind of another step to do what he did to come like in an inning that wasn't necessarily going to be his inning, but you kind of found yourself right in the middle of the lineup and he was certainly the right guy for that moment.

But then to have him be so successful in that first inning and him have so much confidence to go back out there and do it again, I think this one was the most impressive of all. Not necessarily from a stuff perspective. Slider's been nasty at times. He's kind of a 100, 101, like he was tonight. So that wasn't the surprise. It was just the calm, the poise, the teammate behavior to get back out there and do it for a second inning was really impressive.

Q. What gave you the faith to send him back out for a second inning?

GABE KAPLER: I think it's a combination of him continuing to be, it's a combination of Camilo continuing to be in the strike zone with his slider, but -- with both of his pitches, and then it's his ability to stay in his delivery, his ability to maintain his stuff, and the confidence level that his teammates and our coaching staff have in him. It's all of those things. It's not one thing in isolation. It's probably a combination of those things.

Q. You had Craw's play tonight. It was a play last game that kind of ended a rally for you guys. When have you two teams that are so talented, how big is it to make those little plays that might not make SportsCenter, but can really win a game?

GABE KAPLER: You think the Donovan Solano play to his left is likely to be a highlight reel play? I don't know. I really don't. For us it stood out in the dugout.

Obviously Tommy La Stella came out of that game with some left Achilles tightness, something that he's been dealing with on and off. But it wasn't that he wasn't physically capable of staying in the game. It was more that he wanted to be accountable to his teammates and he felt a little bit compromised on defense.

So we get Donovan Solano in there on D, and Donovan gets a great break on that ball. You can tell that his body is moving very well right now. Even with his swings, his body's rotating well. He looks great.

So I thought it was an excellent play. I'm sure many of you have seen a lot of nights in Los Angeles. I grew up here so I don't remember a lot of nights at Dodger Stadium where the wind was blowing like that. Super strange. I thought as a result our outfielders really played a great game on defense.

As much as our bullpen was responsible for tonight's win, as much as Evan Longoria's swing was responsible for tonight's win, I think just the overall defensive effort, and I love to be able to say this, was a big contributing factor as well. The outfielders really did a nice job.

Q. You talked so much about kind of putting everything on the table. As you guys prepared for this game, was there a scenario where you and Bails and the rest of the staff thought you could get through that much of the game with your three best relievers?

GABE KAPLER: Because we talk about everything, those sort of things are not going to surprise. However, I don't think that you necessarily want to do it that way. But the game kind of dictated it to some degree because, I felt like Woody gave us everything he had, and it was Betts for a third time, you guys probably saw, Betts' swing and his second at-bat, his swings in his second at-bat were really good. He's a threat to hit a home run at any given time. And so when you make a decision to go to the pen early, like we did, I think you know that you're going to have to stretch somebody. Maybe two people.

And I think when you get into the 8th inning you know that you're going to have Doval for a really tough part of the Dodgers lineup, it's worth considering sending him back out.

Now I think that comes along with how is he looking and obviously he looked really capable in that first inning, which as I mentioned, gave us the confidence to stretch him out a little bit.

Q. A couple of quick ones. Considering the wind conditions out there, and Doc said he thought balls hit by Taylor and the last one by Lux were knocked down by the wind, how hard did Longoria hit that ball to get it out?

GABE KAPLER: I think it was 110.

Q. Yeah, but I mean, not only 110, but -- okay. Second question --

GABE KAPLER: I'm not -- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be short.

Q. If that's the answer, that's the answer. What about your pitching for tomorrow?

GABE KAPLER: DeSclafani will start for us tomorrow.

Q. Did you think the ball off Lux's bat, do you think that that had a chance when he hit it?

GABE KAPLER: I thought it was hammered. I thought it was hit really well. No surprise. Lux is a good hitter and he got a good fastball to hit and he drove it.

Q. Were you this calm when you saw it?

GABE KAPLER: Calm? (Laughing) I'm not sure that's how I would describe it. But it happened fast. You didn't have time to go through the entire range of emotions that you might feel in that moment.

But there were several balls knocked down by the wind tonight. We have seen balls get out of Dodger Stadium kind of in that like 95 to 100 range. And so I think Lux's ball was hit pretty good. I think Yas hit a ball 105 to the middle of the field and that one got knocked down a little bit too. Yeah, that's what I saw.

Q. Obviously you were the farm director here when Walker Buehler, after you guys drafted him, and Roberts was in here saying everything was on the table pitching-wise. I assume that they're at least considering him. Especially from a personality standpoint, what kind of traits does he have that makes you think that he's the type of guy you might want going in pitching on short rest in an elimination game?

GABE KAPLER: I don't know that I can speak to what character traits he has that would make him a good choice to do something like that. I can speak to his character traits in general and say that I think he's pretty tough. And also I mentioned like some of the characteristics I mentioned about Wood, I think Walker has as well, he's very competitive, he's very fiery, he's very prepared, he works hard.

Q. What gives you the confidence to go to DeSclafani tomorrow and what are you expecting out of him?

GABE KAPLER: DeSclafani's had a really nice year for us. You look back to the beginning of the season, you just kind of objectively look at his performance, he's done a really nice job and he's prepared for this, he wants it, he's ready and he's the right choice for us.

Q. Can you take us through your thought process there after you came out to get the ball from Rogers and why was McGee the optimal choice for you there?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah, that's right, that's the question and I can't swear that that was an easy one. What I can say is in those situations you're looking for swing and miss, right? You don't want a ball to like sneak through the infield. Rogers did a great job for us. He also gave up some hard contact and also had some balls sneak through. So maybe at that point Rogers has done his job and you want to give the ball to somebody else. Now I think at that point you're thinking about Dom Leone and you're talking about Jake McGee and I really feel comfortable with Jake's ability to get swings and misses and I feel -- Mookie Betts is a pretty even split guy, so you know there's a chance you're going to end up facing Mookie there and while I have full confidence that both Dom and Jake can handle those type of situation, felt like McGee was the right guy to try to get a punch out and then potentially record the second out as well. And Betts put a really nice swing on that ball, Craw made a really great play and that's what happens when two teams kind of go at it, you need some great plays. Does that answer the question?