NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 14, 2021

Evan Longoria

Oracle Park

San Francisco Giants

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. Any kind of reaction to the fact that they are now throwing an opener against you, kind of a last minute change. It sounds like you guys had some idea they might do that.

EVAN LONGORIA: It doesn't matter at this point. I mean, we have seen every pitcher that they have, so, I mean, I'm sure that tactically speaking there was probably some thought or changes that went into it from Kap's side and from the managerial side of it.

But as far as we're concerned, obviously I think Urías comes in the game at some point, probably pretty early, but we'll be focused on Knebel early on in the game.

Q. Can you sort of describe what the anticipation's like when it's a winner take all game. You've played in quite a few postseason games, I think just one winner take all, right, with the Tampa Bay, Game 7 against the Red Sox?

EVAN LONGORIA: Yeah, I can't recall where the games against the Rangers early on went, both times in the DS, but, yeah, I mean, obviously that's the one that comes to, most to mind, is the game against the Red Sox. And I was so young and dumb I probably, I probably wasn't nervous at all. I woke up probably more nervous today, which I think is a good thing. I think if I wasn't, have some sort of nervous anticipation for the game today that maybe something is wrong.

So, yeah, I mean, I think we're all excited for the opportunity and for the challenge in front of us today. And, look, this is two really good teams that have played a tremendous series and I think that we feel really confident in the guy that we have on the mound tonight and the work that we've done as a group overall up to this point.

So really nothing more we can do other than go out there and try and play loose and enjoy it and hopefully come in here and celebrate after.

Q. Obviously you've been through this before, this rodeo, as far as postseason and winner take all games. Are you saying anything to the young guys who haven't been in this position before, given your experience about maybe either trying to calm them down or fire them up at this point?

EVAN LONGORIA: I think everybody's pretty focused in there right now. Nobody's looking for a pep talk. So maybe if the opportunity presents itself, but as of now, it seems like everybody in there is pretty much just going about their day as if it were another game, just trying to prepare for 6:07.

Q. It probably goes a little bit without saying, but you guys took the season series this year by one game, provides you home field advantage. How important is that in a winner take all game kind of having the home field advantage?

EVAN LONGORIA: Yeah, you know, it definitely swings, at least some of the emotional favor our way. I mean, the atmosphere at Dodger Stadium is definitely a hostile, tough environment to play in front of, so I think that having the fans behind us will be really beneficial tonight, especially if we get off to a good start like we did in Game 1. I think that's always important.

They're going to be looking to do the same thing, try and jump out ahead early, take the crowd out of it, and from there it gets just a little bit easier to kind of relax and settle in. So I think we definitely saw that in Game 1 with the home run. The fans went crazy and then just really it kind of, it just continued to climb upward in our favor in that game. So that's definitely the focus today. I think it will be big to see who comes out and throws the first big punch.

Q. Obviously you're focused on today and the game at hand, but isn't it kind of cool to think after, that these are history in the making games, that these are the highlights that will be on for the next hundred years based on this rivalry and it can change someone's life in a good way.

EVAN LONGORIA: Yeah. No, definitely, there is going to be somebody that is a hero, probably multiple people that go out there and have huge games and be, create the definitive moment for this series.

I mean, in a series that's, obviously we're going to Game 5. It's been so closely contested. Not only this series, but we're at the end of this I think we're going to win, somebody's going to win 111 games and somebody's going to win 110 or 109, whatever the numbers may be.

But it's been so close all year that it's just crazy to think that there's going to be a couple moments in this game that are going to define what seven months worth of work have done.

Q. How different is Kap the manager from Kap the teammate, the guy that you played with and did you foresee managing in his future? He had managed one year in Class A by the time you were playing with him.

EVAN LONGORIA: Yeah, I mean I definitely thought that, I mean again I was very young then and so I think it's a little bit easier for me now to like look at maybe a player or a someone on our coaching staff and say like, Oh yeah, like that guy has managerial tendencies or he would be a good candidate for a manager. When I'm 23, 24 years old I wasn't really thinking those things, but looking back now, I mean he definitely had a lot of the qualities that you would look for, leadership qualities that you would look for in a manager, really intuitive, really like kind of like checked in in the game all the time, thinking about potential scenarios that could happen. So, yeah, I mean when I look back now I think, yeah, he definitely was probably preparing for like a future in the front office, which he was in before he was a manager and then now as a manager.