NL WILD CARD SERIES: PADRES VS METS

October 8, 2022

Buck Showalter

Citi Field

New York Mets

Postgame Press Conference

New York - 7, San Diego - 3

Q. Buck, when you guys have been at your best as an offense, you've been really working deep counts and making life pretty difficult on the pitchers. What did you see out of the at-bats across the board tonight that was different than certain games recently where that approach hasn't seemed to be the same?

BUCK SHOWALTER: It's tough on a night like tonight where you know how much it means to move to tomorrow. It's so easy to get out of. It takes a lot of discipline because you want to score runs and you want to give Jake something to work with.

It's just not in a competitive person or athlete where sometimes less is more. That's hard to do. They showed a lot of discipline tonight.

Of course the pitcher has to be throwing some balls too. I think we had, what, nine walks and a hit by a pitch.

I'm proud of everybody, the discipline it takes, when you want something, your tendency is to go get it physically instead of try to stay with it. That's a real tribute to the players.

Q. Is that a message you got across before the game given the stakes of tonight's game that you may have a natural tendency to get out of what you're doing and you have to fight a little more?

BUCK SHOWALTER: All season long, I've had a lot of faith and trust. Early on in the spring, I knew that Chavvy and Jeremy were going to be able to take that on, and the players bought in. They have a meeting before every game. Some of them are short. Some of them are longer, and I know what's being said.

And I know a lot of those things are led by the players, so it means more when it comes from them. But what does it mean for tomorrow? If you had the command that Darvish had, sure, it was a tough night to grip the baseball. It was tough, cold, real cold. I almost caught different parts of me on fire tonight. I did go down and get in front of that heater a couple times.

Q. Was your intention, if it stayed tight, to go to the finish line with Diaz?

BUCK SHOWALTER: No, not in the 30s, but those two innings, where they were in the batting order, we had trouble with Grisham. Probably not.

No, I wasn't planning on pitching a third inning with him. Now, there's a lot of things that might change that. If he has two eight-pitch innings, I would think about it. He was up the runway in the cage. He threw a little bit because it was such a long inning.

Q. The other thing is do you feel you are close to having a full Jacob deGrom right now, or is this just a version of who he usually is?

BUCK SHOWALTER: That's a good question. I haven't had him before this year. So what he's doing is really hard to do, and not many people in baseball can do it, especially -- so whatever version it is, I'm okay with.

So I can't -- it's good. Those guys are on top of the game trying to take the second game and go home, and Jake just wouldn't allow it. So we've got our work cut out for us tomorrow, and all hands on deck.

Q. Was it the way that deGrom finished the fifth that convinced you to send him out for another inning? Would you have done that -- not regardless, but did you feel like he caught some momentum the way he finished it?

BUCK SHOWALTER: A little bit. We talked to Jake in between. I talked to him after the sixth.

Every pitch is such high intensity. The first pitch of the game is high leverage, everybody calls it, in games like this. But there's also a little extra adrenaline reservoir to pick from, I think, in games like this.

So you go for it. That's how it is. Jake, all our guys are guys it's easy to put your head on the pillow because they get it.

Q. With Diaz, I assume you expect to have him tomorrow?

BUCK SHOWALTER: We'll see. Who knows what tomorrow might bring. Might have the same thing we had with Joely. We'll see. I don't expect it, same way with Otto.

Q. So Diaz threw 19 pitches, I guess, in the first inning --

BUCK SHOWALTER: 18.

Q. 18.

BUCK SHOWALTER: You know what, you may be right. I saw 18, and it probably flashed 19. You're probably right and I'm wrong.

Q. And he was underneath for like 45 minutes after that. You said he threw in the back?

BUCK SHOWALTER: We put a mound in the cage. It was spring we put it in the cage.

Q. That's not something that happens a lot with a closer.

BUCK SHOWALTER: A lot of times you don't have half an hour with cold weather, but he was good. After we let him finish the eighth, we were trying to save some bullets there. We liked the Otto matchup.

Big out with Lugo, to come in and face the tying run with a lethal hitter in cold weather, that's not easy to do. We were lucky to have Seth there.

The big play was deGrom's backing up third base early in the game. Then I think also the block of the pitch. That was a big momentum swing. And Canha is standing right beside him. When something like that happens, other teams -- I actually think it's almost a momentum swing. When you do something right fundamentally and you reward it. Not many pitchers are there to make that play. What an athletic play off there. We're lucky it didn't go in there.

Q. Buck, I know that if you don't win tonight, you don't get to tomorrow, but when you put that four spot up, is maybe in the back of your mind saying, you know what, got a five-run lead now. Maybe shut down Diaz and save him for tomorrow?

BUCK SHOWALTER: It crossed my mind. The whole idea when we brought him in was Grisham had been hurting us, and I was take him through certain parts that set up better for the rest of the bullpen. He was going to have to pitch somewhere. It depends where they fall in the order.

It crossed my mind. 7-2 and Manny leading off, we'll think about it tomorrow. We have to get this one under our belt.

Q. Buck, could you just walk us through your decision to use Diaz in the seventh inning?

BUCK SHOWALTER: I just talked about it. What else? What was my decision to?

Q. Your thinking.

BUCK SHOWALTER: They had Grisham who -- I'll say it again. They had Grisham there, which had been hurting us, and top of their order, which had been hurting us. I'm going to take my best pitcher and face their order, hope they don't come up again.

I think it was pretty obvious, by what went on in the ninth inning, why we did it that way.