NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 11, 2022

Bob Melvin

Dodger Stadium

San Diego Padres

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Dodgers-5, Padres-3

Q. What do you see was the struggle for Clevenger tonight?

BOB MELVIN: It's a team that makes you work, and they make you throw a lot of pitches. When you throw pitches in the middle of the plate, they take advantage of it, and that's what I saw early on with him.

At times he had a good breaking ball and fastball, but they hit his mistakes.

Q. What did you make of the effort of the bullpen tonight?

BOB MELVIN: They were fantastic. It's 5-0, and all of a sudden it's 5-3, and our guys came in and shut it down. We got the tying run at the plate in the 9th inning. No moral victories, but the latter part of the game was better than the first part for us.

Q. The effort to come back today, what did you think of that and forcing Phillips into the game at that point?

BOB MELVIN: Look, they're going to bring him in probably middle of the order. We had him up with potentially guys on base. So, look, both bullpens pitched really well tonight. We got Urías on the run a little bit there and got ourselves in a position to win a game.

I like the fight that we had throughout. We'll take some confidence in tomorrow.

Q. What went into the decision to use Bell when you did in place of Drury?

BOB MELVIN: I just liked the matchup a little better.

Q. What particularly about that spot?

BOB MELVIN: I'm not going to go into why. I mean, there are certain dynamics that are matchup stuff, and what we look at was a slightly better matchup for us.

Q. How is Kim at the plate?

BOB MELVIN: He is all right. I think he got hit in the ribs for a minute, but he is good.

Q. What do you make of the way he plays, the way he throws himself at every opportunity he gets?

BOB MELVIN: He plays as hard as anybody in the league every day. Whether it's his work ethic pre, he puts himself in a position -- he practices the way he plays. We get a lot of inspiration from him. Plays the game about as hard as anybody, and he is a terrific player.

Q. It's been a struggle to solve these guys all year, but can you just kind of describe your level of confidence going into tomorrow with Yu Darvish on the mound?

BOB MELVIN: We always feel good when Yu is on the mound. He has been about as consistent a starter in the National League this year, so we feel good. We'll feel good going into the game. We felt like we had a chance in the latter innings to win this game. I think everybody is pretty eager to get back out here again.