AL DIVISION SERIES: MARINERS VS ASTROS

October 12, 2022

Scott Servais

Minute Maid Park

Seattle Mariners

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Scott Servais.

Q. Time has passed. You mentioned yesterday just about the plan to use Robbie late. Can you kind of go into some of the information or how the plan worked, why you thought the plan would work, and has it gotten any easier less than 24 hours later?

SCOTT SERVAIS: Yeah, obviously, it didn't work yesterday, but that has nothing to do with our process. We have a really good process. It's something that we have developed over time, specifically last couple years, in our decision-making as we prep for each and every game throughout the regular season and the postseason.

A lot of it is tied into who is available, what the matchups are, and our matchup numbers are, they're developed by us, just like every team has an analytical group that puts all the information together and it spits out a number to me and my coaching staff and the whole strategic group that puts together game plans and how we're going to use guys.

So you rely on it. You stay true to the process and understanding the pieces you have available, pieces of the players you have available that day to go ahead and hopefully finish off the game. It didn't happen yesterday. It didn't work out.

But I don't know if anybody remembers, but just a couple days ago we were in Toronto, and George Kirby got the last three outs in a position he had never been in in his life. Why did we make that decision at that time? Because our process led us to that decision. And it worked great.

But it was a spot that George had never been in before, but we thought at that time it gave us the best decision to win the game, just like yesterday, we thought at that time it made the best decision to allow us to win the game.

So, again, a lot goes into it. I said when the playoffs started, the beauty of the playoffs is there's so many eyes and there's so much at stake and the thing we forget oftentimes is the best players in the world are playing at this time. It's a really good team we're playing.

We played a fantastic game yesterday. We really did. Were all over probably the guys are going to win the Cy Young this year. Awesome at-bats. We played very good defense. We controlled the strike zone. We were in charge of the game.

The 8th and 9th inning didn't go our way, okay, and you have to give the other team some credit. Andrés Muñoz is out there. Probably him and Eddie Díaz, probably the most dominant late-inning relievers in baseball over the last few months. Alex Bregman hits a two-run homer off him.

And then they got deeper in that inning that allowed some other things to happen in the 9th inning. So you have to give credit to those guys on the other side. They get paid to play too, and they're just as competitive as anybody else and they have been there.

So, again, it didn't work, go in our favor. Our process was really good, stand by it. I'm not going to change it. I'm not going to get off it. Why would you? That's what got to us this point. What got us to it this point is leaning on Paul Sewald and Andrés Muñoz and Diego Castillo and the guys out of the bullpen.

But again, tough one yesterday. We will put it behind us. Anybody that's watched us all year long knows how resilient this group is. We've had our backs against the wall and it's one game. Five-game series are not won with one game. Okay? It certainly helps. It puts you in a better position, there's no question about it. But we'll come back out tomorrow. We'll play a good game. Again, very confident of that. I know the makeup of this club as good as anybody and feel very strongly about it.

So again, long-winded answer. It's coming. I get it. It's part of the job. But I love playoff baseball. I do. I'm not going to back away from it. But there's decisions that happen throughout the course of it that will go your way and some that won't go your way, but we had a good process behind it, and I feel good about it.

Q. We're obviously able to access some public-facing information, baseball reference, splits, and all that. I'm not asking you to give away any of your proprietary secrets, but beyond the left-on-left matchup, specifically Robbie against Álvarez there, what are maybe a few of the things that you could tell us that you liked about the matchup?

SCOTT SERVAIS: Well, Robbie Ray's obviously a very accomplished pitcher. It is left on left. But Yordan Álvarez is very good left on left. We know that going into it. You have to weigh the odds and where it's at right there and, again, I'm looking at the numbers that are in front of me, I trust them, and what plays into that is not just the handedness of the pitcher, but what that hitter hits, what that pitcher fires out there. Now you got to get the ball, you got to execute, you got to get the ball in the right spots, and hopefully it leads you to the result you're looking for.

But to break it all down and tell you how the soup is made, I'm probably not going to do that for you. That's said, why would I? Every team has information like that, and you're trying to predict the future, but the game is played by humans. The guys out there, they're athletes, there's a lot that plays into it, and you have to go out and execute it and hopefully it goes your way. Even if you execute sometimes, the guys on the other team are good too at this time of year.

Q. Looking at the bullpen options and also starting options, does having used Robbie in relief make it more likely that perhaps you go with Kirby in Game 3 and keep Robbie in the pen?

SCOTT SERVAIS: You're on top of it J.P. (Laughing.)

Yeah, that decision was made obviously before the series started, which led into some things and availability of Robbie yesterday. So that's the way we're leaning right now.

Q. You said before the game yesterday that you're going to need Paul Sewald in leveraged situations. He had the bad outing in Toronto. He didn't get through the 9th yesterday. Where are you with him and what are you seeing from him?

SCOTT SERVAIS: I do know, and it's fair question, the only way for the Mariners to get to the World Series and win it, you have to lean on the people that got you here.

Looking at our bullpen, it's certainly, it's Diego, it's Muñoz, it's Sewald, it's Swanny in the right pockets, it's Matt Brash in the right pockets. Those are the guys who got us here. You don't all of a sudden flip script right now.

And if you look at the inning yesterday I'm sure there's some pitches Paul would like to have back. You know, the hit by pitch or the walk, certainly hurt. I thought he executed a pretty good pitch that Peña got a single on. It happens. He's good too.

But you really can't start flipping all over the map. That's not what got us here.

Q. This might play into the whole how the soup is made thing, but you have, people might be wondering, the armchair quarterbacks, Robbie hadn't played well or hadn't pitched well again the Astros this year. He didn't have a good outing the last time in the playoffs. You had a lefty, Matthew Boyd, in the bullpen as well. These are just questions, I'm not saying they're the right answers, but how would you respond to that?

SCOTT SERVAIS: We made the decision we made based on the players we had available, based on the numbers and the information I had available, and stand by it.

Q. You mentioned Swanny. We haven't seen him. I think he warmed up in Toronto. I didn't know if maybe he's, like you say, the soggy or anything like that or if he's not feeling great. I know he hadn't been great down the stretch. Is that a factor too is kind of the numbers he put up in the last five or six games, because he had been a pretty big part of your roster, so we just didn't know if he was available or not?

SCOTT SERVAIS: No he's been available. Again, you're looking at trying to look at the pockets and where we were at in ball game and there's certain hitters and parts of the lineup that Swanny matches up better than others against. I'm sure you'll see him in there this series. I can't imagine us winning this series without using Erik Swanson in key points, in key moments.

Again, I can say it over and over, and you can say, oh, he's not really answering the question. I am answering the question. Okay? There's no other way to put it. When you have a plan and you go into it and you believe in a process and what you're doing and how you do it, and the numbers matchup with where everybody is on board with it, and, you know, it's myself, it's coaching staff, it's analytical group, it's strategic group, there's a lot of people involved here, and everybody is in agreement going ahead with it, and you pull the trigger, so to speak, and it doesn't work out, you have to live with that. And I certainly can.

I believe in our team. We got a really good team. We belong here. It's been a long time since we've been in the playoffs. And I know our fan base and everybody around the Mariners is starving. This is what you're starving for. It's the highs and the lows and the everything along the way, and as great as it was Saturday night in Toronto, you know, we felt the low yesterday. That's okay. That's the beauty of playoff baseball. That's why we watch it with such intensity and there's so much impact and value in every out and there's so much tied to every pitch, it's awesome.

We need to -- we need to enjoy it. We really do. I am. Yesterday was rough, no question about it. But I know how hard it is to get here, how hard it is to win here. That's the beauty of the whole thing. Be grateful where we're at. We got a chance to win tomorrow. We send the Rock to the hill and I like our chances.

Q. On the other side of that, ten runs against Toronto, seven yesterday, the way the bats have woken up and different guys doing it, how encouraging is that going forward?

SCOTT SERVAIS: I thought we played a great game yesterday. The first seven innings as good as we can do offensively against, you know, Justin Verlander is probably going to win the Cy Young this year. We were on it. We made great adjustments. He was a little off early. He made some good pitches that we hit. He made some bad pitches that we hit. Up-and-down the lineup the guys were on it. You can't ask for any more.

We got a key double play turned in the 7th inning. I thought our defense, Kelenic made a nice play on a ball that was roped to left field to him. The guys were in the right spots. We executed the game plan perfectly, just didn't get it done in the last, in the 8th and 9th inning. It happens in baseball.

But again, our team, were we down yesterday? Yeah. If you're going to find me a team that's not down after that game, that's a rough one, you know?

Talking to our guys afterward, we're in here today getting some treatment, make sure we're ready to go tomorrow. Our guys understand. We've lost some tough games before and we always bounce back. There's no reason we won't this time.

Q. You mentioned you got the Rock tomorrow. What makes him so good? It's just been such a nice addition to this club.

SCOTT SERVAIS: He's got great stuff, first of all. The two-seam fastball, the riding four-seam, the slider, the changeup, he's got all the pitches. He's got a very good demeanor on the mound. I don't think the moment gets to big for him. He just keeps executing and throwing his stuff up there. You got to play good defense behind him. I thought we did that in Toronto. We've done it for the majority of the year. There are going to be some ground balls hit. You got to make plays. He's got ability to strike you out, but this club they're going to put the ball in play. You got to play good defense and be on top of your game.

So again, especially against the Astros, they do have a very good job of controlling counts, working their way into counts, they're going to grind through at-bats. And in doing that you got to just keep executing and executing and executing and you'll get the result you're looking for.

And there's a certain something about certain pitchers in the game. I think Luis Castillo has that. When he takes the mound I know how our team feels playing behind him. Like he's a dude. Like he's just how he -- his mannerisms on the mound. The other team knows it. The looks on the batters' faces when they're getting in the on-deck circle. Or they're in the dugout and you look into the other dugout, like he's got great stuff. And there's no reason he can't have a great outing for us tomorrow.

Q. Along those lines, have you had some fun getting-to-know-you conversations with Luis when he came over at the trade deadline? And maybe what are your favorite aspects of his personality? I'm wondering if you heard from friends of the Reds about kind of what to expect from him personality-wise?

SCOTT SERVAIS: We had a couple guys on our team who had played with him. So I had a heads-up before we acquired him what we were getting. I think that this guy has always got a smile on his face. Doesn't look like the weight of the world is ever on his shoulders.

He's gone through some things in his career. He's bounced on a couple different teams and whatnot.

I do know getting to talk to him right around the time that we extended the contract with him and how much it meant to him that we would offer that kind of a long-term commitment to him and his family. It meant the world.

I think him joining our organization at this time, it's just, it's a perfect fit. Where we were at, where he is at in his career. And I do know when you make a commitment to a player like that it becomes a partnership so to speak and knowing that he's going to be here for awhile.

So there's an, I guess, a growing mutual trust is the best way to put it. Not just from me to player but from organization to player and where he's at and how he goes about it.

But again, as good a stuff as he has, he doesn't try to overcomplicate things. He doesn't get way deep into the weeds on the numbers or the matchups and things like that. In his mind, I got really good stuff. I'm the Rock. Here we go. It's on. Let's compete. He's really good at it.

Q. Framber's come quite a long way over the past few years. What have you seen from him from afar and how do you guys kind of approach a guy like that? A lefty who throws a ton of spin.

SCOTT SERVAIS: He's got really good stuff, great repertoire. Obviously had an awesome season. You look at the consistency of what Valdez did out there and the number of quality starts that he was rolling out there.

I think he's evolved a lot. He's always had the good curveball. The sinking fastball, the changeup has played in. He throws a ton of strikes. You got to be ready to hit.

Again, I said it the other day about Verlander, he will make some mistakes. Framber will as well. There's no pitcher alive that doesn't. They don't put the ball where they want to put it all the time.

So you just got to be ready. You got to be on the attack and ready to roll. I thought our guys did a great job of that yesterday and I would expect similar here going forward, but a little bit different approach, certainly handedness is different, stuff is different, how they approach you is different. So we have to make a little bit of adjustment there but we have seen him we've seen him in the past, again, he'll make mistakes, just got to be ready for 'em.

Q. We have seen how you had to your approach and how you have had to adjust pitching to Mike Trout over the years. Do you have to maybe pitch Yordan Álvarez the same way now going forward?

SCOTT SERVAIS: (Laughing.) It's funny you would put those two in the same bucket. Because I do. (Laughing.) They're really good. You look at the year that Aaron Judge has had and what Mike Trout has done throughout the course of his career and where Yordan Álvarez trending. And he's been there for awhile. Those are, it's the top three, four, five, six hitters in the game. They can hit any pitch no matter who is throwing it. Along the way you understand that.

So in any game not, just a playoff game, but any game you go into, there's the one guy that you would like to say, Hey, we need to stay away from this guy, you can't let this guy beat you, or whatever.

They've got more than just one guy on their team, but he's certainly near the top of the list. And there are situations that come up in the game where you just can't walk people, you know what I mean?

That's what happened yesterday a little bit. Are you going to walk him to put the tying run on second base? You don't do that in baseball. You don't. People that have been in the game as long as I have understand, like, this is not what you do.

So there are times it's man against man, here we go, it's on, it's got to happen. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't. But certainly he's a guy we always pay a lot of attention to, how we're going to pitch him, be very careful with how you pitch him.

But, again, I go back to the 8th inning in yesterday's game. Andrés Muñoz, in my opinion, may have the best slider in the game. He took a 94-mile-an-hour slider, hit is 115 miles an hour off the fence. He's pretty good.

We didn't make a bad pitch. We threw our best pitcher, threw his best pitch to their best hitter. He got it. If the same thing happens tomorrow, we might win it.

Q. You seem to have processed this pretty well. Like moving forward, how do you, like do you go back last night, though, and relive it for awhile? It's not like a player, players watch it and go, but like as a manager, do you go back, re-watch it, rethink it, or anything like that, talk to your guys? I guess, what is your process in moving forward and adapting, you know, watching a game and then moving forward and learning from it?

SCOTT SERVAIS: Well, thankfully, my process is much different than your process. There was no Crown Royal (laughing) in my process last night. But we're human, right? That's the game. You go back and you think, What could I have done different or what should we have done different. And at the end of the day, if you truly believe in what you're doing and the people around you and you take all the information in, you make best decision you can at that moment and you move forward.

Again, it's a 106-win team over there. And you need for, when you start you need to win 13 games to win the World Series. Going 13-0 is very difficult, okay? It's really hard. You're not going to win every game. Understand that.

We were up four runs in a great spot. It didn't happen. But there's going to be adversity along the way. There's going to be bumps in the road. You're going to get kicked in the teeth so to speak. And then it happens and you got to bounce back from it.

So I think it's, it's, you're always going to debrief. You're going to go back, What could we have done a little bit differently here and there. And sometimes us just look at it and there's nights that I look at it and say, We got lucky tonight. There's other nights you look at it and say, Hey, they got lucky tonight.

Yesterday really wasn't one of those games. We threw our best guys out there. They got big hits in big times. It was good teams going after it. That's what happens in the playoffs.

Q. How much did you check in with the pulse of the team and individuals after last night's game?

SCOTT SERVAIS: Yeah, individuals more than the whole group together. I'm not sure what you're going to say after a game like that that's going to make anybody feel a whole lot better. When I first left the ballpark yesterday my thought was, Oh, maybe a day off isn't such a bad thing. I wake up this morning I said, Let's go play. I'm ready to play.

And I think that's how our team feels. We're ready to get back out on the field and compete. Because that's what these guys do. And I talk about it over and over how resilient that group is. They have short memories, they really do. And you have to in this game if you want to be successful. Our team's pretty good at turning the dial, turning it over. Let's move on and look forward, because we got a lot of big baseball yet ahead of us.