NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS DODGERS

October 14, 2022

Bob Melvin

Petco Park

San Diego Padres

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Padres 2, Dodgers 1

Q. How badly do you not want to go back to LA and get this done tomorrow?

BOB MELVIN: Pretty badly. I mean, you saw it out there. It was a pretty good atmosphere to play in. They had a big say in what went on today, too. It felt like the last couple innings there was so much momentum in the place that it was hard not to get it done.

Obviously pitching was unbelievable tonight, but pretty much inspired the whole game.

A lot of fun tonight. Be pretty similar probably tomorrow night, as well.

Q. What were your deliberations internally to keep Blake in there for the sixth?

BOB MELVIN: Well, I was confident where -- you know, at times his mechanics weren't great and he wasn't throwing the ball where he wanted to, but he was still explosive, and they weren't hitting him. I was going to give him a little rope there.

Once the Muncy at-bat came up, I was ready to do something after that. We still had some game to cover. He still looked like his stuff was good.

This is probably as well as he's battled all year to get a win like this, throwing a lot of pitches. These games sometimes get away from him a little bit. He wouldn't allow that to happen. Ended up pitching well enough to win, and then the bullpen took over.

Q. The bullpen, I feel like it's like a broken record. They haven't allowed a run in three games, and it's just -- did you see this coming, this type of performance?

BOB MELVIN: Well, look, we have a good bullpen. I think anytime you hold a lineup like that down like we have here, that's hard to do. But we feel like it's a really deep bullpen, a lot of power arms pitching well toward the end of the season, into the postseason, inspired even a little bit more so. You're seeing a lot of hundred-mile-an-hour pitches from us. I think three guys threw a hundred today for us. It doesn't happen often. When you're locating, it's tough to square those guys up.

Q. Going into this, it was about not having a home game in the playoffs with a crowd since '06. Did you imagine it would be like this?

BOB MELVIN: You know, you had an idea but maybe not like this. It was like this before the game started, so it was like this in pregame, during the introductions, all the way throughout the game. There are going to be a lot of hoarse voices coming back tomorrow. But to keep up that pace the entire game, that was pretty cool.

Q. Was that a huge help for your guys?

BOB MELVIN: Without a doubt. Especially as the game went along. One hit could potentially throw the game the other way. Yes, I would say all our relievers felt that. Like I said, you don't see 100 miles an hour often, especially out of three guys in a row, so I'm sure it had a big say in it.

Q. Staying on the bullpen, when you see it's going to be lining up for Garcia in the seventh, Suarez in the eighth and Hader in the ninth, the way postseason baseball is played nowadays, when it's setting up like that for you, does a sense of ease come over you?

BOB MELVIN: One-run game against the Dodgers, I wouldn't say "ease," but it's set up that way, and probably the hardest job today was Martinez. Whenever you come in for the starter with his run out there, with his base runners, that's the one that's the hardest.

We've been asking him to pitch quite a bit. I didn't want him to have to go more than two thirds there. Garcia had plenty of rest, mostly righties coming up for him. So it matched up well as far as where it went.

But yeah, where are we without the bullpen right now.

Q. Are you out of superlatives for postseason Trent Grisham?

BOB MELVIN: I feel like hitting him in fourth, but he's doing well where he is, bottom of our order, is having a lot of production. We want to try to keep some consistency throughout. But he has the ability to do these things.

I think the thing that really is incredible is where he's gone to at the end of the season to where he is right now in the postseason.

This is kind of who he is as a player, but it was a tough road getting there.

Q. Do you anticipate all those guys like Suarez and Hader would be --

BOB MELVIN: I would think. This is the time of season where we haven't really put too much on them this year. We don't pitch guys three days in a row very often. I think they're benefiting from that right now. We had a day off. They pitched today. It would be three out of four, but I think these guys are going to be looking forward to pitching tomorrow.

Q. I know you guys were confident with Joe going tomorrow, but what you saw with the crowd, with the way your bullpen is, what is the confidence level that you can close this series out tomorrow?

BOB MELVIN: Look, we try to come out here and win a game. We feel good about where we are. We've played well. We've played games, scored some runs, had some games where we relied on our pitching. Joe, we feel great every time he's on the mound. Pitching in front of his hometown crowd tomorrow I know is going to be exciting for him.

Of course we'll feel good going into the game.

Q. As a former catcher, help us understand how difficult it is for Austin to do what he did and be on base I think three times.

BOB MELVIN: Right, it's coming to a point now where offensively now he can -- he's got the catching part to where he's really comfortable with it. We've always thought that he was going to hit, and he's doing his best work at the plate here toward the end of the season into the postseason.

It's quite a workload for him right now. He's going to catch again tomorrow. But he is playing his best baseball here at the end of the season when a lot of times catchers are run down.

Q. You are making history tonight. This is the first time that Padres win a playoffs match with people in the stands. You won two matches in 2020 but without people. What does it mean for you?

BOB MELVIN: Well, everybody felt it. Everybody felt what it felt for the fans out there. They were rocking and ready to go the entire game. Being able to reward them not only with a win but in the fashion that we did it, where it comes down to the last pitch and they're a big part of it, I think was kind of apropos the way the game ended with them on their feet the entire game.

Q. Given the moves that A.J. made at the trading deadline and the idea that even though you were far behind the Dodgers in the standings, your organization had October in mind, would you say that A.J. is one game away from being a genius right about now?

BOB MELVIN: He's done a great job with this roster. There's no doubt about that.

Look, we were thinking postseason in Spring Training, and then to enhance the roster like he typically does along the way gives us even a better chance. Definitely hats off to A.J.