NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 18, 2022

Bob Melvin

Petco Park

San Diego Padres

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. So far how impressed have you been with how your team has handled all the media hoopla and the potential noise and is there even more of it for this series, and how do you keep that from emanating into the clubhouse or does it happen?

BOB MELVIN: Yeah, you don't. You don't talk about it much. You just know and understand that there's a good reason for it, and we're in a place where that happens. Getting into our parking lot is a little bit of a pain, but other than that, I think you kind of embrace the reasons for it.

Q. Since both of these teams are similar, both you and Rob talked about that, does it make it easier for you to predict what the other side might be doing? On the other side of it, does it give you a little bit more incentive to be less predictable in a longer series?

BOB MELVIN: Yeah, I think we certainly don't play them as much as we did the Dodgers, and it was kind of spaced out, I think, and we were done with them a little bit earlier. Harper wasn't in a lot of the games. They seem to run a little bit more at this point in time.

I think you kind of get a feel in the first couple games. That's probably the case with any team that you haven't played a bunch during the course of the season. Longer series, you probably get more of a handle as you go along, but there are probably some uncertainties at the beginning.

Q. You have a few players who have been in a Championship Series; how much is their leadership paying off right now as you guys prepare?

BOB MELVIN: Yeah, anytime you have guys that have been deeper in the postseason, those are the guys you lean on a little bit for perspective and/or anything they can lend as far as how it's going to feel.

But you can talk about it all you want; until you get out there and experience it, it's tough to kind of really, really lend an opinion on what it's going to feel like. Each individual feels differently and those type of things.

The last series was pretty spirited. Our ballpark was great. It felt like real, real deep postseason baseball, so hopefully we gained a little bit from that series.

Q. The fact that you're going to have those five games in five days and you have a starting rotation that's worked deep into games, how beneficial is it having the guys you have in your rotation that can pitch deep into games for that setting?

BOB MELVIN: It is. They have to get there, too, though. It's a pretty good lineup. They have some power throughout and can do some things differently at the bottom than they do at the top. We do have guys who expect to and want to go deep into these games, but we'll see how we get there, too.

There's certain guys that you don't want your pitchers facing too many times around. Fourth time can be a little bit dicey. But it's more feel from game to game, but I would agree with you we do have a number of starting pitchers that not only have been deep in games but expect to.

Q. I know we discussed the possibility of maybe moving some of the lower guys in the lineup specifically up higher, but is it just kind of the comfort that they've been performing down there that you're keeping it the way it is?

BOB MELVIN: Yeah, no reason to really change. I had different lineups I was looking at today but settled on it's worked pretty well so far. We're getting production from guys at the bottom that feel good kind of around each other, some guys that can run a little bit at the bottom, some put-in-play kind of things with Nola. We'll keep it the same, but it doesn't mean it won't change as we go along in the series.

Q. In terms of the last few years in Oakland falling a little bit short of the LCS, on a personal note, how much are you enjoying this, being just one step away from the World Series?

BOB MELVIN: Look, the closer you get to the World Series, the more exciting it gets, right? That's the way it's supposed to be.

Makes for a much longer season. After games you feel worn out more so, but then you feel just as invigorated when you come the next day for a game.

You talk about highs and lows during the course of the season, now it's highs and lows from game to game. It just seems like every game is that much more dramatic, so it makes it a lot more fun.

Q. When you're preparing for the game throughout the day, you've done this for so long, but how is the postseason different? You talk about looking at lineups. How much more are you tempted to, for lack of a better term, over-manage?

BOB MELVIN: Well, I hope I don't do that. But you know what, you try to remain the same. You try to think that you do it right during the course of a season. You might dig a little bit deeper. I'm looking at pitch-out counts today, which I don't do a ton sometimes. But you want to make sure that every piece of information you have, you at least peruse it just for your own psyche that I didn't miss something here.

But I think as far as the coaching staff goes and myself, we're pretty prepared every series, and you try to keep that kind of the same.

Q. How have you noticed kind of the mood, temperament of the team change from I think the anxiety, nerves of a Wild Card series, obviously last series. Do they feel more settled in, confident? Do you notice any change now in your third postseason series?

BOB MELVIN: Yeah, I think more excitement. So you get through the anxiety or nerves maybe in the first series, and now it's just the excitement about going deeper. You look at the front of our dugout now, there's a lot more people there, and I can't see the game near as well from where I stand.

It just seems like these guys are on the top step trying to support their guys, root them on, and that's probably taken to a different level.