NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 20, 2022

Bob Melvin

Citizens Bank Park

San Diego Padres

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Obviously this isn't going to be the first hostile environment that you guys have faced in this postseason. How much of those previous experiences possibly help you, and also with regards to this venue specifically, is there anything unique about it that changes any of your strategies or base running approach or anything like that during this series?

BOB MELVIN: I think it's just today getting used to the field out there. Guys have played once here before this season. Really no secrets as far as how the field plays, maybe a little bit cooler.

Yeah, I think any time you run through a couple different series in the postseason, you go through some games that, win or lose, you go home. In hostile environments you gain a little perspective and certainly confidence from that.

Q. I know you talked about it before, but five games in a row now, how much does that possibly change your lineup constructions and/or how you handle your bullpen over this series?

BOB MELVIN: It's probably a little bit more bullpen, how we go with our starters, but each day is going to dictate how the next day goes.

Typically we get longer starts out of Joe, which will help us leading off five days in a row, but you're not sure. So we'll take it day to day. We haven't even announced the starter for the second day yet. Nor will I today.

Q. Kind of that old adage, the road teams take one road game and the series is in your advantage. Kind of on the other side of that, do you almost feel like winning one of the games against Philly's two top -- one of the top starters kind of flips the script for you a little bit?

BOB MELVIN: These things flip around so quickly that your mindset can change from game to game. So we've been pretty good about over the course of a season just worrying about one game. We've been able to respond to tough losses this year, starting at the very beginning of the season.

So I don't think we look too far into it. We know we're here for three games. We're going to try to win all of them individually. Whether that happens or not, I'm not sure.

Look, they deserve to win the first game. We got one hit. So we needed to win yesterday. Now we're here, and they're all going to be separate games for us.

Q. How unique is Joe? I mean sort of specifically his ability to like take it all in, to like know all his teammates, to be a leader, to embrace the pressure, and then also focus.

BOB MELVIN: Well, he's as good as anybody we have at that. And you've heard what he had to say here about it's one thing to go into a game confident and visualizing success, but it's always important to understand there could be another side to that. It doesn't go smoothly.

I have a card that is a semi script how I think the game's going to go, and it doesn't very often go exactly as planned.

You have to be able to understand there's going to be moments that you have to dig deep and kind of will yourself through. Whether that's on the mound, whether it's understanding what is needed in the clubhouse from day to day, he's really worked himself into a role where he is as much of a leader as we have here, especially on the pitching staff.

So good guy to have pitching the first game of a series on the road.

Q. Kind of taking that concept with Joe over the course of the whole season, he did have some struggles in the middle there, but he pulled himself out of it. He was kind of confident throughout that he would. What did you see that allowed him to do that, to kind of get back to where he was at the beginning of the series?

BOB MELVIN: It's a challenge he embraced that things aren't going well, and I can either run from it or face it head on. He did that at the beginning of the season, 6-0 at the start, and then had some challenges.

But I think all of those things over the course of a season, coming out of it, pitching some his best baseball at the end of the season, shows you his character and puts him in a situation where he's going to feel confident coming into tomorrow.

Q. Do you think you're well equipped for this challenge of five games in five days given how often you've asked your starters to go deep in games, maybe more than some other teams?

BOB MELVIN: I hope. We'll have one game where we might not have a starter conditioned to go too deep in the game, so you have to be aware of that and how each day plays into the next.

In general, we've let our starters go a little bit, and I think at this time of year when a lot of bullpens are maybe run down a little bit, I think maybe ours has been saved a little bit by the use of the starters.

Q. Josh Hader obviously struggled mightily after the trade deadline, and now he's been dominant for maybe the last month and certainly in the playoffs. Maybe not mechanically or approach-wise, but is there a way to explain how difficult that mental journey is to flip that switch, not get too down on yourself, not let the season unravel and collapse, and then to be this Josh Hader right now?

BOB MELVIN: It doesn't surprise me that he's been able to do that. He's done this for a while. You're always going to go through some tough periods.

The toughest role on any baseball team is the closer because if you pitch poorly, your team loses. So you go through a stretch where it's not going great, it can wear on you. If anybody was capable of pitching his way through that as you saw him -- new team, all the things kind of thrown at him at a time when maybe he wasn't pitching his best.

But it doesn't surprise any of us that he's pitching the way he is right now because of his experience and how tough minded he is and how he kind of looks at the game in general.

Q. On one hand, I know that awards aren't the end all for people in baseball, but any reaction to Manny not being among the final three finalists of Gold Glove at third?

BOB MELVIN: I'm a little biased obviously, but I'm surprised by it. We have some guys on there that I'm glad that they're on there. I think the one that is missing and is pretty glaring and obvious would be Manny.

Q. What are you expecting out of Suarez for them? I know early in the year he faced you. Going beyond that, their pitching, do you know sort of this chess game and what they might be doing and you're doing and how does that all play in?

BOB MELVIN: It doesn't. Just tomorrow plays in. He pitched a good game against us at our place, so we know that. We have some guys that have faced him, not a ton of at-bats against him.

So you go in with as much experience as you can. He can be really, really good. So we'll just take it that far. The next day might look similar to what we have to do, and when we get there, then we'll deal with the next day.

Q. What about their bullpen? Do you know? What guys coming in where for them and playing around that at all or you have to just see?

BOB MELVIN: When they come in, we deal with it. They showed you in Game 1 who they were going to rely on in those instances, but they've had a pretty good bullpen here recently too. So there are a lot of good arms that come out of that bullpen.

How they deploy it, I don't know, but we take each challenge as they come in.

Q. Manny is not on the final list, but you have four finalists at shortstop, second base, center and right field. Could you share your thoughts about them.

BOB MELVIN: I'm proud of all of them. Obviously the one we're extremely sentimental about is Kim being a finalist at short. I don't know there's a better defensive shortstop that I've seen this year.

The metrics can look a little different for everybody, but he's been a consistent performer for us and defensively kind of our heartbeat.

Trent Grisham, obviously not surprising. His numbers are going to be off the charts. Even in a down year offensively, he continues to perform.

Juan is going to be in any talk from Silver Slugger to Gold Glove to anything on just being the premier player that he is.

And Jake, look, Jake's put in a lot of hard work at second base to become the guy he is. Durable, out there every day, makes not only the routine plays but the really good play. First time this year in the shift. Manny was in the shift last year, so had that challenge as well.

All those guys have performed beautifully.