NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 23, 2022

Bob Melvin

Citizens Bank Park

San Diego Padres

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. How confident are you that your team's able to turn the page and get themselves back on track after a tough loss and a quick turnaround today?

BOB MELVIN: Look, we don't have much of a choice. We've been through all these scenarios even in the postseason here. Had to win a game in New York to move on. We did that. We had to beat L.A. at their place, come home win two.

So it's all about trying to win one game and trying to get it home.

Q. As far as trying to win a game, Yu Darvish on the mound, he's been throwing well, success here in Philly, and seems to have the unflappable demeanor to handle that type of situation.

BOB MELVIN: He does. It's a terrific matchup again. Two quality starters. So we always have a lot of faith in Yu. We pitched him opening day. Kind of apropos he's pitching today.

Q. How quickly can you turn momentum around if you get this back to San Diego?

BOB MELVIN: This is all year. The season was hard for us too. Everything's kind of come hard, but we're still playing, and we tend to win games that we have to win.

So I don't think we look any farther than today's game and expectation to win it.

Q. How will the weather factor into your game plan?

BOB MELVIN: I don't know what it's going to look like. So I don't know that you really do at this point. It seems like, from what I've heard here recently, it's better than what it looked like maybe a couple of hours ago.

Yu's going to pitch. If it rains, he's still going to pitch. The one thing that we hope is that you don't get stopped for a long period of time where you lose your starter. Other than that, we're going to play it like any other game.

Q. I haven't had a chance to look at the numbers yet, but how does he perform in these conditions?

BOB MELVIN: You know what, it's a good question. I don't know.

Q. How about in San Diego?

BOB MELVIN: San Diego doesn't get a ton. I'm not sure if he pitched one of those. We had two rain games this year.

Q. You had the tornado in Wrigley.

BOB MELVIN: I wasn't there for that one. I'm not sure. Did he pitch that game?

Q. Yeah.

BOB MELVIN: The one at home? Did he pitch well during --

Q. Yes.

BOB MELVIN: There you go, great track record. It's why we're pitching him today.

(Laughter.)

Q. Bob, any lessons that can be learned from Wheeler in Game 1 and coming out of that?

BOB MELVIN: We're going to have to hit his fastball at some point, right? He used it early. We were trying to be aggressive with it. Then kind of switched his mixes as he went along.

So we have recent history with it. We have a decent idea how he's going to attack us based on he had success, and you wouldn't think he'd alter that.

Hopefully make him work a little hard, get the ball down in the zone, and hopefully hit some fastballs.

Q. Bob, what do you expect from Yu Darvish today to try to control the pressure facing an elimination game today?

BOB MELVIN: He's looking at inning to inning, pitch to pitch. As far as looking too far out and putting added pressure on himself, I think he actually enjoys games where there's pressure on him.

As a team, we've been through these scenarios before. We've just got to, like I said, narrow it down to today's game. But I know he always looks forward to challenges and looks forward to big games. So we feel like we have the right guy on the mound.

Q. Bob, what is the state of your bullpen today, some of those guys that went three yesterday. Nick and Luis Garcia went five outs.

BOB MELVIN: I don't know. You know, all-hands-on-deck type of thing, but I would think, if there's one guy that wouldn't be available, it would be Nick today.

Q. How do you view -- the last two games have come and gone, and you haven't used your two high-leverage guys, Hader and Suarez. Is it good they're fresh, or how do you view getting through those two games and not having used them?

BOB MELVIN: Overall when you look at a seven-game series, you know you have to win it, and you know you have some games left. Now today's an elimination game, so that's a different thing.

We haven't used Suarez in the fifth inning at least later on in the year. We'll see where that plays out today. We know Yu is going to get us deep in games. Hader is probably going to be towards the end anyway, but it's probably how we factor in Suarez today.

Q. Just if you could tell us what the league has told you about the weather specifically in terms of getting it in, and when are the spotty parts of the day?

BOB MELVIN: The league has not told me anything. I know there was a meeting at 11:00. I had talked to the grounds crew here, and they think it looks a little bit better now than it did originally. We might have to play through some, maybe not that hard.

I think everybody's encouraged it's on time to start, and hopefully we get it in.