NL DIVISION SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS DODGERS

October 6, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Dodger Stadium

Arizona Diamondbacks

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Last time you guys were in this ballpark facing this team, things didn't go particularly well for you. How are you approaching this in light of that?

TOREY LOVULLO: The same way that we always do. Granular focus. Get done what we need to get done. Do it our way. And focus on all the things that we've talked about all season long that have worked for us.

I know it was a little bit of a grind last time we were here, but we're a totally different team right now. We're in the big dance. We've advanced through the Wild Card round. And this team feels very good about where they're at.

Q. Do you have an update on Gabby for us?

TOREY LOVULLO: I do. Just a little one. He has not entered the concussion protocol. He has been tested and monitored over the past couple of days and continues to improve and show no symptoms whatsoever.

If something changes in the next, whatever it would be, 18 hours, we would make a change. But tomorrow he will be our starting catcher as of right now.

Q. I noticed the other day as you were coming off the field from that long delay when he got bonked, were you upset with the fans? What was going on there?

TOREY LOVULLO: A little bit. I only know the Milwaukee fans being unbelievable fans, supportive, energized. But in my opinion they didn't have a great fan moment.

One of your players is basically laying down on the field. You're trying to asses him. There's no re-entry rule in baseball. We want to make sure that the athlete who wants to stay in the game is acting properly, saying the right things. There are certain tests, questions that the trainer needs to ask him. And you can't rush that process.

And when a player is down on the field, it doesn't matter what team you're on, we're one. And it could be their player, and we're one. I think the fans may have lost a little bit of that perspective.

Q. How big has Merrill been for you the last three or four years? It just feels like you're able to count on him every fifth day.

TOREY LOVULLO: He's a model of consistency. He continues to go out there and grow and learn every start. And when he came to us he was a 29- or 30-year-old rookie and has just been on an information search ever since.

He's pitched in some huge baseball games for us. He's delivered and made pitches and has been able to slow the game down in this stretch drive. We asked a lot of him and Zac, and he won a lot of very, very important ball games.

I know it's well documented. He was the starter in the final game of the WBC. He just got a really good heartbeat. Doesn't get glossy eyed, and he can go out and execute a game plan.

Q. Besides the results, what's the difference with Ryan Thompson compared where he was with the Rays to what he's doing with you guys? And is there anything you worked on with him to get him where he is?

TOREY LOVULLO: I think he's gained confidence from the first outing he had with us. I've asked him some pointed questions, and he's very complimentary where he was with the Rays and maybe just became the outsider looking in. He might have felt that. When they went in the different direction we were able to grab him.

He's been a savior for us. In that sixth, seventh inning, he pounds the zone, a lot of swing and misses with certain pitches. A lot of contract, early weak contact. Balls on the ground. And we pitch him accordingly based on certain parts of the lineup where we feel it will yield a positive result.

He's been an unbelievable teammate. Those are the things I know. The adjustments -- I don't think there have been a ton of adjustments because I know really the first day that he got there, he's basically pitching in the game and he was lights out, and we've been leaning on him ever since.

Q. With three off days here, you'll be able to start Merrill and Zac four of those games on regular rest. Does that work to your advantage? What do you think of the way this whole format with the off days, especially between one and two?

TOREY LOVULLO: I've been a part of playoff baseball before. I know there are unusual off days. This one might be a little bit different. Maybe the Wild Card round ending a little differently after two days throughout Major League Baseball.

But I think they do a good job of reading, reacting, adjusting to schedules. I know they've got to deal with college football and pro football on Sunday. So whatever they do we stand by, and we feel like this puts us in a really good position because 1A and 1B are going to be able to potentially start four of these five games.

Q. Looking back at the regular season series between you guys and the Dodgers, you met early in the season and it seemed like you were stealing bases almost at will. Flash forward to August, a little different story. How much of that early season success on the bases was the element of surprise? And how much difference was there in terms of that going away or something the Dodgers were doing? How do you explain that difference?

TOREY LOVULLO: I don't think you ever catch the LA Dodgers by surprise with anything. They're a very well prepared team, they're well run. And I think they didn't understand necessarily what type of game we were going to play.

Once they saw that they read it and reacted to it. And it's a copycat league. You've got to keep evolving with what you're doing so you don't get stuck on something or run into outs. And I think the league caught up to us and it took a little adjustment for us. There's an adjustment period of time.

But we believe in our running game. We've got targets, and we know the guys can successfully do it and who they can do it against. And those are the things we're reviewing right now.

Q. What's been the driving force behind this bullpen, this transformation into what it is now as a strength and all the big outs they got in Milwaukee?

TOREY LOVULLO: It's certainly an area of strength that at the time when we got Paul Sewald, Andrew Saalfrank, Ryan Thompson, it was trending in a very neutral direction. I think the addition of those three guys and emergence of Kevin Ginkel has allowed me to kind of put them in different roles and slot them in.

And I think the first step was getting Paul Sewald and allowing everybody else to slide back.

We tried to have a revolving door, a match-up type of closer, as the Rays do. But I think that was a little bit challenging for some of our younger guys, and it became a little bit too much for them.

So Sewald getting there, pushing everybody back into a role helped. And getting some new guys such as Saalfrank and Thompson, who got huge outs for us, has definitely pushed us in the right direction.

Q. We asked you a lot of questions when decisions don't go right. But I'm curious for your evaluation of yourself for those first two games when a lot of things seemed to work out.

TOREY LOVULLO: I make the same type of decisions with the same type of input and the same strategy every single time. And that's the beauty of the game. You may say what you're saying, but I can guarantee you I would have done the same thing in 2021. It just worked a little bit differently in 2023.

We were in a playoff series. It was magnified, losing 110 games. And as Sparky Anderson once told me, that has to be the most unfair treatment of a manager that didn't get dumb overnight.

So that's what happens in my position. I get that. Of course, I'll absorb the good moments this team shares and has, and I will take no credit but take all the blame. The players went out there and did the job and executed.

I had about four or five plans during that became and that's the beauty of the game. It's like a chess match. The game can explode on this side of the table and you've got to figure out what's going on in this side of the table.

There was definitely -- that was probably option four or five, but we were prepared for it because I talked to the staff and we knew what we were going to do and ask of our athletes.

Q. How empowering do you feel it is as a manager --

(Mookie Betts entered the room and hugged Lovullo.)

TOREY LOVULLO: That's what makes you feel good when you're a teacher and kind of a mentor, and you have a young athlete, you know what he's like in the minor leagues. He gets to the big league level. And you just have hours and hours of conversations about what it will be like when you get to that level of greatness.

And for me, I watch him perform, and there's nothing better. I wish he wasn't in the NL West, but I mean that's a beautiful human being there (referring to Mookie).

Q. How empowering is it as a manager when you have the options that you have in the bullpen these days?

TOREY LOVULLO: It feels really good. There's probably tier one, tier two and tier three of guys can I go to that are going to go collect big outs. It gives me a lot of versatility.

I like options. I like to have that versatility. I think in playoff baseball this is what I've learned. I'm still a young manager when it comes to playoff baseball experience, but through a lot of the conversations I've had over the years with managers that have been in this arena and watching games -- and I try to tell you guys this -- it's stopping momentum.

That's why Ryan Thompson came in the game in the fifth inning. He hasn't pitched for us in the fifth inning since he got here. But I just felt like stopping momentum and being able to insert somebody else behind him in Kevin Ginkel who was going to get us to Paul Sewald, those were some options. But I had options two and three in back of that.

So it feels really good. When you talk about feeling empowered, I think that's a very powerful statement, but it's real. And it's part of what makes your team good, when you have a lot of options that aren't just throw-away options; they're legitimate options that will help you win a game.

Q. This team in this ballpark in particular haven't been the friendliest to you guys and Merrill especially. Is that something you've addressed with your guys ahead of this series? And how have you talked about that with them?

TOREY LOVULLO: No, I haven't. I don't need to. They know. We're in a very competitive environment right now. It's the elite eight. You've got eight teams standing up. We're 0-0 with the LA Dodgers. We know it's a tough venue. Their fans are loud. They're engaged. Their players are outstanding.

We've got to do certain things very, very well to get by and keep pushing forward and hopefully win baseball games. We know what they are. It's just a matter of going out and executing.

Talking to Merrill, I don't need to. Merrill's too good and too smart and too heady and ready to make some quality adjustments. They're not wholesale adjustments. When he's pitching well he's hitting lines. He can work the entire box and hit that line on any side at any level.

So we need to get him locked in, which I'm sure he's working on right now and he'll be fine.

Q. What kind of presence does Ketel Marte bring to the lineup? And what does he mean to the offense as a whole?

TOREY LOVULLO: There's definitely a swagger that he plays with, a cockiness, a very humble cockiness -- it's not outward; he doesn't show anybody up. But there's a very strong, positive presence that he walks around with no matter where he is.

You can see him at the hotel. You see him on bases. You see him in the clubhouse. It's just who he is. And I like that. Otherwise -- I'm pretty boring and vanilla, so we need to spice it up a little bit with some of his presence. I'm all for it.

The fact that he also happens to be a really good baseball player and get big knocks for us and make good plays on defense, it's been a pleasure for me to watch him.

He's had some very lean years because of his health. He's been healthy the majority of this year. And I've asked him to go out there and he hasn't been 100 percent. And these guys never knew it. Like, he never showed up in a way that he wasn't giving you everything that he had.

And to me that's the ultimate type of competitor that he is because he's going to give you all that he has on that given day.

Q. After the '21 season you hired Jeff Bannister. Why did you hire him? What has he brought to this team in two years since?

TOREY LOVULLO: I'm so glad you gave me an opportunity to talk about him. You know you're in a good spot with your first lieutenant when your first lieutenant does your job better than you. That's the feeling I have.

He lets me take my eyes off of pregame. He runs the pregame infield, ground balls. I can take care of other meetings I need to have, one-on-one conversations with players in my office.

He oversees the scheduling of the whole day. So pregame, hands off, eyes off. And on top of that he's probably putting out seven to ten small little fires for me that never quite reach my desk.

In-game decision-making, I have a former manager sitting next to me that's walked every walk. And he can slow the game down and talk baseball with me, and I need that.

He can project. He can get two or three innings ahead of me. He's doing all the dirty work behind the scenes while I can keep my eye on the game, having conversations about readiness for players. And that's in-game decisions.

And then the work that he's doing to make sure that there is a line of accountability inside of our coaching staff and that every player has, because that's a huge word in every culture and every successful culture, there's nobody better.

He fills in my gaps. I tend to be a little bit boring. I've been trying to widen my scope and open up my perspective. But I'm kind of like the guy that pays attention to that pile of dirt in front of him. I need to figure out what's going on around me and he's walking that length with me.

So I wouldn't be where I am today. He's been the best thing that's ever happened to me as a manager. I've had some really good bench coaches -- Luis Urueta, who is with the Marlins. I've had Jerry Narron, unbelievable baseball knowledge; and Ron Gardenhire -- I don't mean to be disrespectful to them -- but Jeff Bannister deserves to be a Major League manager one day, once again. But he's filled in every gap for me perfectly.

Q. Curious, the other day on the radio, Mike Hazen confirmed that he agreed to an extension. I don't know if you're allowed to talk about it, and I'm curious what your reaction is to that.

TOREY LOVULLO: Unbelievably well-deserved. He's brought a level of stability to this organization. He has done a lot of or just about everything that he's talked about -- small-market team, building from within, being competitive.

I know we had a couple of lean years. There's reason for that. It's all of our responsibilities.

But it's very well deserved. With everything that he's walked through personally, everything that we've walked through professionally, I think that having him here and knowing he's going to be here is a really good thing for this organization.

Q. Circling back to the stopping momentum question, you have a fully gassed bullpen and couple of off days coming up so you can use them as you like. The track record Merrill has in this stadium is a consideration as well as the fact that over 70 percent of Game 1 winners go on to win the series. With all of that that you already know, are you ready to be just as aggressive as you were in Game 1 in Milwaukee?

TOREY LOVULLO: If I need to be, I will, of course. I will read, react accordingly. I will obviously pay attention to what's going on per inning.

If there's 25 pitches per inning, as there was with Brandon Pfaadt, we're into that mid-70 pitch range after three innings, yes, I'll be definitely mindful. Once again, as I always do -- even with Zac Gallen's start -- I will have probably three or four different game plans walking into that.

As you get a little further, you start Xing them off. And it wasn't looking great for Zac. I was probably on game plan number three after the first. But he walked behind me, told me we were good. I believe in Merrill. He might give a little bit more of a look than I would give to someone like Brandon Pfaadt, but I'll read, react accordingly.

Q. I wanted to talk about Geraldo Perdomo. In the middle of the season, beginning of the middle season, you had basically two shortstops and now you have one. My question is, how did Geraldo really gain your confidence as that everyday guy, even as the bat went a little south in the second part of the season?

TOREY LOVULLO: He has this inner confidence that you don't know unless you talk to him. I know you probably talked to him several times. There's a very comfortable human being inside that body. I like that. The heartbeat never changes. He admits the faults and limitations that he has.

He continues to enhance his strengths, and that's how I knew him, through player development, and on into the early years of his Major League career.

But this year it seemed like something clicked, something clicked offensively. I know the second half wasn't as strong as the first, but he was a National League All-Star. He was recognized by his peers as somebody that was going to be able to go out there Mid Summer Classic and represent the National League.

We weren't the only one seeing what we saw every single day. It was consistency with the at-bats. It was controlling the zone. It was getting on base, understanding what the at-bat was asking for, and then defensively it was just operating at full speed.

And it wasn't just during the game. I was watching his practice reps in Spring Training and watching his practice reps in pregame when the season started. It was very consistent. Those are the work habits I like to see. It gives me a lot of hope, when I don't know that he's going to be a really good player for us. And it's translated that way.

But I would summarize it, sorry for the long answer, I'd say it's the human being, it's the heartbeat and the ability to go out there and prepare is what makes him good.