NL DIVISION SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS DODGERS

October 9, 2023

Zac Gallen

Dodger Stadium

Arizona Diamondbacks

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Diamondbacks - 4, Dodgers - 2

Q. Steve was telling me to ask how you felt on the mound tonight.

ZAC GALLEN: I asked if he got banned for his silly question the other day. That's why he's not in here.

Yeah, I feel fine. I feel it started to click when I got out there. Bullpen was, I felt all right. When I got out there just got in the flow of the game.

But, yeah, delivery felt solid. Felt like everything was coming out of my hand pretty solid most part.

Q. Knowing that, the decision in the sixth inning, how good the bullpen has been, does it make it easier to see it and see what those guys are doing?

ZAC GALLEN: For sure. Obviously I don't like coming out, especially in the middle of an inning, especially in the sixth when I felt I was throwing fine.

But Torey had laid it out for me, just kind of before the inning and after the inning. And I get it. It's October. If that's what he felt like was going to put us in the best position to win, I'm fine with it. And I think it worked out. Yeah, it's fine by me.

Q. How would you describe the mindset of the group having won two games here but also knowing it takes one more to get to where you need to get to?

ZAC GALLEN: For sure. The job's not finished. I think the quote Kobe was talking about, what's there to be happy about, really.

It's a good spot for us to be in, playing with a little confidence. I don't think it's any secret we've come in here and struggled. So I think it was good for us just mentally ourselves to come in here and set the tone, have a little faith in ourselves. And then if we go home and finish the job.

Q. The great season that you had, how much did it prepare you to get to this point? The four that really stuck out in my mind in the last month are you went to Wrigley, you went to Yankee Stadium, you went to Milwaukee. Now you go to Dodgers Stadium and basically you win all these games.

ZAC GALLEN: Yeah, I just kind of have a short and long-term memory. Short whether it's good or bad, but at the same time honestly create a good foundation and keep trying to build on it.

We've been playing playoff baseball since the middle of August. So just kind of coming into all those starts with a heightened sense of urgency has kind of, I think, prepared us pretty well for these games now. We've been playing with that urgency to get in. But we obviously dug ourselves a little hole. It was our own doing but maybe it worked out in the long run.

Q. The at-bat against Freeman in the fifth to end that inning you went to three straight curveballs. What went into the decision, not just to throw a third straight curveball but to land it for a strike there?

ZAC GALLEN: My thought was I felt pretty good with the curveball. Base open. I was looking for a swing and miss.

Freddie's Freddie. So it's obviously a tough at-bat. You've got to kind of craft those sequences a little bit differently.

But the curveball, really, I was just trying to throw at the bottom of the zone. I wasn't trying to bury it by any means, just give him something that he had to think about swinging at. I felt it just came out of my hand a little high. Halfway there, it's, like, he's not going to swing at this. Seemed to me like he wasn't going to swing at it.

I'm glad I shifted my approach just a little bit on the sense, all right, I'm going to try to keep this in the strike zone. I didn't mean for it to be that center cut in the strike zone though.

Q. Is that nervous to have that thought of I'm going to try to keep it in the strike zone, third straight to a guy like that?

ZAC GALLEN: No, I think just because of the conviction, honestly. I had conviction in the pitch, I think. I think sometimes you see guys get away with locations that maybe aren't ideal. The plan was to throw it down, but just try not to bury it really. So I think the conviction is what ultimately helped me out.

Q. The same inning, the at-bat before the cutter is obviously a pitch you're working on the field with, always trying to dial in. To go with that against Mookie in that situation, what went into that decision?

ZAC GALLEN: Was it the fourth?

Q. It was the fifth, first pitch of the at-bat.

ZAC GALLEN: I just felt like just the way I had pitched him in previous at-bats really was just trying to -- ultimately just trying to make him hit my pitch, really. Just what I felt good with going out there in that inning.

Same thing going back to conviction. I just went into that inning, all right, I'm going, this is what I'm going to try to attack him with and make him chase and swing out of the zone.

Q. You quoted Kobe before. I find it fascinating, baseball, Djokovic when he wins he quotes Kobe; soccer players; people who are not even in basketball. What was it that Kobe Bryant represented that influences someone like you and other players?

ZAC GALLEN: I grew up, I was a Jordan guy. I got to see Jordan once. I think Kobe was the closest to it. Just in terms of the mentality, and you could go -- I could sit up here and talk about it forever.

That clip, I think it's Finals in like '09 or '10, whatever it is. And he's, like, what's there to be happy about. 2-0 is 2-0. It's not 3-0, 4-0, whatever it takes to win the series.

I think it's something that everybody can learn from really. We have to continue to play with that chip on our shoulder.

Q. When you had the discussion with Torey in the sixth, did you ever come back with at least an opposing argument to stay on, at least respectful opposing argument?

ZAC GALLEN: Yeah, I think so. Torey knows even if maybe an outsider would deem it disrespectful it's still coming from -- I think he gets it. I think he's really good at that in terms of why you're competing, you're in compete mode.

Things you might say come off a little -- but this was kind of like, he'd come up to me and said, listen, this is what I'm thinking and feeling. And I just asked questions, like, okay, what's the plan.

Sometimes he's changed the plan. And sometimes, whether it's good or bad, in my favor, whatever.

So I think Torey and I have enough trust in each other that I give him a pretty fair shake when he asks me how I'm feeling. And he also gives me a fair shake in terms of what his plan is going to be.

Q. But you need a little opposing argument.

ZAC GALLEN: Yes, of course. Like, man, I feel good out here. Obviously, I would be out there for 200 pitches. Anytime it's less than that, I'm kind of, like, what's going on.

Q. I don't know how much you've had a chance to watch some of the other games going on, but in a lot of games pitchers come out now in the fourth inning or, fifth inning. And sometimes it's because they struggle but a lot of times that's how the team sets it up. I'm wondering after watching you and Merrill if the best thing is still to go six or seven innings, how do you feel about that?

ZAC GALLEN: Ideally the plan would be that your guys get you through six, seven. That usually means they pitched pretty well, especially in October, like you said. The leash just tends to be a little bit shorter. If a guy is going out there for six or seven that means he's pretty much in control.

But I can't credit our bullpen enough. I don't think it's any secret that the guys down there struggled midway through the season. For them to have the resiliency on the biggest stage right now, they're coming up clutch for us.

So that's my thought. I was like, all right, I don't know how many guys are in the bullpen, eight, nine, I don't know what the numbers are, but there's eight, nine guys down there I feel confident handing the ball over to.

So, yeah, it's good as a pitcher knowing that you can let it go even if it's five or six innings.