NL DIVISION SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS DODGERS

October 11, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Chase Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Diamondbacks - 4, Dodgers - 2

Q. How do you kind of sum up what this moment means to you guys, considering the way you guys kept pouring it on when you guys needed to?

TOREY LOVULLO: It's really hard for me to describe right now. There is a lot of emotion inside of our clubhouse, inside of each body. And I'm not exempt from that.

So I'm just trying to slow down the moment to enjoy it and interpret it, and just let it register a little bit, because I don't think anybody gave us a chance to be here. I don't think anybody gave us a chance to win the games that we've won against the teams that we had to play, and that's what I'm most proud of.

At the end of the day it's people caring about people inside of our clubhouse the right way. And that gives me a lot of satisfaction and comfort every single night when I go to bed. So that's what I'm thinking about right now.

The LA Dodgers have been an unbelievable team for the past, I don't know, X-plus-one years. And they're the team that we beat to advance. It feels just a little more special because we know how hard we've been working to make this day happen.

So we're going to enjoy it tonight, and it's hard for me to give you more than that, but at some point you talk to me tomorrow I'll have a totally different answer. But that's where I'm at right now.

Q. For you to beat the Dodgers the way you did, having a lead in 25 of the 27 innings, given what they are as an organization, how were your guys able to do that?

TOREY LOVULLO: I think our team was hungry. And I know it's well documented that we're a connected team. I think a connected team is a dangerous team.

We're not the only team that's connected. I just maybe made that comment and it got thrown out there on social media. But I think we're able to understand the moment. We took a deep breath after getting into the postseason and we recalibrated and figured out that we are a good team.

We are the same team that was 15, 16 games over .500 at one point in time. We have a couple of key starting pitchers that can lead the way for us. I felt when we stepped into the arena in Milwaukee and then in LA, we felt we could compete with anybody.

Q. What did you think of the vibe in here tonight? This is a stadium very often has a lot of Dodger blue, and tonight was something else?

TOREY LOVULLO: To the fans of Arizona, you guys absolutely rocked it today. Thank you. We want to make the state proud of us. We have to earn their trust back and have them understand that we're here every single day to perform and win them back over.

There's nothing better than a packed house here. It was extremely loud down on the field level. Those are moments we're all looking forward to. I want to say thank you to them and their encouragement, support.

And for the first time in as many years as I can remember, the seventh-inning stretch was dominated by the Arizona Diamondback fans, and that was a really good feeling.

Q. Did you guys know you could morph offensively like that? All season long you guys have been base to base, stealing bases, lots of pressure. And all of a sudden you're home run kings. Where did the power come from and did you know you could morph like that?

TOREY LOVULLO: I think this team is capable of doing anything. We're a very dynamic team. It's about having mature at-bats and handing it off to the next guy, not doing too much.

I think for the early parts of the season probably until a little bit after the All-Star break, this team was having quality at-bats. They were doing their job and handing it off. That's why we were in the position we were in.

But I don't know what happened. I think we tried to do a little too much to prove ourselves for those lean months. But once we got in, I felt like this team really gelled, took a deep breath, a deep exhale, and felt like it's, I'm 0-for-0 and let's start this thing over.

As far as the power goes, I've never seen something like that before. It was almost unbelievable, right? And who hits a home run foul and on the next pitch hits a home run fair. Never happens; you usually strikeout. Goes all the way back to Little League. It happened every time. That's the quality of hitter we have.

Lance Lynn, he shuffled the deck a little bit today. He threw some zero percent pitches. He's never thrown certain pitches to certain hitters and it caught us by surprise. And once we saw it we made an adjustment. That's us having mature at-bat and being dynamic. And that's who we are.

Q. What do you think of just the start that Brandon gave you on the mound and just giving the way to the bullpen to kind of see it through?

TOREY LOVULLO: Everybody asked me what I thought about his last outing in Milwaukee. We talked about a mixture of pitches coming out of that, being able to establish things. He was 44 pitches in at four-and-a-third, and I was the dope that took him out of the game.

I just needed to bridge it at that point once we had the lead that the bullpen was in very capable -- or the team was in very capable hands with our bullpen.

What did I think about his outing? It was fantastic. And I went over and I told him. I said, "I understand this was a mistreatment. I promise I won't always do this to you, but we're going to win this game because of your effort. And I want you to understand that."

Q. Couple of questions on Gabby. First, how is his hand?

TOREY LOVULLO: Gabby's hand is good. X-rays were negative. He went and got some treatment, came back out and actually warmed up the picture, I think Sewald or Ginkel, in the eighth or ninth inning. I asked him how he was. He said he was doing fine.

The athletes disappear. I don't see them and I think they're going to come out in a cast. When I saw him in the dugout, I was, like, thank you. Thank you, God. We're going to be okay.

Q. He's played through some stuff and he's performed in the postseason. What's he shown you in the last week or two?

TOREY LOVULLO: A lot of mental toughness, a lot of physical toughness in a very demanding position. And then the ability to barrel baseballs and have that dynamic approach we're talking about.

He doesn't give away at-bats. He's engaged. He's not afraid to have two strikes. Every good Major Leaguer is not afraid to hit with two strikes on him.

Q. Does it say anything about your guys, that third inning, that it was Perdomo who started it, the 9 hitter. For him to be the one that did it, what's he mean to this group?

TOREY LOVULLO: He's an on-base machine. He is very patient. And when gets on base he turns it over to the top of that lineup. That's by design when I'm setting up the lineup.

He's got some sneaky pop, there's no doubt about it. I think that Lynn was throwing a cutter, he's cutter-heavy into lefties. And I think he just got the barrel on a ball and happened to get us get our first run.

He's capable of doing anything. I don't want him to think he's a home run hitter. I keep talking to him about that. I want him to continue to be an on-base machine and just slice balls. But he does have that capability.

Q. Was this any sort of more special the fact you did this here on your own field against the Dodgers who have celebrated so many times winning divisions and series here in this ballpark?

TOREY LOVULLO: If I had about two or three more glasses of champagne, I'd probably go in a totally different direction.

I'm going to try to keep it where I need to keep it. I want to be very respectful of Doc and the LA Dodgers. They're a quality team, a really good team.

Because of the success they've had in any part of our industry -- and you whittle it down to playing against us and eliminating us in '17, basically beating us for a couple of years -- it means that we're a good baseball team and we've arrived.

It feels extremely good, overall, period. But you throw in the fact that it's the LA Dodgers who have had so much success, it just makes it a little better.

Q. Could you say what you were doing to keep Freeman and Mookie 1-for-21 in the series?

TOREY LOVULLO: That's a good question. Just running balls on both sides of the plate. Maybe chalk lines, chalk lines, and then just seeing if they would chase and reading and seeing what was going on from there. So they're very potent hitters. You can't make mistakes with them. If you do, you'll get punished. I think our pitchers did a great job.