NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 16, 2023

Merrill Kelly

Citizens Bank Park

Arizona Diamondbacks

Pregame 1 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Merrill Kelly.

Q. Merrill, what can you take from your postseason experience now you got last week and apply it to tomorrow?

MERRILL KELLY: Just try to treat it the same. I know it's a different city, different team, different stadium, different fans. I would say try to treat it just like we've treated every other game in the playoffs so far.

Obviously not make the situation bigger than it already is, keep playing our game, keep doing what we do well, not try to go outside our box too much. Just stay where we're at.

Q. We talked a lot about the environment, the fans, and all that. I'm worried about the cold. Are you guys? How are you guys going to handle the weather?

MERRILL KELLY: I think we'll be all right. I think once those lights turn on and that crowd that you are speaking of filters into the stadium, I think the blood is going to warm up pretty quick.

That postseason adrenaline hits a little bit differently than it does the regular season. Me personally I like this weather. I'm a big layer kind of guy. I like hoodies and beanies and all of that stuff. I'm pretty comfortable right now, but it will probably be a lot warmer come game time just because of the situation.

Q. Obviously you added the slider a little bit last year and really this year. I know for a guy who's had lots of success with the pitch mix you already had, it's not always the easiest thing to add a new pitch. What eventually pushed you to introduce that to your arsenal?

MERRILL KELLY: I think there were just situations where throughout a game -- throughout the last couple of seasons, there was a lot of situations, a lot of counts, a lot of at-bats just based on how they went and kind of what pitches were set up when. I just thought a slider would benefit what I do already.

I try to kind of play the X game down and away a lot of the times from righties with the cutter and the fastball and the sinker going those directions. And I thought adding something with a little depth to kind of get righties off the other stuff, I felt like there was a lot of situations where I could have used it, and it would have benefited me a lot.

There were situations that I got not necessarily burned on, but just the result necessarily wasn't what I wanted, and I thought that a slider would kind of open those doors.

Q. I know that Strommy is a big slider proponent as well. I imagine those are some conversations you guys had over the first year or so that he was here?

MERRILL KELLY: Yeah. I think any time the pitching coach sees one of their guys trying to implement a new pitch, I think there's probably a little bit of hesitation just at the beginning, just to make sure that -- I think a lot of times coaches are worried about stuff blending or your body doing different things with that pitch just based on what it's used to do, and what it's used to -- programmed as throwing everything else that I do.

But I think once he saw the potential in it and the shape kind of stayed in between the cutter and the curveball, I think any time the pitching coach is probably going to be a fan of that, of somebody adding a weapon.

Q. Was it originally your idea?

MERRILL KELLY: That's correct, yeah.

Q. Do you find that your experience in I guess the Korean series a few years ago and also the World Baseball Classic prepared you for this type of stage?

MERRILL KELLY: Yeah, I think so. Go back to the Korean series that you were talking about, obviously their fans are -- they cheer a little bit differently than we do. Each offensive player that comes up to the plate, they have their own fight song.

So in the Championship Series, it was about 30,000 people in Seoul, about 15,000 of it at a time would be singing in unison for whatever hitter was up, and they don't stop until the next hitter comes up.

Then going into the WBC game, yeah, I think that -- I haven't obviously heard this place on the field, but I would be very surprised if it trumped that Venezuela game down in Miami. When Trea hit that grand slam, I don' think I've ever experienced -- at least baseball-wise, I don't think I've ever experienced an atmosphere like that so I hope that this isn't louder than that.

Q. This journey that you guys have been on, given your unique journey through baseball, what has this felt like, and to be at a later stage in your career, to be able to have so many of these firsts, I wonder what that kind of has felt like the last few weeks?

MERRILL KELLY: It's been fun. I'm just trying to kind of soak it all in. Like you touched on, the journey, if you would you have asked me five, six, seven years ago if I would be sitting here talking to you guys right now, I don't know if I would have seen that light towards the end of that tunnel.

I'm enjoying it. I'm trying to not take anything for granted. It's been awesome being able to have friends and family come out to Milwaukee and L.A., and we have some here as well. To be able to share kind of like you said, the later part of my career, and being able to still have these firsts, it kind of gives me a little bit more of an energizing feeling than anything.

I just turned 35 the other day, but these games will keep you feeling a lot younger.

Q. I think it was the 2006 Cardinals that won 83 games in the regular season and went all the way to the World Series. I'm curious if you have drawn any inspiration from them or any other teams?

MERRILL KELLY: I don't think so. There hasn't really been any conversations that I've had at least. I think at the end of the day, we're confident in our abilities, and we trust the guys in that clubhouse.

Other than a month and a half or however long that stretch was after the All-Star break for us, it's actually been a really good year. If you take the losses and that deep slump that we were in there for a minute -- you know, you take that out and you look at the baseball that we've played the rest of the year, we've played good baseball all year.

Even though we only did have, what, 84 wins in the regular season, I think that's the beauty of the playoffs. You guys talked about teams over the years who just have gotten hot. There's that saying, oh, that team just got hot at the right time. I'm hoping that's us this year.

We've been playing pretty good baseball, and like I said, we're confident that we can continue doing what we're doing.

Q. Just something I was thinking about. You know, you missed four weeks in the middle of the season for the one issue, and then you really only have one postseason start so far, right? I'm wondering if you are feeling actually surprisingly strong for this late in the season?

MERRILL KELLY: Yeah, like I said, I think these type of games, even if you're not feeling your best, they definitely elevate that. Like I said, postseason adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

But the days off are obviously nice at this point of the year. Everybody has their aches and pains, but I feel good. Body feels good. Arm feels good going into this game, so I'm looking forward to it.

Q. I was going down that similar road. You had to deal with a layoff before you faced the Dodgers as well. Did that kind of help you face a layoff like you did this time for tomorrow?

MERRILL KELLY: Yeah, I think a little bit. Throughout the course of our career, throughout the course of the season, you know, there's stuff that comes up. Random off days. Lack of off days. You know, just maybe trying to get a guy an extra rest if you can.

I think there's stuff that's come up throughout my career -- Korea was every sixth day. We had every Monday off every week. So that was a little bit of a space-out.

Like I said, if you can't get ready and get excited for these games even though you've had however long -- two weeks off, if it's that long -- you know, I think you have something wrong with you if you can't get excited for these type of games.

Q. Every year you see kind of a pitcher on one of the World Series staffs just got hot throughout that postseason. How does a pitcher pile up those outings and get hot? Hitters get hot. How can a pitcher pile those up?

MERRILL KELLY: I don't know. I guess the easiest way would be to make sure you're executing your pitches, but there's times throughout the year that you are rolling, and there are times throughout the year that you can't figure it out.

Luckily, you just are -- or hopefully you hit that lightning in a bottle when it counts at this time of the year.

Q. I guess you played with three of the hitters you're going to face this week at the WBC for the USA. Anything that you're able to glean from being around those guys, or what are your impressions -- I guess it's Kyle, J.T., and Trea.

MERRILL KELLY: I definitely don't want to hang Trea a two-strike change-up, that's for sure. But, no, I feel like those games back then, everything is happening so fast. It's so early in the spring. I was really just trying to enjoy it more than do my scouting at that point. So I don't think there's really any advantage of it.

I'm looking forward to it. I had fun playing with those guys. I had fun being on their team. I just said hi to Schwarb on the team and asked how everybody was doing. Once I'm on the mound and once they're in the box, then it's competition as usual.