NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 16, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Citizens Bank Park

Arizona Diamondbacks

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Phillies 5, Diamondbacks 3

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Torey Lovullo.

Q. Torey, what did you see from Zac tonight?

TOREY LOVULLO: I think they just ambushed him. I think they came out ready to jump on his fastball. There's no mystery that Zac fills up the zone. He has an aggressive fastball and aggressive mindset. They just counter-punched him.

I don't think he was trying to throw the pitches where they landed. I haven't had a chance to look at them, but I know when Zac gets squared up, it's usually a couple-inch mistake. He is that good at hitting lines when he is trying to throw pitches in certain spots. I think they just ambushed a couple of mistakes.

They really got into a rhythm. I felt like there were points in time that he was making pitches, and it was going to start to look like a Zac Gallen outing, but it never really happened.

It was just a big grind for him the whole day.

Q. Schwarber and Castellanos in particular are really good fastball hitters. You know, better than other groups of pitches. What went into the decision to attack those guys in that first time through the order with fastballs?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, it's part of the game plan. We definitely were not trying to throw the fastballs where they were hit. Those were just mistakes, misfired pitches. Yeah, we're well aware of the guys that can handle certain pitches in certain spots. That's what I'm saying. I haven't had a chance to look at them.

You get some extension and you're starting to see somebody drive baseballs like that off of Zac, they're definitely misfired fastballs. I know the one to Harper we were trying to go in on him. I think that enabled him to get ready for the next at-bat where we threw a cutter in off. He was catching on to the game plan really quick.

So there were a couple of misfires for sure.

Q. What did you feel like played into Wheeler's success there in the first five innings?

TOREY LOVULLO: Man, his stuff, he came out crisp, and he came out hot, and he had everything moving in a really positive direction.

I just felt like we were going to weather the storm. We were going to find ourselves in this ball game at some point. The deficit just became too large at 5. They've got a very strong bull pen. We know that. But I think it was power stuff. It was just like get up and go, here it comes. Whether it was two or four-seam, it was just really, really aggressive stuff with his fastball. Really didn't get to much secondary stuff from what I remember. He beat us with his best pitch.

Q. You were okay with the quality of at-bats.

TOREY LOVULLO: At times I was. I felt like we hit a couple of balls hard. He had it going on today.

We got to find a way to get into that a little bit. I think good teams can beat really good pitching on a day where a starting pitcher in postseason feels it, but he just had it going today.

Q. You guys got back in this one later. Do you think that can have some carry-over for tomorrow?

TOREY LOVULLO: For sure. I felt like this dugout was engaged. We were just waiting for that one little push, and Gerry had that big two-run home run for us and got us right back in it.

Yeah, tomorrow is another day. We got to sleep on it and understand what we did right, what we did wrong, and be ready to play another baseball game tomorrow. We will be.

Q. Some of your biggest bats had the quietest days, and even with Gallen's struggles, it never really got away. You were kind of right there.

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah.

Q. Does that speak to the reality that maybe you guys are not satisfied to be here? What does it say about the fact that you guys didn't give up and that you kept pushing?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, well, that's one of the great qualities of this ball club. We compete. We compete all the time.

You're right. There's a portion of our lineup that was fairly silent that is very capable of carrying this ball club. With Zac giving up five runs and that part of the lineup, you know, possibly not contributing the way they normally have or can, it tells me a lot about this team that we're balanced, and we can be dangerous.

I think overall you didn't see the best Arizona Diamondback team today. We need to regroup the troops and come out tomorrow and play our best game.

Q. You've spoken quite a bit all postseason about stopping momentum, stopping the run scoring.

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah.

Q. I realize with Zac on the mound, it's not quite the same thing as maybe some of the other starters, but do you feel like maybe there was a missed opportunity to continue with that approach?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, potentially. I have to sleep on that one, think about it a little bit more, get a clear head.

Yeah, I mean, it was two points in the first inning, and then a series of one-run innings. I don't think there was a huge push of that type of momentum that I felt like we needed to stop. I just needed Zac to get through five. That was my mindset, and we could balance it out and find a way to play catch-up.

The fifth run was a big run. There was no doubt about it. I feel like that was something that was a little bit too hard for us to come back from, but we battled, and we made it a good game, but point well taken.

I haven't thought about it yet, but I'll take a look at it through the night.

Q. What was your thinking there with the decision to hit for Longoria and kind of the Alvarado-Dominguez...

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, there's two schools of thought. You've got a pitcher that's 18 to 25 pitches into his outing, and you can continue having that guy pitch in Seranthony Dominguez. I just felt like there was other favorable matchups. I was going to go to Pavin and force them to go to Alvarado. I felt like they were going to push Alvarado into the next inning. Maybe he would lose a little bit of momentum after getting out of the big jam and have a little bit of a natural letdown, but he didn't. He went out there and executed.

I was just playing some different thoughts. It didn't work out. I would love to see what happened with the other choice, but we'll never know. It's the beauty of the game.

Q. Did you see anything different from Zac in his response to getting jumped on early today compared to the start in Milwaukee?

TOREY LOVULLO: They kind of overlapped. I thought when he gave up two runs early that he was going to find some rhythm. That's what I kept looking for.

At times I was seeing that, but I think they overlapped a little bit, and I know what Zac is capable of doing.

Q. Were you happy with how he pitched from maybe the second inning on?

TOREY LOVULLO: No. I think he can be better for sure, and I think Zac knows that for sure, and he will be better the next time.