NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 17, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Citizens Bank Park

Arizona Diamondbacks

Pregame 2 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Manager Torey Lovullo.

Q. Torey, if last night's game had gotten away from you, would you probably have had more damage control last night or today, or did that sort of second half of the game kind of really give you some confidence?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I think you're always looking to build momentum and have push moments. You know, we're down 5-0, and this team just competes. That's all they do.

To be honest with you, I wasn't surprised we made it a game. With all due respect to the Phillies, I feel like they did what they did. They got the lead, but we just kept charging.

I think that's one of the great characteristics that we have. It gave us a little push for today. I think losing 5-3 is still -- it still stinks no matter what, but we didn't shut down. I was very proud of that, but that's one of the main features of this ball club.

Q. I know you want to win every game, and I know that's your goal obviously, but is there any must-win sense about this game tonight of getting a split here in Philly before you head back?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I think it's a pretty important game. I felt the same way about yesterday's game. Yeah, you have a couple of thoughts in mind as you go into a series. Split, get home, see what you can do, create a little bit of distance between you and your opponent.

But this is the final four. These are good teams. There's no shutdown. There's no home field advantage, in our opinion, and I'm sure in their opinion. No matter where we play or where they play, they feel like they can go out the way we do, that we win a baseball game.

But there is importance to this game. I think if we can come into their building and split -- and that's all we can do right now, we can't go backwards -- I think it would give us a really good push start for the next three at home.

Q. Quick follow-up. I know you prepped for the crowd, but was it more than you expected or greater than you expected or was it about what you thought?

TOREY LOVULLO: It was about what we expected. To be honest with you, the final game against the Dodgers at Chase Field when it was rocking with 50,000 strong, I was proud of our fans, and it was about the same. It was about the same intensity, same volume.

These fans here are just very smart and very engaged. It's the timing of their engagement. It's like as soon as the ball has gotten through or as soon as a strike is caught, they're just on it, and it's just very quick engagement.

But I would say the overall sound is something very similar to what we heard at home that last game against the Dodgers.

Q. Yesterday when Corbin had that lead-off single, it seemed like an opportunity where at some points in the season you would have ran him and tried to scratch across that first inning run. I know Wheeler is really good against the run game, but what went into the decision to not run him there?

TOREY LOVULLO: It's something we all talked about, Dave and I talked about, prior to the game. We didn't want to run into an early out. We're going to take the sure bet. Once we felt very comfortable and got in sequence with Wheeler, that we were going to take some chances.

But clearly, I don't think Corbin was feeling 100% comfortable, and Wheeler did a good job. He was mixing up his looks. Set-go, set-set-go, go. Whatever it was, he did a really nice job of getting the ball to his catcher, which was preventing us from getting a really good consistent look at him.

Yeah, it was 18 -- 16, 18 pitches into the game that we had a chance to steal a base and advance to second base, but I just felt like if we -- if everything was triggered and we were ready to go, nothing is going to stop us. But they did a good job of shutting us down.

Q. Throughout the postseason you haven't run quite as much as you did in the regular season. I know some personnel things play into that, right, not having Josh Rojas. Has that been a concerted effort to be a little more cautious during the postseason and maybe at points during the regular season?

TOREY LOVULLO: Outs are outs, and there's 27 of them, and they're precious. That's the first thing I talk about when we start going over our stolen base dynamics.

When you can steal a base, let's get up and go, we're not going to stop. But if there's any doubt, just pay attention to the scoreboard and the situation. And if it's a big out, let's just use a little more caution.

The postseason, of course, everything is amplified. It's a seven-game series for the NLCS, and every out is critical, but we are a very risk-friendly team when it comes to taking chances. We will take the right chances at the right times. We just haven't had the great opportunities, because teams are counter-punching us right now. We have to be careful.

Q. With Merrill Kelly, how have you seen his approach to left-handed hitters evolve over time?

TOREY LOVULLO: I think the changeup is in play for him. I think the cut, fastball, on both sides of the plate is in play for him, and he has developed a lot of confidence in those two pitches.

When you can crowd a left-handed hitter and then work soft away and also the top bar, I think you're going to add your effectiveness. It's very simple, right. If you are going to focus in a spot left and away on a lefty or righty, you're probably going to make a mistake where the ball is going to drift over the plate.

I know that Merrill has done a nice job of trying to command the baseball, work both edges of the plate soft and hard, and he has a lot of confidence in his changeup.

Q. Somewhat unrelated, Torey, but I know you have utilized pickup basketball as a way to maintain a lot of chemistry and joy on your coaching staff. What have been your favorite games of the year? Do you have a scouting report on anybody on the staff that's really talented?

TOREY LOVULLO: Did you put him up to this, Steve? I'm sure you did, didn't you? I love it.

Let's see. We actually played this morning over at the Palestra, and the Palestra is probably my favorite venue of all of them that we play in. We play in every city that we play baseball games in. If it's a three-game road trip, we play in three cities. But there's something special about the Palestra. There's so much history there. I spent time walking around, learning about the building. It's just a lot of fun.

Look, we get away from the grind. It's a very tough time of the year right now where we're all in on one thing, and that's to win a baseball game. When you can step away with your staff and kind of refresh your mind and your spirit, I think it's very healthy. I talk to other players about balance, and I believe in that.

Yeah, we got up early this morning and went out and played some hoops and had some fun. Easily the best player is Ryan DiPanfilo, our head athletic trainer. He says he wasn't a basketball player in college, but I know he was. He played Division III basketball at Springfield College. He can light it up. He has half court range. It's a lot of fun.

The beauty of it is we think we're moving way faster than we actually are, and when we see video of ourselves, I cannot believe how slow and old we look. We laugh about it, but it gets very serious. We're all very competitive, and it's a great competitive outlook for me for sure.

Q. Do you have a starter for Game 3?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, Brandon Pfaadt will start Game 3 tomorrow -- I'm sorry Game 3 on --

Q. Whatever day it is.

TOREY LOVULLO: Whatever day it is today. I don't know. I'm so lost.

Q. Us too. What's the thinking with what you have seen from Pfaadt? What do you like?

TOREY LOVULLO: I like so much about his last outing. It was 47 pitches -- 42 pitches, threw four and one-third. Commanding the baseball. He is a little bit like Merrill. He can walk the baseball around the zone with different shape, speeds, and spin rate.

I feel like being able to do that against a very rugged Philly lineup where you can't be predictable in one spot with one pitch because they will hurt you, I think Brandon being able to change speeds and work the ball around will be very good for us.

Q. I know your bullpen was really good once again yesterday. Just curious what went into the decision to not use Thompson or Ginkel or Sewald. Would that have changed if it was a one-run game late or how do you view that at this point?

TOREY LOVULLO: We had Ginkel warming up in a couple of different scenarios. If it got within one run, we were going to use Ginkel. I have different parts of the lineup that I have targeted for certain guys in our bullpen. I didn't feel like it reached that point where Thompson was going to get into the game.

I wanted to get a look at some of our other guys who I feel like are throwing the baseball well and could push it to the next level if we got there. We just didn't quite get there.

The way I'm looking at it is we're going to have four games in five days or six days, whatever it will turn out to be. I need to preserve the back end guys. Thompson, Saalfrank, Ginkel, and Sewald. I expect them to get a lot of work here in the next several days. If they do get work, that's a good thing because that means we're ahead.

Q. What has been sort of your guys' experience with Nola and what you have seen from him against you guys?

TOREY LOVULLO: A little bit of what I'm talking about with a couple of our guys in Pfaadt and Merrill. Command of several pitches. Does a good job of controlling the run game and is just engaged one through nine. He doesn't back down, and he pitches very well to a game plan.

We've got our work cut out for us today. They have a very strong one-two. We knew that coming in, and we just have to capitalize on mistakes hopefully that he'll be making in the zone. If he does, our offense has to be ready to pounce on every mistake that he throws. He doesn't throw a lot of them.

Q. A quick follow-up to the basketball question. What's the coolest venue you have played in in your opinion?

TOREY LOVULLO: I would say Phog Allen in University of Kansas. It was the Midnight Madness. They were waiting for midnight that night, and we were playing the day before, so they were already lining up in their tents or whatever, and here we pulled in in our bus, and we step onto that venue.

That's where basketball for me was invented, right, with Naismith. That was pretty impressive. I felt a big basketball presence there. That was pretty cool.