NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 18, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Chase Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Just bouncing back coming home, were you able to flush this thing on the plane ride across the country?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah. We need to. Yesterday was a really frustrating outcome. We didn't perform up to our capabilities, didn't meet our expectations, so we've got to find a way to get this thing turned around.

You know, our mindset is one game, one win -- one well-played game could lead to one win, and we're right back in the series. It's a long journey. We're taking that mindset, and we have to just play our best game tomorrow and see where that takes us.

So, yeah, I think you get on an airplane, you fly through the middle of the night, and it's something you've got to flush because it's coming. It's happening quick. The Phillies are coming to town tomorrow to play their best game as well.

Q. You knew that the Phillies were good before the series. Are they doing anything that surprises you? Are they doing anything that stopped the running game with the slide steps or anything like that?

TOREY LOVULLO: First of all, they're a hot team. We knew they're a hot team. They're swinging the bat well. They're built to slug. A lot of their runs come via the slug, via the home run. We knew all that. We had a good pitching plan. We still have a good pitching plan. It's just about executing, hitting the right spots with the right pitches.

We were very well aware of the improvements they made to control the running game. Yeah, I've been answering a lot of questions about what Corbin Caroll has been doing over there at first base and getting on base for the first two games as the first batter and not really moving.

But, yeah, there's a reason why we're not. And we will. We have our targets. We have our situations, and we're not going to press things and run into outs. That's the most important thing. We're going to do it at the right time and do it at the clip we were doing it at the successful rate we were doing it during the season.

So the Phillies are a good team. They're a veteran team. They've made adjustments throughout the course of the year. They're well-coached, and that's really the name of the game. They've gotten better through the course of the year.

Q. Fans have asked what does the manager say when the mental mistakes happen in Game 2, the dropped ball, the number of outs? What do you say to those players? Is there anything to say? They know.

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I think they know. I hammer the coaches probably. I talk to them about what needs to be done, and they bring that message to the players. In certain cases when you drop a pop-up, it's well-known. I think everybody -- the minute that ball hits, they understand their responsibility.

I'll talk individually to players, and if I feel like there's a need to get each domain together, whether it's the pitchers, the catchers, infielders, outfielders, or the position players as an offensive group, I will. I do that often, but I'll address that with the coaches who will then let it trickle down to the players.

Q. You guys had different points during the regular season where you had to come back in the standings to get back in the playoff race. How much can those experiences, you think, can you draw on going into these games?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, first of all, we have -- we've been playing meaningful baseball games probably for the past 45 days, so we're battle-tested from an emotional standpoint. We know that one quick turn, one quick moment can turn the tides in anything.

Now, that's a hopeful statement, right? I don't want to say, oh, you know, A, B, and C need to happen, and we want it to happen. It's supposed to happen. No, nothing is supposed to happen. You have to make it happen.

So that's our mindset. We are a very resilient, adaptable team. We give an incredible effort for nine innings, and we feel like that's a really good recipe for us to come out and be focused enough and maintain our competitive focus to go out and execute the way we need to.

So this team has been tested. I know that I gave a long-winded answer to your question. The team has been tested. They understand what it takes to go out and get things to get pushed in the right direction because they've been doing it for a long time.

Q. What do you got going for Game 4 pitching-wise?

TOREY LOVULLO: We have to get through Game 3. And we're talking about that right now. It's one of the conversations I left when I came in here.

We're going to try to win the baseball game tomorrow, get through the game the way we know how, the way we can, the way we expect, and then we'll have some open discussions about where to go in Game 4. I'll get that to you guys as soon as possible.

Q. I mean, you have a Game 4, regardless of whether you win or lose tomorrow. What are the options?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, the options are do we go with a right-handed length starter? Do we start matching up early from the first batter on? That will depend how we get through tomorrow's game?

Q. With Pfaadt are you still intent on the 40 to 50 pitch limit that you've been using considering the circumstances?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah. I think it's been working really well, and I'll follow the same guidelines. I know I've been saying 18, plus or minus 4. That's where I'll start with Brandon.

Q. A question kind of like out of the moon here for you, but what happened the last weekend of the season when you knew the possibility that you could be going here, that you released Zach Davies? What happened there? What was wrong that you did that at that point?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I think that was mostly performance-based. We felt like we had some good arms in back of that. We felt like if we got to this point, that we have three and a half starters, one of which included Brandon Pfaadt. The other half would be matching up. We wouldn't need a fifth starter.

But I just feel like the decision was made there because of the performance. It wasn't that we were projecting that there was going to be a need for him down the road.

Q. It seems like it's going to be all hands on deck from the bullpen the next two games. Who are some players that are going to need to step up in that role?

TOREY LOVULLO: Every one of them. That's my mindset. Every one of us need to be better, right? You start from me on down. That's where we need to go to get this thing right.

You know, the order of guys, I don't want to give you the order of guys, but everybody knows what their roles are. They know where they've got to be. They know who is on the very back end and what their responsibilities are.

So everybody needs to be as good as they can possibly be. I want everybody to do their job the best way they know how, be great at it, and not worry about the guy next to them. That's kind of one of our thoughts throughout the course of the season.

Q. Curious what your keys and concerns are for Pfaadt going tomorrow given the propensity that the Phillies have for slugging him out of the yard?

TOREY LOVULLO: Just execution, making sure the pitches are finding the right spot, the right holes. You know, we have a very sophisticated, not overly complex pitching plan that's driven by a very, very good run prevention team, which includes Brandon's input.

So it's about going out and landing pitches and making sure he doesn't place balls in the nitro zones. Look, I can't say it enough. The Phillies are a really good baseball team, and they're clicking on all cylinders. They've been playing their best baseball, and it's just overlapping with us playing our not best baseball. So we've got to be better.

Q. I know you need to get through Game 3, obviously, but is Gallen an option on short rest for Game 4, and if so, why? Why not?

TOREY LOVULLO: He is not. He threw a number of pitches, and we had that discussion in the dugout, after a couple of early runs, would we clip him early?

Zac is such a process-oriented guy, I wouldn't do him that disservice. I just want to stay with what's been working really, really well for him.

He would do it. I know he would do it if we asked him to, but we're going to need somebody for Game 5 and 6 if we get to that point.

A. Any changes to the lineup that you are considering.

TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I know with Suarez throwing, yeah, there's going to be a little bit different look to our lineup for sure.

Q. Sorry if you addressed this already, but what message did you have to the guys after last night and maybe on the team plane or today? I don't know when you have gotten to sit down with them. Do you call a big meeting after a performance like that, or does that risk kind of tightening them up even more?

TOREY LOVULLO: No, I think -- I might be meetinged-out with these guys. We're at the most critical point of the season. They know what they've got to do to get to where they've got to get.

I did answer a little bit of that question. I'll probably have more of a direct line of communication with the coaches and make sure that we get tight because some of the things I've been watching are absolutely unacceptable.

Q. How do you compare kind of what -- where you are in this series to where you were in late July, early August when it kind of seemed like you were running out of runway to kind of get things back on track?

TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I feel like we've learned from that experience. We're battle-tested in that area, and we know that one good moment and one good inning, one good pitch, one good at-bat can turn this quickly.

It's a seven-game series, and we don't have any time to feel sorry for ourselves or be curious about anything. We know what's coming tomorrow. We know what the ground rules are, and I believe in our group that they're going to find a way to get it done.

Q. Christian, Alek, and Gabi were announced as Gold Glove finalists within the hour. What can you say about that and what this means for them, given what they've had to overcome throughout the organization?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah. You know, we're very proud of those guys because a lot of hard work goes into all those good moments happening. You know, those are the disciplines of sports.

What are you doing when nobody is watching? How are you focusing and setting down inside of your own space to get in the right mindset, to practice the right way, to have the belief that you are going to get the job done on a high level and make plays it? We believe in playing on both sides of the ball here.

That's what was so frustrating about us dropping a pop-up yesterday. We didn't drop it. We didn't communicate on the pop-up.

Those are the things that we do very well, and we're very proud of. Specifically, individually with each guy, Christian Walker here potentially winning a second Gold Glove in a row. We have some unbelievable first basemen that he is competing with, and the growth and development that he has shown over the course of time since I've been here and he's been here, have been amazing. That is really a lot of hard work, and he's absolutely spoiled us over there.

Gabi, you know, as we unraveled Gabi and peeled back some of his talents, we quickly discovered that he was a run stopper -- I'm sorry, a stolen base stopper. You couldn't advance 90 feet on him. Once again, I go back into the weight room and watched his process start early in the day to go out and prepare himself for a game, so it's preparation, his ability to get better has just been improving.

What can you say about Alek, right? He covers it from line to line, has made some unbelievable five-star catches this year. We love that. We have a couple of guys right at the middle of our diamond between Gabi, our middle infielders, and Alek that are extremely strong and play fast.

So we're honored by it. It speaks volumes about what is important to us in this organization, and I feel like we have more potential Gold Glovers in the future that are coming as well.

Q. For Pfaadt with the roller coaster of a season that he's had, what has been key for him to earn your trust to pitch in the playoffs?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I feel like with each time that he's come up, he's made improvements piece by piece and send-out by send-out. And to me that is somebody just taking it on the chin and understanding why he's going down and he came back a better version of himself.

So I just believed in the process that he was following and his ability to take that information, utilize it -- trust it, utilize it, and then go out and get better.

So in the playoffs I think the first outing in Milwaukee, it was not great, but his next outing here at home against the Dodgers was fantastic. So I just know there's going to be good and bad moments for young pitchers. But it's the presence on the mound, it's the ability to slow things down and make pitches that stands out to me more than anything about Brandon.

Q. So going back to all you're saying about how you guys have to be better, a lot of this is just the Phillies at this point. I mean, they spend a lot more money than you guys. Their top four players are making basically over a billion in contracts, and they're all performing. Their top pitchers out-pitched your pitchers. You can say all you want that you have to do better, and then you're playing in an environment -- I know you said we could be playing on the moon yesterday, but it's a pretty hostile environment. You add all of it together, and maybe you're short-changing your team a little bit against what the Phillies did against you?

TOREY LOVULLO: I'm an eternal optimist, and I have to be. I believe in our team and that we can compete against anybody in any circumstances. I did make that comment that we could be playing on the moon, and I don't care. We have to go do what we do best.

I respect the Philadelphia Phillies immensely. From Dave Dombrowski down through the end of their lineup, which includes Rob Thomson and some of the great players that you are talking about. But they can be beat, and we have to do our job just a little bit better.

We're one of the final four teams standing, and we didn't get lucky by being here. We're a good baseball team, and I think the world knows that.

You're right, we got clipped. We got hit by a couple of haymakers by some very good Philadelphia Phillies players, and they should do that, right, because they are good players. But I believe enough in our players to be able to take those blows, come out, and play a really good Game 3 and get us right back in this series, and I think the team is talking about that exact same thing as well. Our team.