NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 20, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Chase Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Pregame 4 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Torey.

Q. Just coming off the win, can you just talk about momentum and how that shifted, if it has, or how you guys are feeling heading into this one?

TOREY LOVULLO: Momentum is a real thing. You're right back in it. The narrative has definitely changed. And I think our team is always ready to go out and scrap, fight, battle, do whatever they have to do to win a baseball game.

It was a typical type of outcome for us in a close game. We expect to be able to execute at a high level and stay in it and hopefully get a chance to win games like that. When you do, it's just a really good feeling. To watch those guys celebrate on the field and actively be a part of the excitement postgame, it was a great feeling, and this team is in a really good spot.

But it doesn't mean you can just throw it out there, throw the balls and bats out there and you're going to win a baseball game. You have to go out and execute again the same way.

Q. How important is it now to have today and tomorrow here at home as well?

TOREY LOVULLO: I think it's huge. First of all, you don't want to watch a team celebrate on your home field, right, as they advance. I think that's something that the group doesn't want to have to watch. But playing in front of these fans has been pretty interesting for us. We feel their love. We feel their support. It's very loud. We want to make them proud.

So playing at home is a fantastic opportunity for us to go out and execute and hopefully win some baseball games.

Q. When you set your lineup today, to what extent do you look ahead beyond the left-handed opener and say that maybe the lineup will reflect if you expect to see a right-hander after it?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah. You are talking about Sanchez, that type of thing? Right.

I'm sure they're doing the same thing, right. They know that Mantiply is a one-plus guy. He hasn't gone more than two in quite some time. We're projecting and seeing what Sanchez is doing right now. We're having those conversations. We're seeing what Sanchez has done leading up to today and having those conversations. But we were going to basically run the same lineup out there, plus or minus one guy.

It didn't make a huge difference, but we'll read and react to make some adjustments. We're a very right-handed hitting team no matter what. It doesn't matter if a righty or lefty is in there. If a right-handed pitcher is in there, we do tend to have a heavy right-handed lineup.

We talked about it. We'll probably have a couple of options at some point in the game to transition, and when we do it, when we trigger it, there will be a strategy to that for sure.

Q. Taijuan Walker, you had him here six years ago with. He was your Game 1 starter six years ago. What are your memories of having him on your team in your playoff roster back then?

TOREY LOVULLO: All-team gamer. Wants the baseball, never wants to come out of games. All the natural ingredients that you want from a starting pitcher.

He could just shoulder a huge workload, and he never backed down. I got to know him a little bit personally too, and I'm always rooting for him when he is in the other organization that we're not playing, right? Just so happens to be him throwing against us and getting some bulk innings today, we're going to be ready for him.

Q. Flipping it, Torey, how about your pitching? They have Walker, 15-game winner, to come in behind their guy. What are you looking at right now, and how are you stacking it up behind Mantiply?

TOREY LOVULLO: I don't want to give away any of the trade secrets, right, any of the industry secrets. It should be fairly obvious how we're going to attack them, and I know that they know it as well.

You know, remember what I said yesterday when I was asked a question. And it's not rocket science. We have one, two, three, who is going to attack those three hitters. Two, three, four, who is going to attack those hitters. Three, four, five, who is going to attack those hitters.

I know the bullpen pieces are energized right now walking in here. They know at some point in time their name is going to get pulled. They're going to be out there from the first inning on.

Typically we have a couple of guys that transition out there late. There is going to be no ground rule. That's what I'll say. It's an all-in situation, and everybody needs to be ready to go.

Q. So I know this is Major League Baseball in this century, in this part of this century. But going back as far as you do, what's your feeling about having a bullpen game in a key game of the playoffs rather than having a real starter to start the game? I mean, it's been happening now for the last three or four years in the postseason.

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah. I am very traditional at heart. In fourth grade I did a book report on Roy Campanella, and my next book report was written about the Gashouse Gang, right? Who is doing that in fourth grade? Nobody. ^ Check.

That ought to tell you where I came from. But one of my biggest fears is getting stuck in 2005 and not evolving as a manager and getting run over by this game.

I think everybody in every industry that they're in has that same feel. If you are going to evolve and stay ahead of the curve, you're going to be successful. So I know where I came from. I know my roots in this game, and I appreciated the Gibson-Drysdale games for sure. Loved them. Loved them. But this is a new generation of baseball where things are broken down to the inning, to the batter, to the out, to the pitch on a level that we've never seen before.

I'm sure that if Bob Gibson had that data today and some managers had that data and information today that we have, that they would have evolved as well.

I don't want to take anything away from that generation. I am so grateful that these guys are throwing 250-plus every year, but it's just not how baseball is today. For whatever reason, it's not, and I think I need to make that adjustment.

Q. You wouldn't have done what you did yesterday with Gibson because he would have kicked you off the bat.

TOREY LOVULLO: Somebody said or I saw it on -- who told me that they saw that if I came out there to get somebody, they would have told me to go away? I can't remember who it was.

Q. Might have done it (off microphone).

TOREY LOVULLO: No. Somebody that I was sharing the dugout with at some point in time. Maybe with the Red Sox. Anyway, I can't remember.

I had 150 text messages last night. I haven't got through them all, but I tend to go to the ones that have some videos because I get entertained by those. Yeah, whoever it was. It might have been, like, Doyle Alexander would have said get off -- he did tell me that. Get off this mound and don't ever come back.

Q. That sounds like him.

TOREY LOVULLO: He scared me. And I never made a mound visit as a player after that the rest of my career, ever. One time I went to Gene Nelson. I'm, like, Geno, the manager sent me out here to slow this down. And he's, like, yeah, I saw that. It's okay. Come on out here. What do you want to talk about?

I just need to let the bullpen get hot and get ready. He is going to come out here and take you out in another minute, sorry about that. Did it one time. Gene Nelson.

Q. I could sense sort of the existential dread that you had last night about this very subject, and we saw this year in Major League Baseball the league implement measures to change the game. The pitch clock is an obvious one. There are potential measures to incentivize starting pitchers staying in the game that the league could promote. Is that the sort of thing you as a manager would like to see happen to help bring starting pitching back and force clubs to do that? Because without being forced, there will be no change, and this will be the new normal.

TOREY LOVULLO: I think Major League Baseball has done an unbelievable job of making adjustments. Once again, you go back 25, 30 years ago, you would have never dreamed that there would be a pitch clock or instant replay. But it is changing the game in a very positive way.

So I think whatever they decide to do, we will follow those rules, and I don't want to ever circumvent the process that they follow, nor be disrespectful to what the current process is. But I feel like if there's a certain batter minimum, and you are going to promote good starting pitching and help young starting pitchers go out there and expect to get to a certain point in the game, I would certainly be supportive of that, yes, absolutely.

Q. Just curious, do you remember the first bullpen game that you watched or heard about, and what was your reaction at the time?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, it was in Tampa. It was the righty reliever from the Giants.

Q. Romeo?

TOREY LOVULLO: Romeo. I was, like, what are you doing, Cashy? This is crazy. I read his comments after, and I thought that's actually a pretty good idea. He had his best righty option attack their three top hitters, and now you are talking about one less at-bat that might not be a great matchup for pitcher A and B.

But I dug into it and paid attention to it and was curious about it. We try to do it here. But when the National League had the pitcher hitting, it became a little bit of a challenge. But since it's changed, I feel like once again, I don't want to get stuck in 2015 and get run over. We have to stay on top of this.

Q. Is the biggest challenge with where you might have to use five, six, seven, eight pitchers, just the fact that the more you use, the higher the odds that one of them can't find their release point and just it's all over the place?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, you know, you always worry about that when you are starting to shuffle things a little bit. But I know that they've been working hard to make sure that something bad doesn't happen where they find out where that ball is going and how to make pitches.

I think there's a different mindset today. They know it's a bullpen day, and they know I better be spot on and my manager and my teammates are going to count on me to collect three outs and throw the minimum amount of pitches. We have another game tomorrow. We have to be mindful of that, so I don't want to absolutely tire out the bullpen.

I firmly believe if you want it bad enough, you are never too tired, and I think that's where we're at right now overall. I don't necessarily worry about fatigue, but it is in the back of my mind if a guy can't go out there and execute because he just doesn't have the physical strength to put that arm in the same spot every single time. Everybody is strong, and we should be okay today.

Q. Does it make it a little bit easier to go through a bullpen game today knowing you have Zac tomorrow?

TOREY LOVULLO: Of course, of course. Zac and Merrill on the back side of that, those guys are horses, and they're good for 18 to 21 outs just about every time they go out there. So, yeah, it is giving me an opportunity to be extremely flexible and have that all-in mentality today.

Q. For Zac, what does he need to do tomorrow to be more effective than we saw in Game 1?

TOREY LOVULLO: I watched some of the highlights. I think he just needs to throw his fastball where he wants to. There were a couple of misses. A yank to Schwarber. Something that leaked back over the plate to Harper. Who knows? They might have hit those pitches anyway. I don't know.

But when he is spot on with his fastball, that sets up that secondary stuff. It's mostly fastball command. That's usually the issue with him when he gets hit around a little bit.

Q. With Zac is there a constant back-and-forth talking to him just how he feels and the sense he has thrown so many more innings than his career high?

TOREY LOVULLO: You talking about Zac Gallen?

Q. Yeah.

TOREY LOVULLO: He is up over 200 innings. He has absorbed a lot for us this year. And when I was asked the other day about if we would think about pushing him up, that's what I had in mind. It just would not be fair to him, his body, his mind, and his spirit to have to go in there on short rest because he's already worked a long time and worked very hard for us.

He has an awesome four-day routine that allows him to stay sharp. He is a smaller guy. I don't think there's a ton of extra energy that's burned. It's a very efficient delivery, and it allows him to go out there every fifth day. Knock on wood, I have never seen him banged up or hurt to the point where he has missed a number of starts.

I know there have been missed starts last year or the year before, but nothing that put him in a bad situation. I need to avoid that. But we know the number of innings that he has thrown, and we have to be a little bit cautious with him moving forward. So we'll keep him on every fifth day when possible.

Q. It seems like just about every decision you've made in this postseason has worked, or at least the vast majority of them. How do you evaluate your own job as manager and how you've done so far?

TOREY LOVULLO: First of all, it's all about the players for me. And when they're called upon and they go out there and execute and do their job, they're the ones that deserve all the credit.

So I just feel like knowing your players and putting them in the best situation to be successful is one of the key components to what I do every single day.

And I think Nick asked me this question in Philly. I have a strategy to everything that I do, and it's talked about with minimal stimulus right now, and it's like how am I going to play this game of chess? That's how my mind works.

I am really genuinely excited about today's maneuverability once the game starts. I can't wait to get it going to see how those pieces come out.

So that strategy is something that I believe in, and when it works, you can look like you're pushing the right buttons, right? But when it doesn't work, you got those basement keyboard pounders that are just going to annihilate you. That's the nature of the beast.

But I can assure everybody that's watching and listening to what I'm saying right now, there's a strategy to it, and there's a reason for everything that I do on a daily basis when it comes to a baseball game.