NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 20, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Chase Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Diamondbacks 6, Phillies 5

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Torey.

Q. How does this feel? I mean, two wins at home, first wins in the NLCS in 22 years for this team. Journey is still going. Job is not finished, but how does this moment feel?

TOREY LOVULLO: Better than you can imagine. You said it best. We're in the middle of a journey. It's a three-game series. We're not going to lose focus. We are going to keep that competitive edge and that competitive focus. I can guarantee you that.

We're going to enjoy this moment. I can't really describe how I feel because I haven't had a chance to interpret what just happened. It happened so quickly, and it was just a group of players banding together and getting the job done.

There's a lot of excitement in that clubhouse. We have a lot of 23-year-olds that go out and perform at a high level, and then when it's time for them to act like 23-year-olds, they do. And that's a lot of fun for me to watch. It's a great moment for this organization. I'm very proud of these guys.

I love this team. I love these guys.

Q. What did you say to your 23-year-old Alek Thomas before he had that moment?

TOREY LOVULLO: I wish I could tell you I gave him some unbelievable insight. I did call him back and just told him stay with me through the course of being on deck, because I might change my plan with pinch hitting you at that particular time. To be honest, I was going to maybe think about bunting Lawlar at that spot and then using Alek at a different point in time in the at-bat.

But I didn't tell him anything. I wish I was a better liar, I could tell you I was the reason why he hit the home run. Alek Thomas had an amazing moment, and he has a lot to be proud of.

Q. This stadium is not known for home field advantage, as you well know. What do you make of these last three games and what this has felt like for you and your guys?

TOREY LOVULLO: To the fans of Arizona, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. To just make sure you understand what it feels like when you walk into this stadium and you guys are here and alive at 47,000-plus. It is so loud. It is helping us get through those emotional highs and lows, and you are carrying us through those times.

So keep coming. We got one more here tomorrow, and we feel it. We don't necessarily have that during the year, but we want it, and we know that we've got to go out there and earn their trust back. And hopefully when we do things like this, the baseball world sees that the Arizona Diamondbacks are a damn good baseball team.

I'm tired of that narrative that we're lucky to be here. I want everybody to know that we don't feel like it, and hopefully they're starting to change their mind as well.

Q. Just getting back to Alek real quick. You pressed his button as a runner. You pressed his button as a batter, and he has come through both times. What's it like for a kid like that to stay locked in no matter what you are asking of him over the course of a series or the playoffs?

ROB THOMSON: A couple of really big asks for him, right? He didn't start the past couple of days because I was matching up and trying to maximize some situations offensively. But he stayed ready, and that to me speaks volumes about a young player and his readiness. When you don't take it personally when you're not playing and you wait for your opportunity and then seize that opportunity, that's what excites me most.

It's hard to stay locked in over the course of a nine inning game, but when you are coming off the bench, it's a little bit more challenging. I think he just stepped on the gas pedal at the right time and had a great moment for himself and this organization.

Q. Now that it's over, can you divulge how choreographed pitching was and how you maybe diverted from the original plan?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, it was very close to what we talked about. I clipped Saalfrank a little early. He was going to get a little bit of the bulk. He was going to go, I think, it was six or seven hitters, but I could tell that he was grinding and struggling.

I did not see that coming. He has been very effective, especially left on left. You've got two unbelievable left-handed hitters that you just have to contain, and I felt like that was going to give us the best opportunity.

Did not work out the way we wanted it to, but it was really close. We were probably two or three batters off.

Q. How grinding is it to go through eight pitchers in a game like this hoping that each one of them is going to be able to perform in the spot you put them in?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah. I mentioned that today. I felt like knowing when we announced that Joe Mantiply was going to be the starter, I think it was a red alert for the entire bullpen to know that I'm coming here tomorrow to get some work in.

I think a lot of people were assuming we'd go to Cecconi or Nelson to bridge it to the back end. But I was saving them for extra innings, and I knew that we had probably eight or nine innings of pitching. There's no ghost runner, so we were a little bit challenged.

Yeah, I think the bullpen did a great job, and I do need to acknowledge what they did today was tremendous. I think if we pick up a baseball where they -- I think they scored three runs. I think it's a different outcome as far as the total number of runs that they scored.

Q. Just one more, for the people that weren't around here all year, maybe explain the journey that Thomas actually went through this year, up and down from the Minor Leagues, trying to fix his swing, you know, trying to get his head together to hit in the Major Leagues. That culminating in this tonight, it's a pretty incredible story.

TOREY LOVULLO: It is. It is a game of adjustments, and he has made some quality adjustments. I think as you are learning about yourself, there are some hard lessons to be learned, and they're frustrating. And he took it in stride by going down and improving and getting the job done to come back up here to have good moments.

He's a tremendous talent, but those adjustments, you could see they're coming out the other end. I know sending him down earlier in the year was not easy for any of us, especially him, but he took it in stride and made good things happen in back of that.

Q. Looked like the timing couldn't having better with Marsh and then two more lefties coming up. But the decision after Schwarber walked to stick with him for Turner and Harper, can you take us through that a bit more?

TOREY LOVULLO: That was something I was thinking about as I was watching those next two at-bats with Turner and then Harper getting on base via the base on ball. You know, at that point in time, I was kind of kicking myself. I could have clipped it a little bit early, but then there would have been a huge workload placed on Thompson. And I thought about it. I definitely thought about it.

But I didn't think it was going to back up on Saalfrank like it did. I thought he was going to get one of those next two guys out, put us in a good position to kind of lighten the load on Thompson, but we'll live and learn.

I think he needs to come out and be aggressive with his stuff. I think his best pitches were the 3-0, 3-1 and the first 3-2 foul ball to Harper. He started to make pitches late in that outing. We have to get better at that.

Q. With the dynamic of Game 5 now after the bullpens were so heavily used for both sides in Game 4, the two aces coming back on the mound, I want to you ask about the opportunity Zac has after the way he pitched in Game 1. And then just how much of a grind this has been so far, but how much of a grind it looks like it's going to be again tomorrow.

TOREY LOVULLO: First of all, I couldn't think of a better starting pitcher to have tomorrow knowing that Zac is going to be walking in here and will give us as many pitches as he possibly can.

Then at the back of that, we're going to piece together the bullpen the best way we know how. I'll tell you right now, it's a three-game series, and everybody is going to be available tomorrow. Like I said, if you want it bad enough, you're never tired.

This team is extremely motivated. I know that guys are going to step on it, stand on it, find a way to get it done. I think they take things personal. They have a chip on their shoulder. I know their backup catcher made a statement about sprinting towards the pool or making a beeline to the pool. So I think they're wearing that a little bit and they're motivated by that externally, and they're motivated to be as good as they possibly can internally.