MLB WORLD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS RANGERS

October 29, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Chase Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. With Christian, he made such an impact last night on defense and has for the last several years. How have you seen him improve as a defender from when he first came to this organization to now?

TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I mean, his glove is made of gold, right? And I think he's going to be strongly considered for another one this year. But that came with a price.

There's a lot of hard work and a lot of blood, sweat and tears and some freckles that he's left on that field to prep for those moments.

I was amazed at the play he made yesterday. Everybody knows what it's like you go to field the ball -- and we all can go back to that time when it takes a ricochet and goes in a totally different.

That was athletic. He was prepared for the unknown. He didn't take anything for granted and he made a great bare-handed play. Those are the little things that he just instinctually is able to do.

But he cycled through through some tough times, some very lean times and did it because of the work.

Tony Perezchica deserves a lot of credit, but Christian deserves mostly all the credit for the time that spent out there with RJ and Gonzo on the field that nobody knows about. He's a complete baseball player.

Q. I know you've said before that, as a manager, you would do whatever it took for this team to win games, whether it's a three-run homer or stealing bases or anything like that. But for you personally, being an infielder in your playing days and being that defensive/speed, is this kind of team fun specifically because it seems like the team you would have liked to play for?

TOREY LOVULLO: Very much so. I work hard to see the game through a pitcher's eyes or catcher's eyes, or hitter, which I've done. But I see the game through an infielder's eyes.

I still watch it that way. I still evaluate it, rate it through an infielder's lens.

And I just know that when teams were fast and were unpredictable and were striking from a lot of different angles, it made it tough for me to go out and play a very relaxed game on defense.

Now, relaxed in a way that your mind is empty and you're just reacting and just playing the game the way you want to. I know that I would feel the pressure the minute I stepped on the field, and I felt like that was an advantage to the offensive team.

So when we were putting together some thoughts about what type of team we wanted to be, the little things were going to matter. And that's always been important for me from the first day I arrived here as the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And it's just amplified since we've become very athletic. We can outpoint you, we can outjab you, we can run a marathon with you, and we can also hit some home runs at the right time to beat you that way. We're very dynamic. And that's what pleases me the most.

Q. Is the plan to have the roof opened or closed tomorrow? And do you have a preference outside of crowd noise in terms of the way your team plays and having it opened or closed?

TOREY LOVULLO: I have no preference. I said it when we were in Philadelphia, I don't care if we're playing on the moon, we've got to go out and do the things the right way, play at a very high level. And we prepare, obviously not to play on the moon, but we prepare for any type of circumstance to be able to compete.

I'm almost certain -- and I'm not sure -- but I think Major League Baseball makes the decision on the roof being opened or closed. It is not in the Arizona Diamondbacks' or any type of stadium ops' hands; Major League Baseball does a great job taking care of all those.

I don't know what the plan is for tomorrow. I should. It's probably out there, but I slept late this morning and didn't get too engaged for what's going on for tomorrow yet.

Q. You guys had Game 3 against the Phillies that was kind of a do-or-die type of game with a bullpen game behind it. I'm curious if your plans are any different going into this Game 3 with a bullpen game beyond that. Just preliminary thoughts how you're going to handle your staff the next couple of days?

TOREY LOVULLO: The same way we have been. Just read and react. Brandon Pfaadt has been throwing the ball really well. If it calls for him to go a little bit deeper, I'll make that decision.

But if we need to maneuver to the bullpen I'm going to take care of Game 3 during Game 3. I can't worry about what some of the contingencies will be beyond that.

At times, I do have to have an open mind for Game 4. But we're going to do our absolute best to go out there, do our job in Game 3. Whatever that means, I'll read and react.

And Brandon Pfaadt has been improving, I've been saying 18, plus or minus four, maybe I'll go a little bit further. But I'll have those discussions in the next couple of hours.

Q. I think the way you put it was that Christian "left a lot of freckles" out on the infield. I wonder what you learned from him -- and maybe that was an example of it -- when he got the opportunity to be your everyday guy, especially when he was going to be compared to the guy you traded to clear that spot?

TOREY LOVULLO: He was in a really tough spot. And I liked -- you gave me a chance to go all the way back because I'll establish a timeline what it meant to this organization when he finally got his opportunity.

He was playing in back of perhaps one of the best first basemen that the Diamondbacks had seen up to that time in Paul Goldschmidt. And was he ever going to get that opportunity? He was at Triple-A just waiting and biding his time.

But he didn't waste his time; he got better. And we even tried to put him in left field so we could get his bat into the lineup when he was ready to emerge as an everyday Big Leaguer.

Well, Goldy gets moved. We transitioned Jake Lamb over to first base -- which was a fairly seamless transition in our mind, but Jake got hurt. And we were up against it a little bit.

We had the idea that Christian was going to get all the lefties and Jake was going to get all the righties. And we liked that platoon style of play. And then once Christian got his opportunity, he exploded and took off.

And that's to me what stands out more than anything else because I asked these guys whether it's prepping for a play that you don't know when it's going to happen or you can't predict when it's going to happen, but you've always got to be ready to take advantage of something, Christian made something happen that was not handed to him. And he was ready for his opportunity, and he grabbed it. And it's led him to this situation right now.

Q. After the win last night, what was your message, what did you say to the guys in the locker room? And also what's your message heading into Game 3 to the guys?

TOREY LOVULLO: I don't say a lot after the game. There's a conga line of handshakes, and I'll say some things with some really aggressive words behind them, in front of it.

And it's exciting. I think they sense the intensity and probably the flush of emotion that's coming out at that moment. I think we're all feeling the same thing saying the same thing, like, we're not done yet. Let's keep going. We've got to play our best game in two days.

That's what starts to pop out of my mouth really quickly. Enjoy it. Let's move on. Enjoy it, let's move on.

Q. What's your message to them ahead of Game 3?

TOREY LOVULLO: Into Game 3, I want them to be tenacious. We play at that rate every single day. So I don't want it to change. I want us to be aggressive, smart and ready. And the readiness shows up every day because this team loves to go out and compete.

Q. Wondering if you could go over the Tommy and Jace swapping, what those conversations were like?

TOREY LOVULLO: I'm not on Twitter. I'm not on social media. But my family will send me things. And I guess I was the idiot in the room that took Tommy Pham out of the game to be the first guy to get five hits.

This was to me a true team moment. Tommy Pham knew -- I'm sure he knew, because he's extremely smart and pays attention to in some things that you wouldn't expect a Major League Baseball player to pay attention to -- I am guaranteeing you he was aware that he had a chance to get five hits.

He came to me -- and I know that he said it, so I'm going to openly say it -- he came to me and he said, I need to you get my boy an AB.

And I said, "Are you sure? 100 percent sure?" And I gave him some contingencies. I said, if it's 7-1, that's the only score I'll allow it to happen. 7-2, lefty-righty, I'm going to reconsider it and I'll circle back to you. We all know what happened.

But this was a moment where it was a teammate loving a teammate to give him an opportunity. He took what mattered most to him personally -- number one on the list -- and said, it's more about the team and my teammate at this moment.

That spoke volumes about what that clubhouse feels every single day.

Q. After Longoria laid down the sacrifice you had a brief conversation with him. Do you mind if you can share what you guys talked about?

TOREY LOVULLO: For sure. I asked him where he learned that technique, Downey High School or Long Beach State. And I was basically floored by what he just did.

And he said, I probably haven't done it in 10 years. I said, well, that's amazing because you were super athletic and super coordinated. It looked like you were practicing every day of your life no. He said, no, I haven't worked on that play in a long time. I said, you're quite an athlete. Great play. Great idea. I understand exactly what you were trying to do. A little bit better bunt and you got a base hit.

And everybody asked after the game, did I put that play on. I put one bunt on yesterday, and you all know who it was for. It was for Perdomo. We've done it, whatever, 42 times this year.

But it's an instinctual play. He tried to take advantage of a moment. We highlighted the reasons why we would try to bunt on that particular pitcher. It was an easy base hit.

He knew at first and second we would have a chance to score runs. It was a great baseball play. I don't ever want baseball players to ever stop trying to make baseball plays.

Q. When you get home today, are you able to fall asleep right away or are you tossing, turning, replaying yesterday's game and thinking about the next game?

TOREY LOVULLO: I fell asleep for about the last 15 minutes of the flight. And I was fairly -- I was in a good spot. I ended up watching some TV on the flight, took my mind off of it.

But when I got home, I was up until about 5:30 thinking about the entire game. I went through it from start to finish. Yeah, I got to my house about 4 o'clock and I was up for the next hour and a half, energized and excited, but obviously going over some things that I needed to maybe improve upon or some things that I need to enhance.

Q. Just to make you feel a little better, Jim Riggleman once pinch-hit for Tony Gwynn when he could hit for the cycle. Gwynn never hit for the cycle in his career. And Gwynn never said anything to him. And Riggleman later said he didn't know. So these things happen.

TOREY LOVULLO: I knew he was 4-for-4. I didn't know that nobody in the history of Major League Baseball had never gone 5-for-5. That's why I asked him, "Are you sure you want this to happen? Are you sure?" And he said, "I need my boy to get an at-bat in the World Series. He'll remember this for the rest of his life." He was like, "You may or may not use him in another role, but right now I want to step aside for him."

I would have known if somebody was up for the cycle, for sure. I got that on Riggs, for sure.

Q. You talked a lot about managing against Bochy, your relationship with Bochy before the series started. It's only been two games in, but you've had a few, like yesterday, you know, you brought in the left-handed pinch-hitter against a lefty, he went to the righty, you went to Rivera. Do you look at that and go, got him on that one?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I was kind of digging myself on that for a second or two. But he knew it. He knew what my move was going to be before I knew what my move was going to be. But we had a favorable matchup, and I, of course, was going to utilize that.

On Bochy, like I said, it's always an honor for me to be on the same field as him. I met him at home plate after introductions, and he's like, hey, Torey, this is awesome. It's pretty cool, isn't it?

And for us to have a minute like that, it was probably matter of fact to him. It meant a lot to me. A, that he knew my name. And B, that we had a moment where we were talking about it being fun.

He's an unbelievable manager, and it is a great honor for me to be on the same field with him managing the World Series.

Q. Do you know whether he ever took the fly fishing trip to Montana that you gave him?

TOREY LOVULLO: You'll have to ask him. I think he did. I think he did. He sounded like he was kind of excited about it. I remember he said to me, this is a pretty cool present; might be one of the most interesting ones I have. Something along those lines, which made me think he was going to take that trip.

I think I won like maybe my 200th game -- I don't know what it was, 100th, 200th, whatever, it was a nice big round number -- and after the game, I remember saying, you know, what stood out to you about that day, and I said that Bruce Bochy got thrown out of the game today on a huge milestone win for me. And I'll remember that. I obviously didn't remember it so well if I don't remember what day. It was a great day. Andy Fletcher threw him out of the game.

Q. He loves fly fishing, so you guys did some research before you gave that to him.

TOREY LOVULLO: That's our group. Our group is unbelievable here. They know all those things.