MLB WORLD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS RANGERS

November 1, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Chase Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. Regardless of what happens tonight, it's been an amazing season for you and your club. Take us through the journey and how you got here.

TOREY LOVULLO: I haven't quite got to that point yet because we're gearing up for what should be our best effort tonight.

But I think the way we'll do it tonight is how we've been doing it all year long and some of the basic principles and core beliefs we have inside this organization. It is a committed effort. It is a sacrifice. It is a group coming together every single day to make something good happen between the white lines.

And they compete. That's it. Bottom line. They love to compete. They love competing with one another, against one another, and then ultimately against the team that's across the dugout.

And it shows up. It's real. It's a real thing. The words inside of our culture such as adaptability, adjustments, effort, preparation, it is breathing every single day in that clubhouse. And that's what got us to this point. I'm a firm believer in that.

Some of those principles a couple years ago were a little hazy and a little foggy. It was dark. But coming out the other end and being where we are right now, we're very proud of that. But we've got some work to do still.

Q. There's been a lot of criticism out in the ether about pitching to Corey Seager with a base open in key situations. Could you address that, please?

TOREY LOVULLO: It wasn't a great decision by me. I gotta be better, no doubt about it. And I've been in situations like that. I've been in the dugout with a hot hitter. I've been watching hot hitters. And we've got to be better.

We have a plan. We didn't execute it. And we threw a gutter ball, basically, down the middle and he made us pay for it.

I don't want to just intentionally walk somebody in that situation. We're putting an extra runner on base. And at that point in the game you're trying to get back in the dugout. But he clipped us. I've got to make some adjustments. I've got to be better at making that decision.

I call them the basement keyboard pounders. And they're aloud to. They're great baseball fans, but sometimes they've got some good points, I'm sure, that you're referring to those things. I've just got to be better at them.

Q. Yesterday it looked like Merrill was up throwing a side in the late innings. Would he have been available if the situation were different?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, he was. He was available. And we were in a situation where it's all hands on deck, and these guys were coming by and just telling me about how engaged they are and how ready they are to help the team in any situation, any moment.

So we pushed back as a bullpen in case we ran into a situation like we did yesterday. Say we ended up tying that game, we'd already expired our length. And he was going to be available to us, yes.

Q. And is there any scenario in which he's available today?

TOREY LOVULLO: We talked about that. The answer right now is no.

Q. For a player like Seager, who's normally a great hitter, what do you see in him that's lifted himself to such another level during the postseason?

TOREY LOVULLO: I haven't seen a lot of him, but I'll just refer back to what I remember him as with the Dodgers and what I'm seeing now. He's extremely selective. He knows balls and strikes as the ball is basically coming out of the pitcher's hands. He's able to check off of pitches and he's locked in.

He always had the ability to impact a baseball game. He had light-tower power. He could hit for average. He was very dynamic when he was standing up there three, four years ago. But what I see right now is somebody that's gotten even better by being extremely selective, limits the movements -- it's one simple movement forward, waiting a long time to read the baseball. And it's showing up every single day.

Q. Going back to the Seager at-bat, what exactly was the approach for Kyle Nelson in that spot? And maybe what would you change in retrospect?

TOREY LOVULLO: I do the same things everybody does. I sit at home at night. I have conversations afterwards. I should have walked him and let Castro pitch to Garver. That probably would be the easy solution.

But Castro was wobbly at that point in time. He wasn't showing what we wanted him to show us. And I felt like it could have been another base hit, another couple runs, and all heck was going to break loose.

So the easy one is, walk Seager, intentionally walk Seager, pitch to Garver. I don't want to give away our game plan, but we're not supposed to throw gutter balls right down the middle. That's -- early in the counts, no way. We just didn't execute. We've got to be better.

Q. Christian was in here yesterday talking about how he allows himself to sulk over a loss as long as it takes him to shower after the game. As soon as he walks out, he's a new guy. Do you have any best practices for that? And does it vary based on maybe the magnitude of the game or whatnot?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I try not to bring the game home. That's, I think, what everybody tries to get to. I try to shower off the day as well and walk out of here.

We have a lot of discussions postgame about what went right and what went wrong. We wear it pretty hard as a staff.

But I am a human being. It's hard for me to turn it off. At some point as I'm laying down I start to go over a few things and then doze off. And by that time I'm pretty comfortable knowing where I need to stand the next day, knowing the adjustments I need to make.

But sometimes it's hard. This is the World Series. There's three games left, right? And we gotta find a way to make good things happen. That's what I'm thinking about a lot right now.

Q. To follow up on availability. Would today be Pfaadt's side day? Would he be available potentially?

TOREY LOVULLO: Today is Pfaadt's side day. We'll talk to him as he's coming in here today, as a possibility. Yes, all hands on deck.

Q. The road teams this whole postseason are 25-15. Do you think it's easier in the postseason to play on the road just because there's less distractions and everything else?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I've been wondering about that. I'm trying to put my arms around how these guys are so successful on the road.

I know that at this point in time you have your family on the road, and maybe there's some distractions about getting away from the ballpark, coming to go the ballpark, jumping into your uniform and gearing up.

I don't know. I think everybody has routines. I can't explain it. I don't know. I think it's just good baseball teams that are locking up. And there is no distinct advantage, on any platform, on any level, no matter where you're playing when the best teams are out there.

That's what I go back to -- I don't know the reason why. I mean, I kind of gave you my thought rather than an answer about them being on the road with their family. But it's real. And it's happening a lot.

I go back to the World Series a couple years ago, the road team won every game between the Astros and the Nationals, if I can remember correctly. That never happened in baseball a long time ago.

I don't know, I think players are just ultimately prepared, and they're not fazed by crowd noise. They're just ready to go under any circumstance.

Q. Same for you guys. You've play well on the road yourselves.

TOREY LOVULLO: We have, I think our guys just engage. I think good players like to make the home crowd get really quiet. It's something I learned from David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. They got no more enjoyment than having the ball leave the bat and you could hear the collective uhhh. I think they love that. And I think that's what great players like, too.

Q. Yesterday after the game in the clubhouse, Tommy Pham said, he didn't really say anything about what today means. And Perdomo kind of echoed, yes, we know what this game is but there's not much to say. Is that a philosophy you share that there's not much to say to the team; they know the deal? Or are there conversations about what needs to be done today?

TOREY LOVULLO: No, I think you play baseball so many days during the baseball season. If you have something to say every day, they'll be, like, this guy has lost his mind. I try to get creative with my thoughts. And I talk to them a lot.

I talk to the group a lot, but I talk to the players in small groups or individually every single day. And I kind of get my message across by listening to them, finding out where they're at, aligning with them and then pushing out my thought.

But today's a battle of one. That's it. It's a battle of one pitch, and then the next pitch. It's a battle of one cut and relay and then the next ground ball cut and relay. It's a battle of just one thing at a time and then pick your head up at the end of the day and see where that led you.

So we've got to break it down into that level. That's what my messaging would be today. And that's what I'll be talking to the guys about. I'll say that "battle of one" probably 75 times today.

Q. How do you strike the balance between managing aggressively because it's an elimination game or just being yourself because that's what got you here?

TOREY LOVULLO: It's always the biggest challenge for me about how deep do you dig in and what are you willing to risk.

Yesterday, I felt like a little bit of a turning point was Marte getting thrown out at second base. We were trying to be aggressive, and their catcher made a strong throw, knocked him down. Next thing you know they've scored a couple runs in the next inning.

You have to be situationally aware of when to take those chances, how to take those chances and how successful will you be.

And I don't like a lot of risk. When we do things aggressively, there's minimal risk because we've rehearsed it, talked about it and prepped for it in every way, shape or form.

But at the end of the day, I just want the players to be the best version of themselves. That's it. I allow them to go out there and perform with an open mind, in very free way. And then when we need them to step on the gas, we ask them to and they understand where and why it's supposed to happen.

But outs are a premium. Outs are precious. We have 27 of them. At the end of those 27 outs tonight there's going to be a winner and a loser. And if we protect the baseball, we hit the baseball, we do the things we normally do every single day, we should be okay after those 27 outs.

We've made some mistakes that has cost us over the past couple of days -- minimal, but when you're in this seat, in this situation and a good team like the Rangers, they pounced on it and took advantage of it.

To me, that's the difference. I can give you a couple of examples. We all know what they are. But they made the big difference. We've got to tighten that up as well.

Q. The Astros were also 5-0 on the road. So the Texas teams are 15-0 on the road during the playoffs.

TOREY LOVULLO: I can't explain that. It's crazy.

Q. It is crazy. And they were terrible at home. I wanted to ask you, just backtracking on holding the loss, when you were a kid, you played for Sparky. Sparky was a guy, who, he quit because he couldn't handle the losses anymore. Same thing with Gene Mauch. How is it different back then and what did you notice with those guys?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I remember my locker was right next to Sparky's office in old Tigers Stadium. And he would chew on things for so long and have the discussions all the way through the night with his staff. He wasn't a drinker but he smoked his pipe. I knew when he was in there because I could smell the smoke of the pipe.

And I would leave and he was still in his uniform. So I think he probably had a tough time letting things go and getting ready for the next day.

Those are two elite minds, elite baseball people that probably couldn't deal with the failures of the game for an extended period of time. That's my guess.

The way I knew Sparky is he cared so much about the players and he cared so much about the city of Detroit, that when he couldn't do anything and felt hopeless to the point where it wasn't working, he didn't know how to make that adjustment.

And I know that he had some tough years with the Reds early on. Had some tough years with Detroit early on. But I think there's some perfectionism in both of those minds.

I don't know Gene Mauch but I've just read about him. But I think it winds the same way in both of their minds and they couldn't let certain things go based on the way they were letting people down. That's my gut feeling. I know that was part of Sparky's DNA.

Q. One other aside, I imagine you're glad that the Dodgers didn't resign Seager, huh?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah. I had a conversation with Mookie yesterday, as we were walking out there and connecting a little bit. I'm like, what's going on with everybody in the AL East coming to the NL West? It started with Machado and then Mookie and Xander. It was great.

I actually sent Seager a limousine to take him to the airport and bring him to Texas when I heard he was going. I wanted him out of the NL West so bad.

Q. Is that a true story?

TOREY LOVULLO: No, of course not. (Laughter). No, but I was thinking about it. I'll get you the nicest ride to get on that plane to get out of here and go to Texas. It was not true. (Laughter).

But they had a really good team. They had a really good team. I know there was a little hiccup when he had arm surgery. He announced that he was going to have arm surgery when he was here, playing the Diamondbacks, whatever year that was.

Unbelievably talented player. He's just gotten better every single year. We have to be aware of where he is on the court, that's for sure. Big man runs the court, he's going to get the ball. We know we have to keep the ball out of his hands today.