NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS VS DODGERS

October 12, 2021

Gabe Kapler

Dodger Stadium

San Francisco Giants

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Los Angeles Dodgers - 7, San Francisco Giants - 2.

Q. First of all, could you sum up the going to a Game 5 now with a team that you have been so evenly matched with all season and coming down the stretch?

GABE KAPLER: I definitely think that that's what we're going to get quickly. I don't think we're going to spend a lot of time dissecting as a team this game. I think we're going to get on the plane, have an off day, a real off day. We'll schedule our workout for a little bit later. We'll start getting ready for Game 5.

Webb will start that game for us. We're going to, he's ready for it and get the rest of the Club ready as well.

Q. What do you anticipate in terms of atmosphere considering how good this rivalry has been throughout time but especially this season and then this series?

GABE KAPLER: I'm sure it will be a lively atmosphere. It's going to be nice to get back to Oracle and have the support of our fans. And, yeah, we're looking forward to it.

Q. You talked a little bit about your team's offensive struggles. What did you see in Game 2 against Urías? Roberts said he's going in Game 5 and what do you think needs to change against him to have a more effective approach at the plate?

GABE KAPLER: I think that's going to take some planning and some conversations and obviously happy to discuss that with you guys before the game. I think right now I think we're going to get together and take a look at the last game against Urías and make adjustments accordingly.

Q. And then as a follow-up, what did you see out of DeSclafani tonight and was it a command issue or just not having the same life to his pitches?

GABE KAPLER: I think the Dodgers were taking good swings on him, that's first and foremost. And we have seen the Dodgers take some good swings against DeSclafani in the past, and mostly here was just acknowledging that, recognizing it, and making a decision that we were going to grind our way through it and try to stay in the game with our bullpen.

You asked what I see, what I saw with DeSclafani. I don't think he had his best stuff. I don't think he had his best command and I think the Dodgers were getting good swings off him.

Q. How is Tommy La Stella?

GABE KAPLER: Tommy's doing fine. Again, the Achilles is getting sore on him, so we tried to get him through as much of the game as possible. It started getting a little bit more sore as the game went on, and so once his at-bat came up, we were able to pinch hit for him. But I still think we may have taken him out of that game even if Vesia wasn't in the game and we didn't choose to pinch hit.

Q. With DeSclafani, I think he had had 10 days between starts. Was that potentially a factor at all, having that much time off?

GABE KAPLER: Could be. I think Tony can probably address that. I mean, sometimes get on the mound and you feel like you haven't been there in a while and that can be a factor. But the pitcher's always best to break that down.

Q. Thursday will be the 24th and necessarily final time you face this Dodgers team. Curious sort of what you have learned that surprised you about them in that time and how you think that familiarity will sort of play out.

GABE KAPLER: I think because they're such an excellent, balanced team, I don't think there's anything that in particular has stood out over the course of this season where there was a moment that we learned something. I think their roster was very well constructed here at the end. It's a difficult team to match up against. They have got a lot of options in their bullpen. All of those things I think were true throughout the season, but the postseason roster is a good one.

Q. You used a lot of arms tonight. Do you anticipate with the off-day being pretty fresh for Game 5?

GABE KAPLER: I think everyone is going to be up. It was nice that although Rogers pitched after a longer outing yesterday, it was, he didn't throw a ton of pitches.

Jake McGee didn't throw a ton of pitches. Zack Littell probably could have gone out there and pitched a little bit more, but we also wanted to preserve him. Obviously as good as he looked it would be nice to have him available. I think we're going to be in really good shape with our bullpen. I anticipate that everybody will be up and ready to pitch.

Q. What did you see from Buehler tonight? What was he doing that was so effective?

GABE KAPLER: He mixed in his changeup a little bit more than we would have suspected and that was an effective pitch for him. He still did have good carry to his fastball like he always does and was throwing his cutter. I just thought it was more like a typical quality Walker Buehler outing than anything out of the ordinary, but I did, I think the changeup was a little bit different and got a couple of good strikes on that pitch.

Q. Could you tell he was on short rest? Like, did it feel like he was on short rest?

GABE KAPLER: No, I don't think so. Nothing stood out. Like his velocity was fine and carry on his pitches was fine. He was mixing it up and staying in his delivery.

Q. I think going back to the last home stand, there were times where maybe the lineup didn't look as effective as it has all year. Are you seeing anything different with their approach?

GABE KAPLER: I would chalk this, some of the more recent, I won't even call them struggles, but more recently us not being all that explosive on offense to running up against some really good pitchers. And I think that's what happens in the postseason. You just get quality arm after quality arm and sometimes you have one big inning and you're able to win the game with that one big inning. Sometimes you have to scratch across a run, like we did yesterday, and it's one swing that makes all the difference and we're going to have our work cut out for us against Urías in Game 5 and we'll be prepared for that.

Q. You've been pretty faithful with the platoon system for good reason. It's been working. In a must-win situation such as Game 5 could that possibly change?

GABE KAPLER: We'll do what we normally do. We're going to try to put the best lineup out there that kind of counters some of Julio's strengths. He's got a lot of them. It's not an easy thing to do, but we'll do the best that we can. And I have a lot of faith in -- I've said this throughout the year, but the lineup that we throw out there against lefties, the lineup that we throughout there last time against Julio, I feel really good about. It's a lot of high-quality hitters, guys that see pitches, that can hit home runs against left-handed pitching, and their track record suggests that.

So we're going to do what we've done all season long. I'm not saying it's going to be an identical lineup to the last one we threw out against Julio, but I think all of our players, all of our staff, myself included, will be confident with the lineup that we put out there and we're not going to change anything here at the end of the season.

Q. Just the benefit of Gausman in relief?

GABE KAPLER: Yeah. No, it's nice. So you got Webb with a full slate, Gausman with a full slate. I don't think using Alex Wood at some point in the game would be completely out of the question. We've got all of our relievers up and ready to pitch.

Q. Logan Webb is going to be the youngest pitcher in franchise history to start a winner-take-all game. I know he's been doing it all year, but I guess what about him as a person or as a pitcher gives you faith in him to rise to the occasion?

GABE KAPLER: I mean, we can lean on the track record of the last four months. It's a long time, it's a lot of starts and it's some starts in some huge games. It's a totally rested and prepared and confident pitcher. So I mean that's plenty.