NL WILD CARD SERIES: PADRES VS METS

October 7, 2022

Bob Melvin

Citi Field

San Diego Padres

Postgame Press Conference

San Diego - 7, New York - 1

Q. Bob, what made Yu Darvish so good today?

BOB MELVIN: We're getting pretty spoiled. It's kind of a typical Yu Darvish game, where he goes seven innings, throws about 100 pitches, doesn't give up much, pitches out of jams when he needs to, invents pitches along the way.

Most starters, you worry about third and fourth time around the lineup, but not really with him when he's going good because he can give you different looks all the way around. This just seems like a typical game for him.

Q. Bob, you've had a lot of faith in Trent Grisham and Josh Bell. For them to come through tonight, what does it mean for you in this game, and what can it mean for you now?

BOB MELVIN: They've been big for us over the course of the season, and they have track records. It's almost like sometimes a relief when a season is over that you struggled a little bit or struggled for a period of time towards the end. It's 0-0. Battle averages are back to .000 again, and it's just like a new life for them.

J.B. had pretty good success off Max in the past, and that played a lot into it today. Even put him in the 4 hole. So I know he feels good about his work tonight, so does Trent, and hopefully this gets them going.

Q. Max isn't a guy that gives up seven runs very often. What is it about your approach tonight that you feel was effective?

BOB MELVIN: You know, we hit some mistakes when he made him, which he doesn't do very often. When you get a mistake from him, you'd better take advantage of it because you don't get too many.

We made him work early in the game and gave up some runs and were a little bit on the run, but this is not a game that you normally see out of Max. So we were fortunate.

Q. Bob, I understood what you meant when you said this is kind of a typical outing for you, but really the scenario and backdrop is completely unique. You're on the road playing a 101-win team against Max Scherzer. You pitched out of trouble, 101 strikes -- 71 or 72 strikes out of 101 pitches. On all those levels, how do you kind of sum what he did tonight?

BOB MELVIN: Well, it's a veteran guy who's pitched in postseason. Going into the game today, he wanted to be as normal as it possibly could for him like it was a regular season game. He wasn't putting too much pressure on himself. His routine was the same, starting with what he does when he gets here to the ballpark.

So I think he was just trying to make it as normal a start as he possibly can even though it's postseason, it's here, it's a packed house. But he seemed to do okay with it.

Q. First pitch swinging against Max, Profar singles on the first pitch of the game. Hits a homer on the first pitch. Nola first pitch, Manny the first pitch. Is that something you saw on the approach something that you may be able to get with him?

BOB MELVIN: There's different ways to go at a starter like that. You try to get on him early, a lot of times before they get into a rhythm. After that, if they are, you try to make him throw some pitches and hopefully get him out early in the game.

Today it was early swinging before he got into a rhythm, and he never really got to settle in. That was kind of the approach early on. If you get a good pitch to hit, go ahead and do it, and we'll try to figure it out later.

But lucky enough to get -- not only score some balls up, but hit them over the fence, which obviously gets some multiple runs.

Q. Bob, were you surprised about your club hitting four home runs off a pitcher with that pedigree like Scherzer?

BOB MELVIN: I'd like to say no, but sure. This guy's as good as you get. You don't get very many opportunities or games like this out of Max, so we were fortunate in that respect. But we also had a good approach early on. We were aggressive and got some mistakes to hit.

Next thing you know -- obviously we had a three-run lead early and then tacked on four more in the fifth.

Q. Bob, you mentioned Josh's numbers against Max. Why do you think that's a good matchup for him?

BOB MELVIN: You'd probably have to ask him. I just go look at the numbers. We were trying to get an extra left-handed bat in there. Drury was the one guy that didn't play today. Numbers are a little bit better off him against lefties. So you try to get some guys in there that had success against him before.

It doesn't mean it's going to happen. We were lucky enough to have it happen tonight.

Q. Bob, obviously Yu was okay because you left him in, but what did he do there and what made you confident to keep him in? And how is he feeling?

BOB MELVIN: He had a little blister going on his foot. It happens to him sometimes when the mound's a little dry. It's happened to him at home a couple times before.

But he's pretty close to coming out of the game, he can always reach back and get an extra out.

Q. Can you speak to your level of confidence going into tomorrow with Blake on the mound and where you guys kind of stand one game up?

BOB MELVIN: Blake's been pitching great. It's not about -- it's just about individualizing tomorrow's game. We're just going to go in and try to play it similar to how we did today.

Every game in a three-game series feels like it's monumental. So the same approach, the same kind of scheme going in, same preparation, pitcher that's been pitching well over the last couple months for us. So we'll feel good.