NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 15, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Citizens Bank Park

Arizona Diamondbacks

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Torey Lovullo.

Q. I wonder if you could share just the story the first time you met Rob Thomson, you're a Tigers minor league player, and he was managing there. What's your relationship been like with Rob over the years?

TOREY LOVULLO: It's been what you would think as two former teammates from 1987 moving it forward. I've always been a huge fan of his because I know how much he loves baseball. I know what type of a player he was and his appreciation for the game. At that point in time, I'm sure it's amplified, but it's gotten greater. But at the time he was a real good human being that loved baseball.

I've followed him through his progression. I know he was with the Yankees in the minor leagues, and he eventually got to the Big Leagues with the Yankees, and I've always been a huge fan.

When I got this position last year, I know how hard he worked. For everybody that gets to sit in the seat, there are challenges, and he's accepted those challenges, and his team has been excelling ever since he has been their manager.

I'm happy for him every single day.

Q. What are the feelings like just a day before Game 1?

TOREY LOVULLO: They're normal feelings, first of all, and they're probably the ones that you imagine. Excitement, curiosity, and just wanting to make sure that we go out there to the best of our ability and represent the state of Arizona the way we know we can.

We are prepared. We've been having meetings all morning about the Philadelphia Phillies. So we're going to walk in here today and have as best a workout as we possibly can.

I want them to feel this air. I want them to feel this stadium, so we can come out here tomorrow and just do one thing, and that's go to play our best baseball game so far of the postseason.

So the entire room is probably feeling the same thing. You know how I am. I want them to embrace what they're feeling and not push it down or push it aside. Talk about it. What's real is real, and they're going to feel the way they feel, but it's general excitement that gets me up and gets me moving every single moment.

Q. What can you take from the run you went on ten years ago?

TOREY LOVULLO: There's a lot of overlap for a couple of reasons. I think it was a wire-to-wire season for the Red Sox, and getting into the playoffs, there was a couple of things that the Red Sox had to push aside, right? The challenges of the Rays to me equals the challenges that the Diamondbacks have with the Dodgers.

I remember walking into the Detroit series with Verlander, Scherzer -- who started the first game? The former --

Q. Sanchez.

TOREY LOVULLO: Sanchez, Porcello. It was a very strong Detroit Tigers team and not a lot of people were feeling like the Red Sox were going to get through that series. It was a heavyweight bout where teams were landing haymakers. I feel like that's going to be a very similar situation for us.

Q. I wonder if you're curious to see how your team will react to what a lot of people think is the most hostile home environment, or are you convinced because of the things that they've already gone threw that that won't be an issue?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I'm less curious than I would have been if I was having this question asked probably ten days ago.

We went into a pretty hostile Milwaukee Brewer stadium. I know it's a scaled-down version of what we're going to expect tomorrow, but we didn't blink. Then going into L.A., which traditionally can be a very hectic venue for us, we came out and excelled.

Now, I don't want to compare and contrast the teams and the fans. I've played here and I've been in this stadium when it's rocking as a staff member. So if the Phillies are a 10, the Dodgers and the Brewers are a very close 8, 9-ish, so we're prepared for the noise.

We are an extremely prepared team, and our guys can slow the moment down and go out there and execute. So am I concerned about it? It's a minimal concern, but I don't think we're going to go out there and be glossy-eyed to the point where we can't execute. And that's my biggest concern, and I feel very comfortable knowing this team is prepared for that.

Q. Building off that question, Zac is from here. He's been around Phillies fans his entire life. Obviously he's pitched in a lot of big moments, but can his familiarity with the area and the region even help him a little bit more tomorrow night as far as dealing with the atmosphere?

TOREY LOVULLO: I would think so. I know that he's pitched here for the past several years, and he's had an army of people come out and support him. It's well-documented that this was where he grew up.

The one thing that I know I can say about Zac Gallen is that he is as good as anybody I've been around at slowing down the moment and not being too overexcited. You will get a chance to talk to him. For those that don't know him or haven't talked to him, you can tell how his mind works and how he is very slow-moving and process-oriented with everything that he says, does, and executes on a daily basis.

So I think he will be excited, as we all are. Once again, I don't want him to deny the excitement. Embrace it and figure out how to get back in your routine. And Zac will be in a good spot tomorrow with the biggest concern being able to go out and execute his game. That's what I can guarantee you he'll be ready to do.

He'll be able to block out anything else, whether it's the excitement or curiosity. He'll process that all and be ready to go.

Q. Any health updates? Everybody come out of the workouts okay? Gabi okay? Patel good?

TOREY LOVULLO: This is time of the year where everybody is banged up. Everybody has aches and pains. This team is ready to go, as healthy as we can be. Minus those aches and pains, we're in a very good spot health-wise.

Q. It seems like everyone in this Phillies bullpen can throw 98 miles an hour and more. What do you do to prepare for that?

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, first of all, we're going to talk about it. They average 96-plus coming out of that bullpen. Their fours and twos. We know what that shape is going to look like.

It's about the preparedness. It's about figuring out how to win the inch and making sure that we're ready to go. We've got all of our information in the bucket, in the hopper right now, and we're going to pull it out and give it to the players and have those conversations, have those meetings with the players and allow them to go out there and just be as great as they can be.

They've been swinging the bat really good, but we know when their bullpen is ready to go that we better be spot-on. There's no downturn from their starters to their bullpen pieces for sure.

Q. What was going on with Ketel on Friday? I think it was Friday. He wasn't out there at the workout.

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, we let a couple of players step away and step off the field. It was he, Gabi, Gurriel. Just some normal aches and pains that we wanted to give them some time down.

But I wanted them all to come out there, which they did, because I wanted them to just feel -- we piped in that music or that sound. I wanted everybody to get used to being able to talk to one another in the dugout, which is very difficult, and we're anticipating that tomorrow.

When I heard the sound, which was probably at a 5 or a 6, I sent a text upstairs and said I need it as loud as you can get it. It became very uncomfortable, and we want to just make sure that we were able to have our nonverbal communications, hear that sound. And I didn't want anybody to be exempt from that. So those three players were standing out there and that's probably why you were asking why they weren't involved.

Q. What about Gabi Moreno that did you guys feel comfortable giving him the reins this season as such a young catcher?

TOREY LOVULLO: I just know in Spring Training our starting catcher, Carson Kelly, broke his wrist and was hit by a pitch. We didn't really have any other options.

We felt like we were very well-equipped with Gabi as the starter even though it was going to be a big responsibility. We felt like it was going to be something he could handle.

I can't tell you how grateful we were to have him and have him step into that role. Otherwise, we would have gone into Jose Herrera as our starter or somebody as a nonroster addition that was an invite to Spring Training. But because of Gabi's presence, we were able to give him the information we needed to, let him absorb it. And it was a slow process for him to learn what it took to be the starting catcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

We have a lot of -- not that we're the only team that does it. Everybody does it. We have a lot of baseball concepts and a lot of things that we believe in that we put on the catcher, and he was piece-by-piece grabbing those.

Offensively he didn't get off to a good start because I'm sure it was very overwhelming for him, but once he got into that mindset, he became a better leader. So you asked what it was. He became a better leader. He became a better receiver. The offense came around. Once he got comfortable with his surroundings, and then catching and throwing, you really can't run on him.

So those were the natural thoughts that we had, but we watched those evolve during the course of his development.

Q. At what point during the year did you see that kind of click for him?

TOREY LOVULLO: Probably when he came back from his injury. I don't know the exact time. Was it mid-August? In mid-August. I think he took a step back, watched from afar, caught his breath, and he came back a totally different player at that point in time.

He was progressing very nicely prior to the injury, but when he came back in mid-August, he really took off.

Q. This is a Phillies rotation that probably looks more like the Milwaukee rotation you saw in the Wild Card round rather than the Dodgers kind of with their traditional starting pitchers that can pitch deep into games. Does that require a different offensive approach at all than what you had against L.A.?

TOREY LOVULLO: Not really. We obviously respect every starting pitcher that we're facing, and we always feel like they're capable of doing unbelievable things. I just ask that our guys go out and maintain a competitive focus, every single pitch, offensively and defensively and just engage.

We're going to have a plan. Again, it's against their starting pitcher tomorrow, and we'll turn the page and have a plan for Nola the next day.

We know they're very good, and they've got our attention for sure, so we've got to be spot-on. We'll be ready to go.

Q. Torey, you've kind of had to rebuild the back of your bullpen on the fly here the last two months. Can you talk about the confidence you have in guys like Thompson and Saalfrank, and then also how a potential seven games in nine days affects things compared to the days off in the Dodgers series?

TOREY LOVULLO: The confidence that we all have is very high, and they've earned that. We have restructured the bullpen on the back end specifically, and we would not be -- I would not be sitting in this seat right now if it wasn't for them.

You can basically see how I've been using them. They know their roles. They're very comfortable with where they're at. We have the back end piece with Paul Sewald, and we fill it in from there.

It turned at the trade deadline with getting Paul and bumping everybody back a level and being able to piece it together the best way that I could to match up for the most advantageous outcome.

Now, it is a little bit different; right? We played, a day off, we played, a day off. Whatever. It seemed like it was going to go on forever in the NLDS, but it gets a little more rugged.

We're going to be mindful of the roster construction. We're going to maybe change out a little bit and get an extra arm in there. I have to probably utilize some other pieces at the right times, but I'm going to lean on those guys. I think they're ready for that challenge. I think everybody knows this is playoff baseball, and you ask your body and mind to do something just a little bit different and just a little bit longer. They'll be ready to go.