MLB WORLD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS RANGERS

October 28, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Globe Life Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Pregame 2 Press Conference

Q. What's your thinking with having Alek Thomas in there today against a lefty?

TOREY LOVULLO: Just a lot of room out there in center field. I wanted to make sure we were going to be running some baseballs down. And he actually swung the bat okay against him back at home. Reviewed those at-bats.

And I felt like when you're fighting for every inch on a baseball field, you've got to lock down certain parts of it, pitching and defense are certainly top priorities for us.

Q. Thinking back to last night, what was the strategy with Castro attacking Garcia as aggressively as he did?

TOREY LOVULLO: Well, we definitely had a plan. It wasn't executed perfectly. There were some balls that were thrown in the wrong space, maybe the wrong type of pitch. But we talked about it at length, once it got down to that level. Once we got through the first tier of guys, who we would use, who did we like against Garcia, and Castro was somebody we all felt very good about. I think it was just a misfired ball in a honey hole. And we've got to be better.

Q. On that 3-1 pitch, it looked like Gabby was set up over the middle. Where was the pitch supposed to be?

TOREY LOVULLO: I don't want to give away the pitching strategy, but it wasn't supposed to be a middle-middle pitch for sure -- no way, no way.

Q. Once you got to 3-1 on him, was there a thought to maybe not to intentionally walk him but being very careful and trying to get him to chase out of the zone and accepting a walk would be okay there?

TOREY LOVULLO: Not particularly. You don't think that a World Series in the bottom of the 10th inning is going to end in a walk-off home run.

I do have to think worst-case scenarios a lot of time. But I was thinking, base hit, walk, not necessarily a home run.

With one out, of course, today I could sit here knowing what the outcome was, we should have, and we should have done the same thing to Seager. But you don't think that's going to happen. It's a hard thing to do to hit a baseball traveling at 96, 97 miles an hour that's got some good run on it. If we place the ball where we're supposed to we're going to have probably a much better result.

Do I have a regret? Like I said last night, I was thinking through it with a very clear head, had a lot of good conversations with the staff around me, and not one person said we should pitch around him and put him on.

Q. In your perfect world tonight, do you actually let Merrill go or push him to go even a little further, get a few more outs out of him, protect your bullpen?

TOREY LOVULLO: For sure. I'll be mindful of how he gets to where that most critical point is, if we need to make a move. When Merrill gets moving and he gets the line moving in the right direction, he gets some quick, easy outs, and it's nine-, 12-pitch innings.

And I think he started to show that in Philadelphia in Game 6. There were some easy movements and he got through that fifth that's, and I think that's where the frustration was coming from, that he felt very good.

If he gets the line moving in the right way and the pitch count is low and we're in the right spot, of course, I'm going to press him a little bit, for sure.

Q. Over the years with relief pitchers, what have you learned about what moments that you think they need to hear some words of support after a rough outing and what times it's better just to not to say anything, that they don't want to hear it?

TOREY LOVULLO: This particular area is kind of right in my wheelhouse. I feel like I get to know the players. We share a lot of really good information about one another. And I feel like there's certain guys that need a pat on the butt. There's certain guys that need a kick on the butt. And there's certain guys that don't even want to talk about it.

We had a couple of tough moments yesterday where relievers who have had a lot of success didn't execute at a high level. So I'll read and react based on what I see. Maybe have a follow-up conversation with them at some point.

But nothing today unless somebody wants to engage me because I feel like we've all turned the page and flushed it and we've got to be ready for this next challenge.

In particular, I said to Paul Sewald maybe two words. You're still good. We're all good. Don't you worry. And Miguel Castro, patted him on the butt and just said, hey, man, we'll get them tomorrow. That's where I was with those guys last night.

But I know that's sometimes what they need. And other guys, they basically want to be punched in the face and say they didn't get the job done and go figure it out. That wasn't the case for us last night.

Q. What's your reflection on your first World Series game managing? Do you feel like there was more pressure down there? Did you feel like things were going quicker than they might in a regular season game, when you have the pressure of the crowd building there late in the game? And really probably the Seager home run might have been the loudest I've heard a crowd in the postseason so far.

TOREY LOVULLO: I'll agree with you. When that ball was hit, went over the fence -- I've been in a lot of arenas. I've been on a football field with 100,000 fans cheering. That was easily the loudest crowd roar that I've ever heard. And well-deserved.

But I think -- I've said it here today and I said it last night, every decision I made, every conversation I had was done with a clear head. It didn't speed up on me. I just at times had to take a deep breath and pinch myself, probably pregame more than anything, and think this is what it's all about. This is what I've dreamed about from being a little kid to right now.

But just make sure you're present and you're here, the same way you have been every single day for this baseball team. And that was kind of the last conversation I had with myself. I think everybody has these little conversations with themselves different points in time during their days, their workdays, you guys, too.

So I felt like everything was in a good spot for me last night. I was honored to be on that floor, on that dance floor with my players and sharing that moment with my players. It was special. Something I'll never forget.

I did take a moment to get on the top step and look around pregame because I didn't want to miss it. I wanted to drink it all up.

Q. Wanted to ask a question about Sewald. Coming over to the National League late in the season, aside from whatever games you had, interleague, basically you had the advantage of most of the National League teams were not used to seeing him. In this case, with Texas, they've seen him in Seattle for a while. So they can read him probably better than a lot of other teams. Do you think that had something to do with what happened last night?

TOREY LOVULLO: I thought about that, for sure. I know that Paul Sewald, the Seager-Paul Sewald matchup favored Paul. I think he was 0-for-7 or 0-for-8, I can't remember. I know it favored him against Semien too.

But I thought about that, that as I was looking at those numbers, why is there such familiarity? The reasons are obvious, that it's been Seattle-Texas or Seattle-Dodgers, maybe interleague, whatever it was, but there was some familiarity.

But I will say that Seager swung at ball like he knew it was going there. That told me that he had seen the shape and the movement and the rise of that pitch. So we've just got to be better.

Q. You've had some, the old Sparky, Captain Hook aggressiveness sometimes this postseason; it's worked really well for you. Last night, the third time through the most difficult part of the lineup, you trusted Zac. I know he's your ace, but given the first couple of times, what made you so confident in him there?

TOREY LOVULLO: I think after the third inning I just watched the body language. I had a brief conversation with him in the clubhouse about how he felt.

He shared the frustration. He explained to me and was vulnerable in a way that made me think he was addressing what was needed to be addressed.

A lot of times you get very protected answers, like, I'm good, don't worry. I don't have that with our guys. I got like, I'm frustrated by this, and I need to be better at this. This is what I'm going to do to take care of that. It was very descriptive and deep.

So when I watched it happen in the fourth, I knew that there was a really good chance that he was feeling something. And it worked out pretty well because you're right; it was a very critical inning for us.

I felt if we got through it, the bullpen was going to be lined up and we were going to win the baseball game. But we needed to get through that fourth inning. I felt he was the best guy based on what he gave me in that conversation and what I saw in the fourth inning.

Q. Your offense uses speed and small ball very well. How did your experience and your connections in Japan influence your style as a manager?

TOREY LOVULLO: My philosophy is I have to manage the team that we have, and it's always going to be a little bit different. I might have a team in a year or two that can hit three-run home runs and win a different way. But in this particular case we have a bunch of speed and guys that love to execute.

I will manage them accordingly. What I learned in Japan is there are a lot of things that I brought here. It's the work ethic and dedication to the very small details of the baseball game.

Our work habits in Spring Training, our work habits throughout the course of the season reflect that. I just know during my time in Japan that I became a better baseball player because of what I was being taught and what I was being told.

So those are things that we do here. Now, they're not trick plays. They're not gimmick plays, but we practice rundowns. We practice how to tag on rundowns. We practice bunt plays. We practice the trick bunt plays. We practice all that stuff because we feel like little things could add up to a big moment and help us win a baseball game.

Q. What did you think of your offense's execution against Eovaldi, to get him out?

TOREY LOVULLO: We talked about trying to get him out before five. That was one of our overall goals. It was a high pitch count in, I think, the third inning. I think we did a really good job.

Once we saw him that first time, we recognized what his strategy was, what the shape of his pitches would be, and we made some quality adjustments. Overall, I was very pleased.