Torey Lovullo Pre-Game Press Conference Notes

The Arizona Diamondbacks are in a dogfight to make the playoffs as a National League Wild Card team. They are battling the Houston Astros in a series that has massive ramifications for both teams. The D-backs need just a single win to clinch a playoff berth over the next two days before the season ends. Or, they need the Cincinnati Reds to lose just one of their next two games. Arizona is 0.5 games above the Miami Marlins for the second wild-card spot. They are two games above the Reds. During the pre-game press conference with Manager Torey Lovullo, he spoke at length about the player's at-bat mentality and the Astros' pitcher's game plans.

"I believe in count leverage. I really do. I believe in seeing pitches through the at-bat. Getting yourself into a little bit of rhythm with the speed and shape of the pitch. And you know if you got some familiarity with the pitcher, you can get off on the first one. But you got to impact the baseball. I'm looking for somebody to strike it, hit it hard, and do some damage. Is it a guaranteed hit? No. But the type of outs that we are producing in early counts, I feel like can be a little bit more productive. And I'm trying to bite out of both sides of the apple and just say that I believe in these guys if they don't get their pitch early, they can check off of it and get some count leverage so that when the pitcher has to throw a strike or has to put a ball across the plate because early in the count, they don't. These Astros' pitchers are very smart. These guys prep as good as anybody. And they know tendencies and habits and they're preying on some of our aggressiveness. We just got to be a little smarter. It's not to be passive. It's not to be in take mode. It's to check off on the pitch if you're not ready to square it up and get yourself into another situation deeper in the count."

Manager Lovullo on pressures of being in game 161 and the pressure of the Wild Card chase.

"This is right in my wheelhouse of being able to align and empathize and then talk about it, recognize it, and just keep pushing them out the other side of it in hopes that they do grow up and understand day-by-day and minute-by-minute. But yes, this is what it comes down to, it's a huge word called "experience". Being able to go back to some example that you have learned from that will make you better here today. I just want guys to remember that it is a process. You have had 450 plate appearances and you are equipped to do this. Take a deep breath and realize that yes, it is a very impactful game but day 161 is not any different than day 1 or day 20, or day 50. You have to be yourself. You've got to be great where your feet are. You've got to believe in what your process is. That's the best way to simplify it for me. Because if they're feeling the magnitude of the moment, it's hard for anybody. It's hard for me to take a deep breath if I sit back and think about all the checkpoints where we're at and what we're doing. I just stand on my foundation and say "Let's go". But to get them to relax, that's on them. I don't want to have flamingos and penguins dancing in the clubhouse. I know some guys have done that to make teams relax. This team is very capable and ready for this challenge."

Manager Torey Lovullo on facing Justin Verlander.

"Look, we're facing a potential Hall of Famer today. We're facing the team that's been in four of the last six World Series if I'm not mistaken. So this is the best situation we could be in. That's how I'm like let's embrace this. Let's go out there and to be the man, you've got to beat the man. Let's go out and do it right. Let's do it our way. It's just going to be a great challenge today."

Manager Lovullo on Corbin Carroll.

"I think some of the younger players are watching Corbin, watching Gabriel. And they are just in a really good zone right now. They haven't changed or come off of their process. Specifically on Corbin, he's one of the most process-oriented young players I've ever been around. I think he goes to that every single day. It's not all perfect. He hasn't had a year where there's zero mistakes but what he does is he takes that information, pushes it forward, and learns from it. That's going to happen in Day 161, Day 140, or Day 100."

Manager Lovullo on Gabriel Moreno's approach and play.

"Gabby, he's got a great heartbeat. Nothing phases him. Our other young players are very similar as well. They just haven't had the results we're looking for or speaking about. It's been 12 of 13 or something crazy like that but we were talking about it when I made this decision to full-throttle him, it was going to be 13 of 14. We explained to him that you know, you don't have to go hard down the line which falls under a lot of our basic principles and beliefs here. So we're letting him conserve some energy. He's done a great job and feeling very good. Yesterday was a huge hit for us."

The update on Scott McGough.

"He's still in treatment phase. I had a conversation with him yesterday and he said that he's spent a lot of time in the training room and trying to get asymptomatic. Just healing. He had a Teres Major tear, small tear so this takes time to heal. It's going to be a little bit of time before he gets a baseball in his hands again."