Postgame Press Conference with Lovullo and Kelly for Game 1

The Arizona Diamondbacks had a massive victory in Game One of the NLDS playoff series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their 11-2 win was completely unexpected against the Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw. Merrill Kelly got the first win of his career against the Dodgers, albeit in the postseason. Check out the game recap here for the full analysis of everything that happened in the exciting game for the D-backs.

The D-backs staked Merrill Kelly to an early six-run lead before the bottom of the first inning. Kelly said "It makes my job a lot easier for sure. I've got to hand it to the guys in the clubhouse. They jumped all over Kershaw early. It just makes going out there and going into attack mode makes it a lot easier to do."

Kelly tried to enjoy that run outburst as much as he could although he remained focused on going out there and pitching a good game instead of sitting back and enjoying too much. Plus, the runs allowed him to relax on the mound and know that it was okay if he made a mistake because they had such a massive lead.

Kelly said that he tried to not think about his past struggles against the Dodgers knowing that if he did, he'd be "behind the 8-ball before I even stepped on the mound." He went out and executed a terrific gameplan attacking the hitters in the strikezone relentlessly over his 6.1 innings of shutout baseball.

Besides the run support, he thanked his dad for helping him not be as nervous as he could've been because "My dad actually missed his flight this morning. So I had to kind of scramble, figure that part out. So I think maybe that might have been -- even though at the time I was a little pissed, I think that might have been a good distraction for me. So thanks, Dad, for not getting to the airport early enough. But I try to just stay as even as I can, and I think I did a pretty good job." Yes, his dad did make it to the game in time from Phoenix.

Meanwhile, Manager Torey Lovullo couldn't have been more proud of his team for "making a statement individually and collectively from the first batter on." He was impressed from the first pitch to the last and said that he doesn't "think they're feeling a lot of pressure...[since] they've played meaningful baseball games for the past month."

There was a funny moment in the game when Merrill Kelly made a face when he saw Lovullo coming to the mound in the seventh inning to take him out of the game.

We are all Merrill Kelly, lol pic.twitter.com/ULbqSNyyNY
— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) October 8, 2023

When asked to explain why he took Kelly out of the game and how did Kelly react, he said "I took him out of the game. I had a chance to keep going with him a little bit, but I told him, I want to preserve every pitch I possibly can. We're up 10-0 and it doesn't make a lot of sense to ask you to go any further than this. And he understood. That's who he is at his core. He doesn't like coming out in the middle of innings. I don't think any starting pitcher does, elite, top-shelf starting pitcher. They want to finish the innings and walk off the mound. I know that was about him. I wasn't surprised about his reaction. Once I talked to him a little bit about it he was on board with it. He did his job. He did his job in a fine way." It made sense as the team does plan to pitch Merrill in Game Four should the series make it that far.

Lovullo didn't want to discuss the team's game plan against Kershaw because of the high chance they could see him again in the NLDS should it go to game four or five. He did mention how hungry the D-backs team is and how they were stubborn and put up some "well-executed at-bats".

He specifically credited how well the past two days of meetings went for the D-backs prior to their game against the Dodgers. He said, "I just think this team was very focused. We had meetings yesterday at the hotel. Had meetings today. We talked about what our game plan was going to be, and I watched this group go out and execute it to a tee. So to me, one thing is about gaining the knowledge and understanding what you have to do when you step into the arena. And part two is the players taking it over and executing it. They executed at a really high-level today. We checked off a lot of pitches. Three innings, two pitchers had thrown 100 pitches at us and one of them being Clayton Kershaw. I couldn't be more proud of our guys for that."

The D-backs next play Monday night in Los Angeles for Game Two of the NLDS. Zac Gallen is on the mound for the D-backs against rookie Dodgers starter Bobby Miller.