ARLINGTON, Texas — We are less than 24 hours away from seeing the Arizona Diamondbacks play in the World Series for the first time since 2001!
Ahead of Game 1, the D-backs were at Globe Life Field, the home of their opponents, the AL Champion Texas Rangers, for World Series Media Day.
One of the first things D-backs manager Torey Lovullo was asked was who would be starting Game 1 for Arizona and the answer was the one the media and fans were expecting.
"The starting rotation will follow the same pattern, if that's what you're asking about," Lovullo said. "I don't want to be secretive about it. It will be (Zac) Gallen, Merrill (Kelly), (Brandon) Pfaadt and we'll figure out what's going on on day four."
Lovullo's counterpart in the Rangers dugout will be three-time World Series champion Bruce Bochy, someone Lovullo has managed against many times dating back to Bochy's years with the San Francisco Giants. Lovullo said he is honored to go to battle against the future Hall of Famer.
"I've said it since the time he was in San Francisco, that after a game when I'm done managing my team against his team, I'm exhausted," Lovullo said. "The beauty of it, too, is that he manages off the scoreboard. I've got a card in front of me. I've got all sorts of stuff I can look at. And I keep my dugout card. He's just going off of his instincts and what's going on on the scoreboard. So to me, that's amazing. He is an unbelievable human being."
Lovullo also took some time to talk about his own staff, including bench coach Jeff Banister, who managed the Rangers from 2015-18.
"He's probably the best thing that's happened to me in my managerial career," Lovullo said. "Jeff Banister has changed our culture in every way that we have wanted him to help and assist in that way. He fills in the gaps. He fills in my personality gaps, that's the first thing. And at times I feel like he does a better job than me."
Lovullo also talked about pitching coach Brent Strom who has led the way in turning Zac Gallen into a Cy Young contender, shaping Merrill Kelly into Gallen's co-ace and turning the D-backs bullpen from a weakness into a strength.
"You look for culture changers," Lovullo said. "When Jeff Banister was hired, he needed to change the culture and help me hold guys accountable, period, end of story, with the entire team. Brent Strom brought a new glossary, a new pitching glossary. And he's the architect of what we do every single day on the mound."
While this will be Lovullo's first trip to the World Series as a manager, it won't be his first as coach. He was the bench coach for the 2013 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. Lovullo said the lessons from that trip a decade ago will help him now.
"It's fairly simple. I watched from an unbelievable manager who was my mentor in John Farrell about how to stay calm during turbulent times or exciting times," Lovullo said. "So I'm drawing from those experiences because I watched him do it."
This team has gotten a lot of bulletin board material this postseason from players on other teams wanting to celebrate in the Chase Field pool to radio host Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo saying he would retire if the D-backs won Games Six and Seven of the NLCS in Philadelphia, which of course, they did. Russo, however, did not retire and Lovullo responded to that.
"When we hear those things, they're out there," Lovullo said. "Social media makes it happen really quick. And it's really my friends and my family that are dropping it in my lap because I don't necessarily -- I'm not on social media and I don't read that type of stuff. But I find it entertaining. I get to it.
"Some of those things do really bother me because nobody knows the magic that's sitting inside that clubhouse right now," Lovullo continued. "Nobody knows what we're capable of doing on a daily basis. Nobody knows how hard we're working to make today happen. Hopefully, people start to respect this ballclub. They better because we're here, and it's real.
"But a deal's a deal, I agree," Lovullo added. "You can't back out of that one, Mad Dog. You've got to do something. I don't know if you're talking about TV, radio, but I do like Howard Stern's thought about walking with a billboard saying that I am whatever, a liar and an A-hole, in Midtown Manhattan for half a day. That will do it for me, but I ain't going to forgive you until you do something unbelievable, maybe show up here and say you're sorry to the entire team. That's all I want to say about that."
Game 1 of the World Series is on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. You can watch the game on Fox.
You can watch Lovullo and Zac Gallen's full press conferences from World Series Media Day here.
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