Inside the Diamondbacks Connected Locker Room

Reactions from last night's victory over the Dodgers, a familiar theme shines through

Last night the Diamondbacks defeated the Dodgers 11-2 in game one of the National League Division series. Incredibly they scored five runs against Clayton Kershaw before he even recorded an out, the big blow being a three run blast off the bat of Gabriel Moreno. Three batters later Evan Longoria chased him from the game with an RBI double. 

Staked to such a huge lead early, Merrill Kelly pitched 6.1 scoreless innings to record his first ever win against the Dodgers in his 17th start against them.  You can read the game story from last night here at this link.

Postgame interviews were a bit hectic, with players and media scrums scattered through the clubhouse.  While each of the players was interviewed separately here is a common thread of cohesiveness and teamwork throughout. Here are some of the best quotes of the night. 

Evan Longoria (1-4, double and sac fly, 2 RBI)

"It was nice to be able to go out and set the tone of the game early. Obviously you're going against a guy like Kershaw, you know he's pitched well against us in the past and it was a great top to bottom approach by the offense"

Tommy Pham (4-5, a homer, three runs and an RBI,  singled and scored in the first)

"Kershaw man, he owns me. I joke with him, like hey man, give me an autograph for every strikeout you have against me. He historically does really well against me. I don't know what it is, I got lucky. The ball wasn't even in the strike zone, I typically don't even hit that pitch"

In Friday's batting practice Pham was blasting balls two thirds up the pavilion in both left and right field. Asked if he felt locked in going into his four-hit game after that he gave a surprising answer:

"Today kind of humbled me, because BP today, (Saturday) was kind of ugly. So that's how this game is. You don't ever want to be too high, you don't ever want to be too low. You just want to stay right there. I remember Waino [Adam Wainwright] told me that, because the day you think you have the next day you get humbled"

Asked about how comfortable some of the young players seem to feel in big moments, Pham was quick to praise the coaching staff

"You've got to give credit to the coaching staff, because the preparation that they give us on a daily basis, you know that helps everyone. So you know, it's the coaching"

Corbin Carroll (2-5, RBI single in the first, solo homer in the 2nd)

The Diamondbacks have scored 22 runs in 27 innings in games started by Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, and Clayton Kershaw. Carroll attributes that to the team effort. 

"The togetherness that we're playing with, you know there's no selfish at bats. I think it's just a collective mindset, everyone in the same space. It's paying off in a big way so far."

Alek Thomas (1-3, a homer, two walks, two runs, one RBI)

Not known for a patient approach at times, Thomas drew two walks early in the game. In the 7th inning he had an epic 14-pitch at bat against Michael Grove in that ended in a solo homer. That was the longest at bat ending in a homer in postseason history since pitches began being tracked in 1988. Speaking of the at bat here is what Thomas had to say. 

"It was a long at bat. I just kept fouling them off. Probably about half of those pitches weren't strikes I'm pretty sure. It's just part of the game. You've got to battle, thankfully the last pitch was one I could hit.  That was a really cool at bat. Probably my longest at bat ever of my life. It was pretty sweet to end it on a homer."

Speaking on the total team effort, Thomas echoed some of the same sentiments as Carroll and Pham

"That's what we preach here. We're trying to do this thing together. It's not going to be one individual guy. I mean you saw that today. Merrill did his thing, one through nine did amazing. It's just a part of our game. Not one guy is going to win this. It will take a team effort and you saw it today"

Ketel Marte (1-5, double, run scored)

Ketel Marte kicked things off with a 116 mile per hour line drive to left center that knuckled on Dodger centerfield Josh Outman. He got a glove on it, but wasn't able to haul it in. It took some time for the official scorer to decide if error or hit, but eventually it was posted as a double. 

"It was  116 MPH. When you hit the ball 116 it's never an easy catch, especially on a line drive.  Everybody had a good approach and good coaching." 

On why he and the rest of the team seems to be playing so loose

"I mean I've got almost nine years in this league. I'm not going to [feel] pressure. It's baseball, you know. You've got to go out there and have fun. Have fun with my team. Have fun with some guy on the Dodgers. I just try to fun every time. You don't need to have pressure out there."

Marte followed that up however by discussing playing in Dodger stadium

It's not easy to play here man, I'll tell you that. There's a lot of fans here. We might get a lot of pressure, I don't know. To compete with the Dodgers you've got to play nine innings. I think we're good. We've got to continue to work hard and we're going to be all right.  We've got a lot of talent man. They can play. 

Christian Walker (1-3, double, 2 runs, 1 RBI)

Walker came in batting .294 with a 1.038 OPS and five homers against Kershaw in the regular season and continued his dominance over the future Hall of Famer   by ripping an RBI double to the wall in the first inning.  Asked about post season momentum he said:

Day to day is funny, especially in a series like this with off days in between, but yeah , I think that was enough proof to ourselves that we can trust ourselves in the moment and be confident, and we have a reason to be confident. We're a really good team. Anybody can execute on any given day. But if we're locked in and we're relying on each other I think the proof is there that we can trust that. 

And so in summary, there it is again. This Diamondbacks team is here because they trust each other, rely on each other, play as a cohesive connected unit, and are well coached and receive that coaching. Of course they were on a high from a big victory, but they were humble and focused maintaining the teamwork approach.