The Dodgers are one win away from the World Series and their pitching staff has been a big part of it. And the man that has navigated this pitching staff all postseason, all season long is their pitching coach, Mark Pryor.
Mark.
Thanks a lot for the time and congratulations on getting this far.
Appreciate it.
But yeah, job's not done, and you know, we got to come up today and play.
These guys are gonna come out fighting. But so far, it's it's we've.
Been on the positive side of things.
Gotta go get twenty seven more outse.
How did you, Dave Roberts Andrew Friedman game plan to come up with these bullpaying games going back to Game four of the NLDS, Well.
I mean, I think you know one and there is a lot of planning, but most of it, I mean it has been out of necessity. I mean, it's no secret that when you lose starting pitching.
At the clip that we did.
Whether it was you know, Tyler with glass now or it's curse Gavin Stone, I mean, those are like big pieces that we expected to be pitching in these games, and we came into playoffs with three stars and we knew that, you know, three established stars, and we knew that we were gonna have to do some bullpen and do some you know, some more you know, unorthodox things.
And you know, fortunately for us, we have a lot of really good arms in the bullpen that have really, you know, really stepped up in some big situations and done some really kind of heroic things at times, uh to make these things work. And they're they're not not necessarily always the things that you want to do. They're they're very hard to sustain, especially over a course of playoffs. But you know, it's what we've had to do more than something that we necessarily wanted to do.
Uh.
And these this bullpen has been unbelievable as a group and as a as a unit, uh, to basically pick us up where you know, we just didn't have that guy, you know, that that extra starter.
When did you start to realize they found their identity as dogs that were foaming at the mouth to get into a game.
Honestly, I think.
It goes back to a little bit of the regular season. I think it was good for us to play the Padres,
you know, late in that season. I think because you know, we had to, you know, obviously we're in a dogfight with the pennant or the division divisional race, but for them to come out and do what they did, you know, those to win the division that last week of the season, but then really just going in I think Blake's first game in that division series really set the tone for me, Like the least, I mean him being able to go out drop two innings on those guys.
Really secure that first victory.
I know we went down to one after that, but I honestly think that's set the tone of like, here we go, we can do this, and I think everybody just falls suited. And then you got into Game four and those guys just attacked the strike zone against the Padres, who is a very very good team, very offensively driven team, and they just were efficient. They attacked, you know, they kind of imposed their will, so to speak, on them.
And then from then on, it's just they've been doing it all.
All playoffs, and you know, every facet of our game is stepped up and raised its level, and they've definitely they're part of that. They've definitely stepped up and done some things that you know that I think I don't think people expected. I think everybody thought, you know, our pitching was gonna be an interesting dynamic, and I think us included, we weren't quite sure, but they've definitely been a strength for us this October.
Mark Pryor is our guest before Game four of the World Series. Today, you have rookie right hander Ben Casparius starting what people believe is a bullpeny game. Why has he been so good and why is he the right guy tonight?
Well, I mean, yeah, it's definitely interesting with Ben, you know, because he's a guy who hadn't pitch a whole lot.
He came up through a couple outings for us, maybe.
Ryan labor Day with Arizona, had that one inning and then he faced the Rockies down the stretch.
He's got really good stuff, you know.
I mean you look at his he's got a good fastball in the mid up or nineties. He can really spin the baseball with both slider and curveball.
Trust the head, you know.
You know, he had that one inning against Colorado where he almost kind of fell off the rails and then he was able to quickly get it back.
So we trust the.
Stuff, you know, to in this environment to just kind of let it rip and then we'll see where we go from there. But everybody's had their part in this in this run, and this is he's He's had.
Some good moments. We're against the Mets.
He got his feet wet in the Padre series, so now he's gonna get his feet wet here in the Bronx and that's not an easy task, but we feel he's up to it, as as the rest of the guys are.
Before I let you go, this will probably be our last pregame interview of the season. How rewarding has it been for you to have guys like Walker Bueller fight through adversity, to have your bullpen step up the way it did, and for you to be able to navigate this plan, to be able to get to this point in the season. How rewarding has that been for you personally?
Well, I definitely don't.
Think it's rewarding for me personally. I do think it's I think it's rewarding for.
Us as a group, you know, players and staff.
I mean it's not just it's it's Connor McGinnis, Josh barr Is, Danny Layman, it's the trainers, it's a strength staff.
I mean, there's a lot of people.
I mean a lot of people that are behind the scenes that work with our pitching staff and all our players that sometimes you know, they don't get the credit that they deserve.
I mean, it's it's putting these.
Guys back together night in and night out after they come off the field. It's you know, working with them in the way room. It's guys in the video room, you know, working with tips. I mean, there's a lot of guys. I mean what I think makes this organization so successful in our processes. We do have a lot of guys, but we're able to like put a lot of departments together to really help, you know, support the players.
And so from that.
Standpoint, you always feel good when players go out.
And perform well, you know.
And I think for me and for the rest of us, it's not just about us personally. It's about us being able to collaborate together, you know, to get Walker in a position to be successful last night, to get Blake Trinan, who's had two years. I mean, so think about I mean, for us, like Blake has had a great year and what he's been doing is great, but all the guys that have been in CBR, who spent time rehabbing every every coach, every trainer who's touched Blake and helping along
his long rehab has a part in this. So I think it's more just like a combination of how well we work as an organization across departments is pretty unique. And as a coach, we get into this because we want to see players perform. Absolutely, the competition of the game is extremely fun. That's why we still are involved. But it's also to watch these players go out, and that's why everybody gets involved in this business because they want they love baseball, but too they want to see
people do well. So that's been pretty cool. And you know, look, we got a long way to go. This thing is no by I know it. I've been unfortunately, We've doc has I have, We've We've been on both sides of these things. It's a really good team across there, and
they're not gonna go down lightly. So we got to continue to play good fundamental baseball, throw strikes, not walk guys, prevent slug do all the things that we've always done, and we'll see where we're at at the end of tonight, you know, and if it, hopefully we just play a good fundamental game and hopefully we're it's a positive outcome and if not, we'll throw up again tomorrow and we'll try to.
Do the same thing. Just one win, win. Yeah, play the game.
It's just like any it's a big game, but it's you approach every game the same.
Just go out and play good baseball.
All right, Mark, thanks a lot for the time. Appreciated, and congratulations on all the success you've had with the team and the synergy you've created.
Well, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.