Zac Gallen, Torey Lovullo: Diamondbacks playing with 'chip on shoulder'
LOS ANGELES — Earlier this week, the baseball world was handed two off days, with nothing to do but debate and discuss. One of those debates, widespread on social media, was whether the MLB playoffs should re-seed after the Wild Card round.
The logic was that teams like the Braves, with their 104 wins and No. 1 seed, deserved to face the worst teams remaining — in this case, the No. 6 seed Diamondbacks. Arizona, apparently, did not miss the debate.
“This team has a chip on its shoulder,” manager Torey Lovullo said ahead of Monday’s NLDS Game 2. “We take it personal when we watch some of the comments on television or read some of the things where everybody wanted to re-seed this thing so the Braves can pick on the lowly Diamondbacks.”
Minutes later, Zac Gallen replaced Lovullo in the media room and offered a similar message.
“Other than the 26 guys, 28 guys in that clubhouse, I don't know anyone else thinks that we should be here, thinks that we deserve to be here,” Gallen said.
Gallen acknowledged that sometimes, teams are seeking disrespect. “I’ve read stories of Michael Jordan saying he would craft things that probably never even happened just to fire him up,” Gallen said. He seemed to be implying that the Diamondbacks are playing into whatever criticism they see.
“I think you just have to find things that are going to motivate you,” Gallen said. “And for us, there's a lot of guys in there that have definitely been overlooked.”
That much is certainly true. Before the season, the Diamondbacks were widely expected to finish fourth in the NL West, behind the Dodgers — their opponent in this week’s series — but also behind the Padres and Giants, both of whom missed the playoffs.
On Opening Day, their odds to win the World Series hovered around 100/1. Only one eventual playoff team — the Orioles — had a smaller chance to make the playoffs than their 15.3%, according to Fangraphs.
But all season, the Diamondbacks blasted past those expectations, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
“It's definitely a team that's probably overlooked,” Gallen said. “I definitely think a chip on the shoulder is probably a good way to summarize it.”
Now, they’re trying to prove that they aren’t, as Lovullo described, “the lowly Diamondbacks.” On Saturday, they got off to a pretty good start, blasting the 100-win Dodgers, 11-2, in Game 1.
“This team takes that very personally,” Lovullo said. “And hopefully people are recognizing that you can't just walk all over us. We're a good baseball team.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gallen, Lovullo: Diamondbacks playing with 'chip on shoulder'
