This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
PHOENIX -- It appears the D-backs are using the words of a legendary Los Angeles sports figure to keep themselves focused heading into Game 3 with a 2-0 lead over the Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series.
“The job’s not finished,” D-backs ace Zac Gallen said following Arizona’s Game 2 win in Los Angeles. “What's there to be happy about, really? It's a good spot for us to be in, playing with a little confidence.”
Kobe Bryant, the late NBA superstar, uttered the “job’s not finished” quote after the Lakers took a 2-0 lead in the 2009 NBA Finals.
Not long after Gallen departed the interview room, D-backs closer Paul Sewald came in and said much the same.
“As everybody's favorite Laker said, ‘The job's not finished,’" Sewald said. “It's not finished. We have to win another game.”
It’s hard to imagine that things could have gone any better for the D-backs in Games 1 and 2 of the National League Division Series in Los Angeles.
They went into Game 1 under the cloud of how poorly they had played in Dodger Stadium in recent years, only to score six runs in the top of the first inning, giving Merrill Kelly a huge lead. If they had any internal doubts about their chances in the series, those were wiped away quickly.
Every move manager Torey Lovullo made over those two games paid off. The D-backs played crisp baseball, aggressively running the bases, bunting, stealing and coming through in the clutch.
The Dodgers? Not so much. Their two top hitters, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, were a combined 1-for-13 in the first two games.
“I wouldn't say that this is what a lot of people expected,” D-backs outfielder Corbin Carroll said. “Definitely feel like a lot of things went our way in a very positive way. You know, getting out of here with two wins is huge.”
The Dodgers, though, won 100 games in the regular season and they have a number of veteran players with years of postseason experience. Getting the first two wins was certainly not easy, but getting the third figures to be the toughest of all.
“I think what this team has done consistently in the postseason is maintain their competitive focus,” Lovullo said. “To me, that's been our separator. We have sat on the throttle pretty hard. I've asked these guys to have the same mindset today that they had yesterday and they'll have tomorrow. And that is `how can I do my job to the best of my ability; how can I help my team win a baseball game?’ And nothing is more important than right now.
“The Dodgers are coming. We are expecting their absolute best. And we're ready for that opportunity.”
It sounds as though his players are listening.
“This is a great Dodgers team,” Carroll said. “Things in baseball can flip in an instant. I think everyone understands the importance of trying to do it [Wednesday]. Like I said earlier, we're going to treat this like a must-win game just like we will every game after that.”
Senior Reporter Steve Gilbert has covered the D-backs for MLB.com since 2001.