LESS THAN FOUR months after the Arizona Diamondbacks’ postseason run ended with a World Series loss to the Texas Rangers, baseball’s oldest pitching coach is back in his comfort zone, instructing his pitching staff as he walks the backfields of spring training.

His body might someday tell him it has had enough, but that time hasn’t yet arrived for 75-year-old Brent Strom, and with a freshly signed two-year contract, his entire focus is on getting the D-backs one step further than the team went in November.

“I’ve been conditioned to lose the World Series,” Strom said between Brandon Pfaadt pitches during live batting practice one recent morning. “I’ve lost three of them. All three on our home field. Watching the other team celebrate on our home field is doubly painful.

“I’m like the Buffalo Bills.”

Though Strom is now 1-3 in World Series appearances — having previously made three trips with the Houston Astros — there is little doubt that Arizona’s playoff magic would have run out earlier than it did without his deft touch in handling such an inexperienced group.

The Diamondbacks were powered by stellar performances from starters Pfaadt, Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen, along with a parade of unheralded relievers, including Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkel and Andrew Saalfrank, silencing the powerful bats of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies on their way to the National League pennant. But the pain of falling short on the sport’s biggest stage yet again kept Strom from reveling in his fourth World Series in seven years.

“It’s imperative that we realize there was some luck involved last year and we got hot at the right time,” he said. “I don’t want this to be a one-and-out type of thing.”

Using that as motivation, Strom immediately turned his focus to 2024, skipping his annual offseason trip to Europe in favor of working at a baseball clinic in Cuba and setting up Zoom calls with his pitchers to find new ways to come back even better this season.

“I’ve always gone with the idea of trial and error,” Strom said. “If it doesn’t work, we try something different. You need an open mindset and a highly competitive nature. Heard that from Tom Brady. You have to keep evolving.”

Aside from a rare mound visit gone wrong — like the one that saw Corey Seager hit a World Series Game 3 home run that helped Texas take control of the series — nowhere is Strom’s mentality on display more than when he strides out to the mound to calm a pitcher in the most anxious moments of a game, regular or postseason.

“He’s very direct,” Pfaadt said. “He’s very firm. Sometimes he’ll come out there and give you a nice squeeze on the arm, let you know it’s not a dream. He’ll say ‘I want you to do this’ and usually if you execute then you have success.”