NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 18, 2022

Rob Thomson

Petco Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame 1 Press Conference

Q. David came out of everything fine yesterday. What made you feel comfortable that he could pitch well and maybe field a bunt in a big spot if he needed to?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, well, I was in here when he was doing his bullpen. Caleb said it was really good. Then I got outside for his PFP, and when I first got out there, it looked like he was a little ginger on it, but as time went on, it got better and better and better, and finally the last play he made was a bunt, the third baseline, and he fielded it nice and easy.

Trainers checked him out, checked him out again this morning, said he felt good, so we feel comfortable putting him on the roster.

Q. If you could just put into words what that does for your late-inning depth.

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, another guy that I trust, and how we're going to deploy him at the start of the series, we'll see. I'd like to get kind of a little bit lower leverage landing spot because he hasn't pitched in nine days. He hasn't seen a hitter. But we'll see how it goes.

Q. Give us a thought on the Nolas facing each other. You've had brothers, what that's like --

ROB THOMSON: Well, it's like the Matons facing each other, right? No, it's a lot of fun. I can't imagine what their parents are going through every time that thing comes out.

But it'll be a lot of fun.

I saw some stat today where Nols has had X amount of pitches at 95 and above, and like 75 percent of them were to his brother. So that's pretty neat.

Q. What went into the decision to take Nelson off the roster?

ROB THOMSON: This morning when we added Robby. We wanted D. Rob to sleep after doing his work yesterday, wanted him to sleep on it, check him out this morning. He went to the training room this morning, and it was like 8:30 in the morning, and they checked him out. He said he felt good, he looked good, the tissue looked good. When we added David, we had to take Nick off.

Q. What made Nelson the guy you decided to take off as opposed to someone else?

ROB THOMSON: Just the fact that we needed length because we're going to need a starter on the fourth game, plus any extra-inning games we're going to need length.

Those two guys, Syndergaard, Falter, Gibson, those were the guys we really needed for length.

Q. Looking at your lineup, you have some great talent including Brandon Marsh. How much has he helped this ballclub since coming over from the Angels?

ROB THOMSON: Big time because he's a plus-plus defender in center field, so he covers a lot of ground. That's the first thing.

The second thing was when he came over, he went right to the cage, got with Kevin Long, our hitting instructor. They did a lot of work on minimizing movements, getting closer to a hitting position. And he's really taken off. He's got a lot of aptitude, so he learns quickly. He can apply it very well.

He's only 24 years old, too. I mean, this kid has got a bright future ahead of him. I'm glad he's with us, and I'm glad we've got him under control for a few years.