NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 19, 2022

Rob Thomson

Petco Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame 2 Press Conference

Q. With Vierling and Sosa, is it simply with Snell on the mound, do you like the matchups there? And why do you like those matchups?

ROB THOMSON: Yes. Just more platoon than anything else, the right versus left. That's really it.

Q. What do you like about the kind of energy that Sosa could possibly bring in a game like this?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, he always brings it, and lately he's been doing a lot. He's been hitting and making good plays on defense. He's just such a good guy to have around, him, Maton, Vierling, Stubbs, all these guys bring great energy. He's always hustling and just gives everybody a shot of energy all the time.

Q. What did you think when the team first acquired Sosa, and do you think he just needed a change of scenery? How much did that help?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, possibly. We had seen him play third base when we played St. Louis. He looked like a nice player. He had a decent series against us. Did not really stand out, but the people that acquired him, our front office, kept telling us what a great defender he was.

I mean, although he played solid, there was nothing really that stood out, but once we got him and saw him on a daily basis, it's incredible how good of a defender he is and how Kevin Long has done a lot of work with him, kind of minimizing movements prior to the pitch and getting him close to the hitting position and getting his swing a little bit flatter as opposed to uphill. He's really making a lot of improvements there. I think we really have a really good player here.

Q. I read that Schwarber kind of messed up his knee, I think, sliding into home plate in D.C., and that might have been a reason why he's been struggling at the plate. Just kind of wondering, how bad was his knee bothering him, and I guess Kevin said he noticed a big difference the past couple days in terms of feeling better?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, it did bother him, and I didn't want to bring it up because I don't want to make excuses for him. It was bothering him. It was tough for him to turn on the ball, tough for him to get the head out.

I think in the last couple of days, maybe because we've had some days off here, that it's been able to heal a little bit. So Kevin told me yesterday, he said, on the off-day he had such a great session in the cages, and he really took a great BP. He said, this guy is going to hit a home run today, and he did. It was really good.

Q. He called that yesterday?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, yesterday morning we were talking.

Q. Question about Andrew Bellatti. You've used him in a lot of different roles this year. I wonder how important his versatility has been and how this bullpen has been built, and do you see something similar to you maybe in that it's taken him a long time to get to this point in his journey here?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, he's so good against right-handed hitters, and his swing-and-miss with his slider has been so good that we can pick a pocket if they're lined up with right-handers and put him on that, and it doesn't really matter which inning. He closed the game here in San Diego when we played here earlier in the year. It doesn't really matter. It's just for me it's just a matter of picking the right pocket, and he's really been good, and the moment is not too big for him. He doesn't sweat.

He's been a really good find for us.

Q. Do you think that knee injury would have been like an IL injury if this was August or sometime earlier in the year?

ROB THOMSON: I think it would be a fist fight if Schwarber -- if we wanted to put Schwarber on the IL.

Q. That double-header in Nationals park, it wasn't that long ago and you guys kind of got smoked in the first game. Didn't seem like a team that was headed for the NLCS. What was the pulse in between games, and what does it say about this team how quickly things can change?

ROB THOMSON: I think over the course of the year we've had a few games like that. They're so resilient and a really short memory. They just come the next day and they turn it back on and forget about the day before. So the pulse is always kind of consistent.

It was even after that blowout in the first game of that double-header, because we were going in there looking to sweep and create some distance between us and the next club.

So it was a disappointing game, but they just turned it back on in the second game, and that's the way they've done it all year long.

Q. I think you guys were supposed to fly home tomorrow, now you're going to fly home tonight. I wonder what went into that, and is there a sports science thing that factors in --

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, players wanted to get home. We've been spending -- the last month has been on the road basically, the last three weeks. They just want to get home. We said, although the science tells you you should stay over, we said, no, let's go home. If they want to go, let's go.

Q. You've used Eflin, Alvarado, Dominguez in the ninth. Is that a philosophy that has changed for you over the year or is that just these guys, you know they can handle the ninth depending on the matchups?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, seriously, we had Mariano for many years, but I've always kind of thought that if guys can handle the moment in the ninth inning, seventh, eighth, ninth, especially the ninth, that you should be able to maneuver a guy or guys into that inning based on where you are in the lineup. So now we know that Alvarado can handle it, Dominguez can handle it, Eflin can handle it, and even Bellatti can handle it.

We have a lot of options doing it that way.

Q. So it's a matter of showing you somewhere in those late innings that they can handle it?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah.

Q. And then once they do show you that, then just put them where it makes sense?

ROB THOMSON: Right. That way you can put Alvarado on a certain -- instead of having him pitch the ninth where he's seeing the 7, 8 and 9 hitters in an opposing lineup, you can pitch him in the eighth on the 4, 5, 6 or the seventh, the 1, 2, 3, wherever you want to put him. That has always made sense to me. I don't know whether it makes sense to everybody, but it makes sense to me.

Q. A lot has happened in the last two weeks that it could be really hard to process it at once, but is there anything new that you've learned from your team over the last two weeks playing in the playoffs that's surprised you?

ROB THOMSON: I think I said this to our local media, but I always felt that the most pressure on our club was just getting in the playoffs, and once we got in, I thought that we'd be fine.

So while I've always said that, I'm still a little surprised that that's what -- we've handled it because I see everybody being so much calmer now than they were in September and coming down to the end because of all this talk of the September swoon, and I think it was kind of eating at them a little bit.

But now I just see a really relaxed, calm, poised club.