NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 23, 2022

Rob Thomson

Citizens Bank Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. Hi, Rob. What was your latest weather update. Just curious.

ROB THOMSON: I'm not really sure. They're going to meet at 11:00, I believe. I've heard a couple of different things, that there's some -- there's rain in the area. One forecast says it's going to rain all day, and the other one says it's not. (Laughter.) So I don't know.

Q. Seranthony, you said, was available last night. I'm just curious how you -- is that just asking him how he feels, because you also talked about we're not going to put him in jeopardy because of an injury history. I'm wondering how you decided he's available?

ROB THOMSON: There's three parts. One part is the trainer. They get their hands on him and do all the stretching and tissue work and stuff like that. The other is the pitching coaches who watch him play catch. Is it normal? Does it look normal? Then the third part is me talking to him face to face, look him in the eye, and ask him the question.

All three things checked out. Trainer said he was good. Pitching coaches said everything looked normal. I looked him in the eye, and he said, no, I'm good. I'm ready to go.

Q. Are you pretty good at knowing when a pitcher is being truthful or maybe just trying to be macho?

ROB THOMSON: I think so, yeah, because we're around these guys every day.

Seranthony is very honest, and I think rightfully so because he's had some injuries in the past. So he doesn't want to get hurt again.

Q. Rhys said last night he didn't really think about it when they were two games away, but now that they're one away, it's hard not to think about the World Series and what it would be like to close it out here. How do you keep the team focused? Any message of, hey, let's just focus on today. They've been doing it all year.

ROB THOMSON: Just we've got to go out and prepare the same way as we always do every day and go out and compete and leave it out there.

I was on the 2004 Yankees, so I know what it's like. You've got to keep going. You've got to finish it.

Q. You've told some stories obviously and had a close relationship with George Steinbrenner. I'm wondering what you see out of John. He's out there shagging balls.

ROB THOMSON: It's unbelievable. It really is. I asked him if he wanted to throw the last group one day, and he said, no, I don't do that, but he picks up baseballs.

He's great. He's excited. Not only is he the owner, he's probably the biggest fan we've got. That's pretty neat. That's pretty cool.

Q. Bryce was almost -- has been groomed for these moments, this moment for a long time now. Not only has he delivered, he's performing at an elite level. How remarkable is that to you? This guy has always had a lot of attention on him, and this is the furthest he's ever gotten, and the numbers he's putting up this postseason are remarkable.

ROB THOMSON: It is. To a certain degree, it's getting overlooked because of who he is and the star that he is.

Yeah, he's a guy that's a big star that's delivered. Can't say enough about that.

Q. If there was a delay after Wheeler started, what's the time frame that you'd allow him to go back out? Is there a certain time frame?

ROB THOMSON: It all depends on the pitches he's thrown. Usually just rule of thumb is an hour if you're under 30 pitches.

Knowing Major League Baseball, the way they're looking at these games is that they will make sure that there's a three- or four-hour window that you can play through because they don't want to have that situation where one team gets an advantage because they lose their starting pitcher. They want to make it fair for everybody, and I agree.

I don't think that situation will come up, but that's kind of the rule of thumb. Then usually as we get into the rain delay, 20 minutes, we'll take a guy down to the cage. He'll throw a little 15-pitch piece in the cage, and then he'll do that every 20 minutes until he's out of pitches, what his normal pitch count would be, and then he's done.