NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 23, 2022

Rob Thomson

Citizens Bank Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 5 Press Conference

Phillies - 4, Padres - 3

Q. You take over this job in June, not knowing what the future would hold. As you sit here and look back what the last four months have been, how do you describe it?

ROB THOMSON: Just incredible. I don't know if there's any other word to describe it.

These guys have overcome a lot of things, one being a slow start, a lot of expectation, but they just kept going. That's why I always talk about resiliency and how tough these guys are -- physically, mentally, emotionally. It's just such a great group to be around.

Q. You've been in baseball a long time. To go from 22-29, taking over, to where you are now, I know you said you can't describe it, but does anything come close? How do you even see it right now? Are you even like thinking clearly?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I don't know. It's a tough question.

But I just go back to in Spring Training when Dave went out and John and Sam went out and signed Schwarber and Castellanos and the bullpen pieces that we added. I just felt like coming out of Spring Training we had a really good club. We got off to a slow start, and it just kind of snowballed.

Then they started to pick it up and never looked back. I'm just so proud to be just a part of this group, I really am.

Q. The journey that you embarked on when you took over the reins of this team in June and knowing where this club had been, just to be here and now going to the World Series, from that point forward, how special is this for you personally and professionally?

ROB THOMSON: It's special personally, but there are so many guys in this club who have never been to even the playoffs. J.T., all our young guys, all the guys that have been in this organization. It's just amazing. So I'm so happy for them as well. I'm probably more happy for them than I am anybody else.

It's just an incredible feeling. I'm happy. We'll celebrate tonight, but we get back to work tomorrow.

Q. When you guys won a game in Houston, and you said, what, 13 more, is that something you believed was possible then? And the hit that Segura got in St. Louis, did that sort of like start things in motion?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I think so. You get in the playoffs, anything can happen. You get on a roll and you have a little bit of good fortune and some lucky bounces, things just kind of keep going and snowballing in your favor.

I really thought that coming down the stretch, if we could get in -- and I believed that we could get in. But once we got in, everybody would relax because I think the biggest pressure on these guys was just getting in because there's been problems in September the last three, four, five years, whatever it's been.

And they have. They've been relaxed. They've been poised. They've played their best baseball during this stretch. I'm really happy for them.

Q. Today lifting Wheeler there, how tough was that? And seeing what happened afterwards making you wonder was that the right move? Now he might have to go to San Diego and deal with all the stuff there?

ROB THOMSON: It was the right move in my mind. We were trying to stretch Wheels as much as we could, get as many outs as we could, so that Seranthony and Alvarado didn't have to take down as many outs.

Once he gave up the base hit -- we had Seranthony lined up for all the right-handers at the end of their lineup. But once he gave up the base hit, I said, well, we're going to go at Bell now. Unfortunately, Seranthony had some problems with the grip because of the rain, so there was some wild pitches mixed in there.

I'm really proud of him for grinding through that because he was having a lot of problems, but it all worked out in the end.

Q. Rob, you've been around a lot of great players in your coaching career. Getting to manage Bryce Harper and to have a moment where you need a big hit to send you to the World Series and he's up, your $330 million man, how good in your eyes is Bryce Harper?

ROB THOMSON: As good as it gets. I mean, he's proved to me over and over and over again that there's no moment that's too big for him, and he's come through so many times. You just kind of expect it when he goes to the plate.

Q. My question is this. When you saw Bryce Harper coming up, what's going on in your mind? I was just talking to John Milton. He said, look, he just wanted to get a ball in the gap. What's going through your mind, and do you get nervous in those situations like that?

ROB THOMSON: No, because I don't have a bat in my hand, so I can't do much about it.

What's going through my mind is really just give us a good at-bat. That's all. And he usually does in those moments. Now, he could hit that same ball that's just a little bit lower and the center fielder runs it down, but if it's a good at-bat, really that's all you're looking for. Can't control it once it leaves the bat.

Yeah, that's really about it. Obviously he got the right launch angle, and we're sitting here now.

Q. One final thing, though, when this team was 22-29, what kind of a difference did you feel that you made with this team? Because this team has played a lot better. Or was it just maybe a combination of guys being injured, guys being hurt and coming back, finally coming together.

ROB THOMSON: I think it's a combination of a lot of things. When we hit June, the schedule -- no disrespect to anybody -- but the schedule got a little bit easier once we hit June. May was a bear.

Guys were starting to come back, getting healthy. We won eight in a row or something after June 2nd, starting at June 2nd.

I think the confidence just grew, and we got that confidence back, and it just kind of steamrolled for us. Then we started getting guys back. Then we had some more injuries. Young kids stepped in.

So I have to really congratulate our player development department, people in Lehigh Valley and in Reading that have given us these players that are ready to play here. They come here with a lot of energy and really good skill, and they know how to play the game and they play the game the right way. And they just added when we did have injuries. It was really good.

Q. Friday is the first game of the World Series. What will it mean to have four days off to get your guys together? The fact that you are presumably going back to Houston and you just saw them a few weeks ago.

ROB THOMSON: Don't presume that.

Q. Okay. Don't presume. If you're going to Houston, you just saw them. Does it help much?

ROB THOMSON: I think so, yeah. We saw three of their really good pitchers. We saw Verlander and Valdez -- who is the other one? The right-hand curveball guy? Anyway, it doesn't matter, but it does help.

Don't forget I was on that '04 Yankee team that played Boston, so you never presume anything. You have to keep going.