MLB WORLD SERIES: PHILLIES VS ASTROS

October 29, 2022

Rob Thomson

Minute Maid Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Houston Astros - 5, Philadelphia Phillies - 2

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions for Rob.

Q. What was your take on Zack Wheeler tonight? It looked like his velo was down from his previous postseason outings.

ROB THOMSON: Yeah. He was just a little off. It was a little bit light stuff and location was a little bit off. Should have only given up two runs in the first inning and then Bregman hits a home run, he got behind him and beat him to the spot. It was just a little bit light today.

Q. How about the health of the knee and the elbow, which he was on the IL for?

ROB THOMSON: Everything's fine, as far as I know.

Q. Did your dugout notice Valdez rubbing out his hand at all?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, we did. And I just got it from KG. It's all over Twitter. The umpires check these guys after almost every inning and if there's something going on MLB will take care of it.

Q. But you saw it, and there was no concern in your mind?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, but we saw it the last time he started too, so...

Q. What did impress you about Framber Valdez tonight and how did he keep your hitters off balance?

ROB THOMSON: His sinker was fantastic. His curveball was pretty good. His put away pitches were good. He pitched well, and he's been doing that for awhile now.

Q. What was your plan with Zack going into the 5th? Was it just his inning come hell or high water? What were your contingency plans?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah. Yeah, it was his inning. Then once Bregman hit the home run, then I didn't want to extend his pitches too far because he's got another start in four days. So that was basically it. Just got him out of there.

Q. Nola and Wheeler have been so good for you this season, have carried you so far. Do you worry that both of them might be running out of gas here as we get this late?

ROB THOMSON: I think everybody deserves a poor start every once in a while. Those guys have been so good for us for so long, and I fully expect them to come back and be ready to go and pitch well for us.

Q. And can you tell us who might start Game 3 and Game 4?

ROB THOMSON: I can, yes. So it's Syndergaard Game 3 and then Ranger Game 4.

Q. And that's just to give Ranger --

ROB THOMSON: An extra day, yeah. We figure for Game 4 he can at least give us, we can extend him out a little bit more than we could if he was pitching Game 3.

Q. What did you see on those two nearly homers by Schwarber there late?

ROB THOMSON: Well, it looked foul to me, but the umpire called it fair, and then they got together, called it foul. I just went out and I said, Why don't we just check it just to make sure it just didn't clip off the foul pole.

And you don't see it too often where a guy hits a foul home run and then hits a fair home run, but he almost pulled it off. That would have been nice.

Q. Couple defensive lapses in the first inning. Do you feel like if the error hadn't been made maybe it would have set a different tone maybe earlier in the game?

ROB THOMSON: You never know. It was an error or a throw that Sosa doesn't usually make. He's a pretty accurate thrower. But you never know. I thought that Zack should have come out of there with only two runs and maybe it's a different story. But you just got to move forward and keep plugging away.

Q. I think you're following the same pattern as you did the last two series. You split, you go home. Can you talk about what you expect on Monday and what this team has shown you after sort of suffering this kind of setback?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, as I've said all along with this club, it's really got a short memory. And I expect them to come in there and be ready to go in front of a rabid fan base. They're going to flush it and move forward. And I expect them to be, come out and prepare and compete just like they always do.