MLB WORLD SERIES: PHILLIES VS ASTROS

November 4, 2022

Rob Thomson

Minute Maid Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Workout Day Press Conference

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

Q. You mentioned yesterday Ranger was in play out of the bullpen for these two games. Is that still the case for tomorrow, and if so, what would that do to a potential Game 7 plan?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I think for Game 7 we probably got both Ranger and Nola lined up. Probably not full pitch count. So if we needed Ranger in Game 6, I think I'd use him.

And then we would have to go full bullpen on Game 7, but Nola gets the start at that point.

Q. Were you able to watch Zack's bullpen yesterday, and if so, what did you see? If not, what were your reports?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I didn't see it because I was doing all the media stuff. But the reports were really good. He looked fine. He turned it up. Everything was good. He's ready to go.

Q. Was that the only one he did after the last start, or given the time, did he do more than one this time around?

ROB THOMSON: No, just one.

Q. I wondered, what's your message to your team as you guys head back to Houston with the Astros needing just one win to potentially close it out?

ROB THOMSON: I think it's stay the course. We played really good baseball. I don't think there's any reason to panic. We just got to keep doing what we're doing and concentrate on doing the little things. I always tell 'em, Focus on the little things and big things will happen. Don't try to do too much, be yourself, good at-bats, play good defense, throw strikes, execute pitches, that type of thing.

Q. I want to ask you about momentum. There's a lot of talk in our game just about momentum, and I think this World Series kind of squashes all the theories that baseball even has momentum. But how do you kind of view momentum? And do you think it's sort of an overblown cliché or do you think there's something to that in baseball?

ROB THOMSON: I think in baseball, especially with our team, from game to game I don't think there's much momentum for our club because we have had some tough games and come back the next day and played extremely well.

But I do think within a game, there is momentum. I think, you take, like, Game 1. We went to Alvarado very early because I felt like we had got the momentum back in that game and I didn't want to lose it.

But from game to game, with our club especially, I can't speak for anybody else's club, but for our club there is no momentum created from yesterday going into tomorrow's game, if it that makes sense.

Q. Having now seen Framber Valdez twice over the last month, I mean, he did a decent job on you guys in Game 2, does he strike you as the kind of guy that the more times the hitters get a look at him the better their chances could be?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I think so. I think that goes for everybody. I think the more you see a pitcher, the more you see the shape of his pitches and see it up close and how the fastball sinks or rides, I think you have a better chance.

I thought we had better at-bats in the World Series start than we did in the regular season start. So hopefully that continues.

Q. This might seem obvious, but I got to ask after using Seranthony yesterday for the first time in a while, everybody available tomorrow out of the bullpen, all hands on deck in Game 6?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, everybody's available.