NL DIVISION SERIES: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

October 9, 2023

Rob Thomson

Truist Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Braves 5 - Phillies 4

Q. Rob, you left 11 men on base in the first seven innings. Did you feel like you had a chance to rip the game open and do you think those missed opportunities really came back to hurt you?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I think so. I thought we had really good at bats. We got his pitch count up really high, and we had runners in scoring position, just didn't get it done tonight, and that's the way baseball is.

Q. Rob, should Bryce have stopped at second base on that last play?

ROB THOMSON: Usually you don't pass the base. You stay in front of it, make sure it's not caught. But he thought the ball was clearly over his head, didn't think he was going to catch it. And Harris made an heck of a play. Unbelievable. He tried to get back, and he slipped, but usually you stay in front of the second base.

Q. Was there any thought to taking Wheeler out of the sixth inning?

ROB THOMSON: No. I thought his stuff was still pretty good. He gave up a base hit to Olson, and then he punched out Ozuna. He just had a breaking ball to d'Arnaud, one of the few bad pitches he made all tonight. He was fantastic all night. Everything was working. Velocity was good. I thought his stuff was still good at the end.

Q. You had Alvarado warming in the sixth. Would he have come in for Olson there if he had represented the tying run?

ROB THOMSON: Yes.

Q. And coming into the series, going in like a split on the road probably would have sounded appeasing, but just given the way this game played out, is it not satisfying on the plane ride home going back given the way the game ended?

ROB THOMSON: It's a little disappointing. You get up four nothing on these guys and you had some opportunities to break it open, and you didn't, and they come back. We didn't score in the last four innings of the game.

So it's a little disappointing, but hey, we've got home field advantage now. And really, that's what you're looking for after these two games.

Q. What's the message to the clubhouse after a loss like this, that it seemed like it was turning in your direction for the first six innings and it got away from you?

ROB THOMSON: I think it's just being realistic that, you know, we came in here, we split the series, or split the two games here. And now we have home-field advantage. We go back to our place. It's going to be raucous and wild, and we just gotta keep playing baseball. This is, as I've said all year, a resilient club, tough club. They're going to bounce back.

Q. Did you talk to Wheeler between the sixth and the seventh? Did he lobby to go back out? What was that like?

ROB THOMSON: I wanted him to go back out, and he said he was fine, and he still looked good. So I was all in.