NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 23, 2023

Rob Thomson

Citizens Bank Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame 6 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: First question for Rob.

Q. Jeff Hoffman was just in here, and he said when he threw BP to Bryce, that was his World Series at the time. How much of that at the time was you guys wanting to get a look at Hoffman while throwing to Bryce, and how much was just you liked what you saw?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, so prior to that, I think Hoffy had an out from whatever club he was at, so we picked up the contract. And the stuff was good. Brian Kaplan, our assistant pitching coach, said we're going through this rehab stuff with Harp, so we're sort of bringing Spring Training to Harp with these pitchers that we're bringing in.

Brian suggested that we bring Hoffman in just to get a look at him. He came in, and he was 97 -- just what we're seeing now -- 97, 98, really good slider. Harp said he was filthy, and consequently Jeff had another out from us maybe a week later. So we brought him up instead of him taking the out, and he's been really, really good.

Q. I know you spoke about Craig Kimbrel yesterday. Then you said you were going to speak to your pitching coach. I'm trying to be delicate with this question.

ROB THOMSON: Please be delicate.

Q. You know I always am. Why would he be in in a late inning situation with the way he's pitched probably for the last couple of months?

ROB THOMSON: Well, it's not necessarily going to be a late inning situation. So we'll see how the game works out. I would like to give him a little bit of a breather. Not necessarily not pitch him, but just give him a little lower leverage situation.

But I trust Craig, and we wouldn't be sitting here probably if we didn't have him, especially when Alvarado was down for that time. So I think the stuff is still there. It's just he's got to throw strikes and power the ball through the zone. They worked on a couple of things in the last couple of days, so hopefully it help.

Q. So are you comfortable or uncomfortable in late inning situations with Craig?

ROB THOMSON: Oh, I'm fine with him, but I just would like to give him a little bit of a lower leverage situation, if we can. Sometimes a game just doesn't work out that way, but if we can, we would.

Q. We were talking to Torey about Alek Thomas and his development. When you look at the home runs the last couple of games, one came on the sweeper away, another one on the fastball in. I'm just wondering if you are seeing anything on video that you recognize as a hitter who is developing or something that he's doing different here in the postseason?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, we saw him last year and this year, and he's a more physical guy this year, so obviously he's done a lot of work. He does have kind of a home run swing, but because of the strength that he's added over the year by what it looks like from me, he impacts the ball a lot better.

He's a really good athlete, and he's got that combination of power and speed that makes him a really good player.

Q. Just in terms of the experience, now you've been out to Arizona, back here, how big of a difference do you notice between just the atmospheres in these two stadiums?

ROB THOMSON: Well, I'm not going to compare the two, but I will tell you this. The atmosphere here is the best atmosphere I've ever been around.

Q. What have you seen from Marsh the last few games? It seems like he's come up with some big at-bats, including against lefties. How big is that when you're getting that out of the eight spot?

ROB THOMSON: It's huge because of the Schwarber lead-off. He is hitting right in front of Schwarber. So him getting on base and give Schwarber a chance to drive runs in is great. Not chasing, using the entire field -- stuff I've talked about all year -- when does he that, he's a good hitter, and then he gets on base.

I know Rojas is going through a little bit of a tough time, but he's had pretty good at-bats lately. If those guys get on base for Schwarber, then we're going to be in a pretty good spot.

Q. Going back to Hoffman, his role has kind of developed over the course of the entire season. At what point, if you could think back, did you sit there and say, yeah, this is a guy we can go high leverage, late in the game, get the big outs, be the fireman that we need him to be, that he's been for you here in the playoff?

ROB THOMSON: I don't know what the exact date was, but we sort of eased him into this thing. When he first came up, we were putting him in low leverage, fifth, sixth inning type stuff. Then it graduated to maybe the sixth or seventh. Then it graduated to dirty innings and then going back out and finishing that inning off.

Now it's to the point where I'm comfortable using him in any inning, including in the ninth right now. We have to watch his workload. I want to make sure he's okay today because he's pitched three out of four, four out of five -- four out of six right now.

Yeah, the way he's throwing the ball right now, what a great pickup, number one, by our front office. And then the development of the split to get left handers off him a little bit, so hats off to our pitching coaches and Jeff.

He's a huge piece of this. Just like Kimbrel, I'm not really sure where we would be without him.

Q. You talked about when you are up in a series, up in a game keeping your foot on the pedal, not letting it off. You talked about coming here, finishing the job the other day. As you are in the driver's seat 3-2 with tonight, potentially tomorrow at home, what's the vibe of the team right now? What's the mentality of the team right now?

ROB THOMSON: Really no different than any other day, to tell you the truth. I think they know what's at hand, and they know what they're supposed to do, and that is put their foot on the pedal, go after these guys, put pressure on them. But I don't think they're overconfident. I don't think they're anything other than they normally are on any other given day.

They're complete pros and pretty experienced at this.

Q. When you are in the dugout and you see Kyle Schwarber hit a ball like he did the other day in Arizona, you seem like a pretty even-keeled guy. But do you ever recoil or do you ever make a sound or something when he hits a home run like that?

ROB THOMSON: A sound?

Q. A noise or something?

ROB THOMSON: It's pretty impressive. The ball he hit off of Darvish last year in San Diego was just -- I don't think I could have made a sound because I was in such awe.

It excites you because it's something you don't see every day. Then two batters later Bryce does essentially the same thing. So we've got a couple of guys that you want to be in your seat watching the game when they come to the plate.

Q. You have a 25-year-old batboy who has been through a lot. He's teaming up with Liam now to raise money for charity. Does he have any roles beyond just being the batboy, I guess? What's he like? What's it like to have him around the team?

ROB THOMSON: Adam is a great -- well, he's a man. I think of him as a kid, but he's 25 years old, as you said. He's a great batboy. He's a great guy. He has been through a lot. He has fought through a lot, so he is tough and resilient, much like our team.

The hustle he brings to the game, just going and getting bats, going and getting foul balls, there's some energy there. To a certain degree, players pick up on that. I just love having him around.

It was probably a month left in the season, and we decided to start taking him on the road. Because usually when you go on the road, the home team provides batboys for you, but we thought he just does such a great job that let's just bring him with us, and he's been a good luck charm.