NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 23, 2023

Tommy Pham

Citizens Bank Park

Arizona Diamondbacks

Postgame 6 Press Conference

Diamondbacks 5, Phillies 1

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Tommy Pham.

Q. In what way did this win show the character of the team that you have come to know since you came here on a trade?

TOMMY PHAM: We're a very resilient group. You can say when our backs are against the wall, it brings the best out of us. Guys tend to turn up the focus. It gives us a little edge. So maybe that's what we needed.

Q. Merrill Kelly had to go through a lot just to kind of get his opportunity in the Big Leagues, let alone get to this stage. What about him have you learned in the short time you've been his teammate that kind of makes that make sense? Like, why has he been able to kind of get here, I guess?

TOMMY PHAM: He cares about getting better, and that's part of the process of being a Big Leaguer. It's one thing to get here. It's another thing to get here and continue to work on being better at your craft. That's something about Merrill that I've learned about him.

He's very studious of the game. He cares and he wants to be great. So there's some drive to him.

Q. First, just what are you seeing out of Alek Thomas in the postseason that's allowing him to make this leap in terms of performance?

TOMMY PHAM: He's controlling his back side a lot better. When I got traded here, I watched him hit, and I don't know, in a span of games I watched, he was just jumping out so far to hit the ball. I started talking to the hitting coaches. I'm, like, you know, you guys got to get this guy to stay back.

They were, like, you don't think we've told him?

I was, like, all right, man, let me try to talk to him.

So I started talking to him about his swing and what I thought, and I started showing him things that I felt like he could do better to make him a harder out. He really took what I said and ran with it, man, and it's been beautiful watching him continue to get better at it.

Probably going to have to give me a tip or something for helping him out, but he's really gotten better mechanically with his swing, and it's allowing him to pull the ball in the air better, drive the ball the other way. And I mean, I wish I could take what I know about hitting and translate it that quick because I wouldn't be struggling as much as I do.

Like I said, it's been beautiful watching him continue to get better at it.

Q. Just for you, I know you've talked about signing in New York in order to make it to the postseason. Have you reflected on just this topsy-turvy journey you've had that now has taken you across the country and here to a Game 7?

TOMMY PHAM: I haven't reflected on it. I'm sure there will be a time I will reflect on that, but it hasn't happened yet.

Q. Can you take me through that first at-bat? What did you see from Nola? He's been dominant. What did it mean to touch him up early?

TOMMY PHAM: Yeah, he has been dominant. Nola is a great pitcher, great numbers against me. He fell behind 1-0, and then he threw a ball at the top of the zone, and I fouled it back. Immediately I was, like, damn, I missed my pitch because I don't -- as you guys have seen this series, I haven't been getting too many balls out over the plate.

Then he throws a backdoor changeup, and in my mind I'm, like, shit, here we go again. I'm down 1-2, 0-2, like always. Let me try to battle. And I got to 2-2, and it just looked like he missed his spot. You know, he was trying to get the ball out over away. It came in, and I didn't miss it.

Q. What was the mood like in the clubhouse, and then can you compare that mood tonight to how it's been with the other wins in the series?

TOMMY PHAM: The mood has been the same as every other win except now we need one more to advance. Going into today, we were focused on winning. You know, it's win or go home. That's the mindset. That's the attitude, and that's the thought process regarding everything.

Q. As a team, was your approach to Aaron different than it was the last time you faced him, or was it a case of just taking advantage of the mistake pitches he may have thrown in this game that you didn't get a chance to do so in the previous start?

TOMMY PHAM: There's really no team approach. You know, every hitter has their own history, and they're attacking every hitter different. They're pitching me different from, let's say, Christian Walker because we have different strengths and weaknesses.

They're really doing a great job executing. Their pitchers have great stuff as well. When you combine great stuff, 95 to 100, with execution, that's really hard to hit. Hitting is hard already. Three out of ten gets you to the Hall of Fame.

But when you've got guys now throwing 95 to 100 on the black and they're breaking off 86- to 90-mile-per-hour sliders with 26- to 2900 RPM spin, and it's landing on the black, the numbers say -- I don't know if you are familiar with it, but the numbers say guys hit, like, 200 or less on that, just to kind of educate you. You're really just hoping that you get a mistake.

Q. You've shared a lot over the years about your journey with keratoconus and what you've had to do to just be able to play this game. I wonder on a cool, dry night like this -- as I understand it, that's the kind of thing that would cause issues with this for you in the past -- maybe could you share just all you had to do just to be able to see, let alone hit a ball that far on a night like this?

TOMMY PHAM: I don't know if that's kind of accurate for me and my keratoconus. I would say windy days are probably troublesome, especially defensively for me. But the day I hang it up, I might write a book about how challenging keratoconus is for someone trying to play Major League Baseball.

I learned my teammate has keratoconus, but he is a pitcher. Ryan Nelson. He was, like, how do you hit? He said I had to give up hitting because of this in college.

I was, like, yeah, man, I figured out something that works, and hopefully I can get five more years in this game, but it's not easy.

But I do have a great supporting cast of doctors. There's new technology coming out, which is probably giving me a little bit more years, and everything should be better. Let's hope for the best for me.

Q. When you consider how this series started and considering how you were down 0-2, and then down 3-2, for this team to battle back and find yourself down to the seventh game, winner take all, with a chance to go to the World Series, talk about the way you persevered and have gotten to this point.

TOMMY PHAM: Yeah, it speaks a lot about the guys in that clubhouse, especially against this team.

When I played here earlier in the year with New York, I saw the potential of this team. I've seen their bullpen. I have a history against their starters, and their lineup wasn't necessarily clicking the way it is now. But as the season wore on, you saw their bats get hot. It was just like, man, this team could be scary.

But as I said earlier, it speaks a lot about the guys in that locker room, the coaches. Because with all honesty, man, the media could really portray a false picture about a team than as you guys are seeing the series, the resiliency of the D-backs and how we play the game, how we manage to win. It's starting to grow amongst the baseball fans, media, and everyone else in the game.

It's just sometimes when you count a team out from the get-go and when that team easily falls behind 0-2, you get that perception. But we always felt like if we got some good pitching, played great defense, and we played our game, that we could win this.