NL DIVISION SERIES: METS VS PHILLIES

October 9, 2024

Rob Thomson

Citi Field

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Mets - 4, Phillies - 1

ROB THOMSON: I just want to say, first of all, congrats to the Mets. They have a really good club. They played well, they never gave up. Their second half was unbelievable. I thought Mendy did a great job. Again, they really played well.

Q. You guys came into the season with World Series aspirations. How disappointing is it for the season to end so suddenly?

ROB THOMSON: Very. It always is, especially when we got off to the start we got off on. Yeah, it's disappointing.

The thing that's not disappointing is the character that's in our room, the professionalism, the way they go about their business, their work ethic. That's not just the players, but it's also the coaching staff, support staff. We have a rarely great group. We got beat in a short series.

Q. Can you explain what happened to your hitters and your bullpen in this series. You scored five runs in your three losses and the bullpen gave up a ton.

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, the bullpen might be some of it's execution, maybe some of it's being familiar with our guys. I don't know. It should work both ways, though.

But as far as our offense is concerned, I thought the Mets did a real good job on us. I thought we had pretty good at-bats today, and not much to show for it. But we had a couple of opportunities and Quintana pitched pretty well. But offense comes and goes, and it's hard to explain, really.

Q. Hoffman threw seven pitches in the fifth, he warmed up three times, and then there was some traffic in the sixth inning. Why did it take until Taylor came up for you to warm somebody up?

ROB THOMSON: He gave up the ground ball double. Then he hits Marte. I still think his stuff is good, even though he got up three times because of Ranger's pitch count in the first couple of innings. He didn't really throw all that much. He didn't have many pitches down there. I thought he still had some left.

Q. It's been diminishing returns in the postseason versus improvements during the regular season since you've been the manager. You have a very well-paid ball team, a bunch of stars. Can you address, I guess, the perception that the team is kind of going backward. Do you feel like the returns are diminishing?

ROB THOMSON: No, I don't think so at all. Like I said earlier, I don't like losing a series. I want to win a World Series. But anything can happen in a short series. They pitched their offense really well. They got to our bullpen. But I don't see us going backwards, no.

Q. You had such an emphasis on getting off to a fast start this year. Is there any sense that it was hard to maintain the edge once you guys got up?

ROB THOMSON: Something to look at, for sure. But my sense in the clubhouse with our players was that they never lost their edge. They may have gotten tired over the course of the year, but everybody does at some point.

But the thing that we did do during the middle part of the year, or first third, we had some injuries and guys stepped up. That's when we really kind of took off. But we fell off a little bit in the middle there. But I never categorize that as losing their edge. I don't think those guys did.

Q. Is there a frustration at all in that as more and more teams go into the playoffs and the postseason gets longer that what you do for six months, you know that that doesn't mean nearly as much as the ability to just play well at the right time in October?

ROB THOMSON: I don't know whether it's frustrating. I don't really get frustrated with things I can't control. You can't control that, it's just the rules. That's the way it's set up. You have to deal with it, live with it, and adapt to it.

Q. Do you believe that this roster, given the results from the last three years, I know it's changed some, not a ton, do you think it has the capacity to win a World Series?

ROB THOMSON: Absolutely, absolutely. Like I said, there were times during the ebbs and flows of this season where you get into a rut, and it happens in the postseason, too. Unfortunately, it happened at the end of the Arizona series last year, and this year. But that doesn't mean that things won't change next year.

Q. Where did Cristopher Sánchez fit into your pitching plan?

ROB THOMSON: Extra innings, kind of an emergency, because he needs some extra time to get ready. He can't really come into -- we've got to give him a heads-up to get ready, and that would be extra innings.

Q. Considering we spent two days wringing our hands over Ranger Suarez, can you address his performance and the performance of all your starters, even Aaron through the first four innings yesterday.

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I thought so. I thought our starters did well, and I was encouraged by Ranger's stuff today. He was flirting with disaster the first two innings, and he just kept fighting and changing speeds and keeping people off-balance. That's who he is. He's just a poised man and he really knows how to pitch.

Q. And where was your head? I know Hef was up at least twice. How close was the hook and did you have a conversation with him like after the second?

ROB THOMSON: Oh, yeah.

Q. Did he talk you into it?

ROB THOMSON: No, he never talked me into it, I just wanted to make sure he was okay. His pitch count after two, I can't read anymore, but some. And then he got pretty efficient the next two innings. He settled in pretty good.

But I thought he was good. I thought his stuff was good. His curveball was really good. Command was fine. So that was encouraging.