NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 19, 2022

Rob Thomson

Petco Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 2 Press Conference

Padres 8, Phillies 5

Q. Rob, what did you think was different about Aaron Nola today as opposed to the great run that he's been on of late?

ROB THOMSON: Probably missing his spots a little bit. I thought he battled pretty well, but we got to the fifth inning there, and there was just a lot of hard contact. And then he got Machado up, and I decided to go to Brad, because he's probably the best matchup we have coming out of the bullpen, to try and end that inning right there. And unfortunately a little slider got away from him.

Q. By going to Brad, it's a good matchup, but you risk -- if he doesn't get Cronenworth, how great of a risk is it with the righties behind there?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, that's the three batter rule. That's the rule and you've got to live with it.

But he's had a lot of success, veteran guy. I thought that was the right guy to go to, even though you've got Drury and Bell behind him. Drury got a base hit. It wasn't really hit all that hard. It looked like Bell didn't even know he hit -- where he hit the ball. Just kind of inside-outed it.

Anyway, that's the way it is.

Q. Is that too early for Alvarado there?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, yeah. Especially pitching yesterday.

Q. At what point in the inning did you start to get Hand warmed up?

ROB THOMSON: Probably on Soto.

Q. Was there any thought to having him ready for Soto?

ROB THOMSON: No, not really, not at that point. But once Soto tied it, then we were going to go.

Q. What do you tell your team, kind of similar to last series, I guess --

ROB THOMSON: Exactly. That's exactly what you tell them. We went into Atlanta, won the first one, lost the second one. Disappointing game. We had a day off and came back home in front of 46,000 raucous people and played really well.

I expect to do the same thing.

Q. You have Suarez for Game 3. Your Game 4 plan would be similar -- safe to assume it would be similar to what you did last series?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, might be a different starter, but we'll probably run the bullpen similar to what we did, what was it, Game 4 against Atlanta.

Q. Nola, there was a couple 0-2 pitches in that inning. You've seen that before from him. What did you see on the pitch to Soto, and I think it was a pitch to his brother, both 0-2 pitches that ended up getting run-scoring hits?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, just mislocation. That's all I can say. I haven't looked at the tape. I can tell you this, honestly, with the glare out there, a lot of times I couldn't tell where it was thrown or what pitch it was. It was hard to see. I'll have to look at the tape.

But 0-2 pitches that are barrelled are probably mislocation.