NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: PHILLIES VS PADRES

October 22, 2022

Rob Thomson

Citizens Bank Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Phillies - 10, Padres - 6

Q. Rob, it was ten days ago that in this room you were fielding quite a few questions about Schwarber and Hoskins at the top of your lineup, and you said no chance of moving them. Since then they've had a lot of big runs and they're at the center of everything tonight. What does that say about them and what gave you the confidence this was coming?

ROB THOMSON: Really I said all year, there's ebbs and flows to offense all year long. I'm not kind of a reaction guy. I kind of try to be a consistent person as far as the lineup, as far as using your bullpen and things like that.

Those guys can hit, and you know they're going to come out of it. And what they do is they work at it. They're constantly in the cage or constantly looking at film and trying to get better and trying to improve their swing. If they're not feeling right, they do whatever's necessary to get back to where they're feeling right.

Q. How big was the timing of their rallies tonight? You fell behind by four, Schwarber gets on, and same thing in the fifth, Soto homers.

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, that's been this club all year. They just don't quit. They're resilient. They keep coming. They keep fighting. Never think you're out of the game.

And the bullpen did an unbelievable job to hold that thing in check. I know Broggy comes in and gives up a soft hit to Kim, and Brad hung a breaking ball to Soto, but other than that, they did an unbelievable job.

Q. I was going to ask you all year long, for the last few months, you've used the word resilient to describe your team. Down 4-0 early and down again in the middle innings. Where does this one sort of rank on your resilience meter?

ROB THOMSON: Just because it's this series, I think it's probably the top of the list. This is a big-time game, and they came through.

Q. Do you pinch yourself a little bit that you're one win away from the World Series or just keep the blinders on?

ROB THOMSON: I've had so much good fortune, I make sure that I don't get hit by a bus when I cross the street, yeah.

No, it's been great. They're playing together. They're just doing all the things they need to do to win games.

Q. Do you remember back like in Spring Training after you signed Schwarber and Castellanos, there was so much talk about what the top five could look like in that batting order, how productive and explosive they could be. Does tonight seem like an example of everything that was talked about back then?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, it is. If you think about the year, we haven't had those five guys together all that much. Coming down the stretch, we finally got them all together.

Tonight is like one of those nights where you think that's what you have when you put it together in Spring Training.

Q. You talk about good fortune. When you have a rested Zack Wheeler tomorrow and with this crowd, what type of good fortune is that for you?

ROB THOMSON: It's great, but it's not over. They've got a pretty good guy going too. We've got to come out here and do the same things we've been doing and prepare and compete and get it done.

Q. Did you not have Alvarado tonight?

ROB THOMSON: We did not have Alvarado. Had Seranthony only in a close situation. So once we got to 4, then we went to Ef to try to save Seranthony for tomorrow, and Ef threw the ball great. Now we have both Seranthony and Alvarado tomorrow.

Q. Alvarado is just a workload thing?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, he said he just wasn't feeling well. He just needed a day.

Q. You said you wanted to get three innings from Bailey. Obviously that didn't happen. From there, can you just talk about how the plan came into place? Brogdon, 2 1/3, I would imagine, helped fill that gap?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, so that's the longest he's gone all year. He got out of the first, finished the second. His pitch count was in pretty good shape. I asked him how he was feeling. He said he felt good.

I said, are you okay to take down another inning? He said, yeah, I want it. We ran him out, and he pitched great. He really saved us tonight. Even though they were early innings, he pitched great and got us to the point where we could finish the game without putting anybody at risk.

Q. You touched on it a little bit, but all the talk about five games, five days, bullpen and all this, you go into tomorrow with a chance to clinch, Wheeler, Alvarado, Dominguez lined up. Is that as good as you could have hoped for?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, really. We've got pretty much everybody. I hate to tell everybody what we've got and what we don't have, but obviously if you can do the math, we probably don't have Brogdon tomorrow. And Eflin will be a question mark because that will be three days in a row.

Syndergaard did a great job ^ as well because we needed that bridge to get to the bullpen. Everyone else should be available for tomorrow. So we're in good shape.