NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 20, 2023

Ryan Thompson

Chase Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Pregame 4 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Ryan Thompson.

Q. When you came over to the Diamondbacks, what were the big changes that you made with the help from the coaching staff?

RYAN THOMPSON: Good question. I felt like I was kind of on a mission this year to kind of get back to my old form. Coming back from thoracic outlet surgery, spending three, four months of not really knowing what injury I had, and I was trying to fight through it and try to change mechanics so I wasn't feeling pain.

Coming back from that, I felt like I could still throw strikes and I could still be effective, but it just wasn't the same. So this year was kind of that was my mission, and it was a grueling process at times. But every outing you go out there -- and especially the bad ones are the times when you can really address where you can go to get better and take a step forward.

This year I think especially at the first half of the year, there was a lot of times where I got punched in the face a little bit, and that helped me get better. Coming over here, something that I thought was really special about this team was how many different coaches that we have.

Even the first day I was here proving myself in Triple-A, I think there was four different pitching coaches there at one time. Then I come up here, and we have four guys here at one time for the most part. That has helped me a lot just to have a bunch of different perspectives and to be able to kind of voice what I'm feeling and what I'm working on, and hearing Strommy and Fet and Barry and D.C. and seeing all their different perspectives on what I'm trying to do.

I think Fet has been a huge help for me in the bullpen. And just having that relationship with the bullpen coaches is so massive to have your cues down where he can watch you throw five seconds before you go in the game and say, hey, don't forget this, and you go out there, and you are able to perform. I think that's been something that has been really, really helpful for me.

Q. A lot of times when a reliever joins a team midseason, they have to kind of gain the manager's trust a little bit before he starts using them in high leverage situations. But it seemed like from the jump almost immediately Torey started turning to you in some really key high leverage situations. Were you surprised by how quickly that trust developed?

RYAN THOMPSON: I think the game is changing. It's a little bit less of that now, and it's more analytically charged. I think when they signed me, they knew what I was capable of because of what the computer tells them.

So when I come over here -- and I think it was kind of a perfect storm as well. The first day I was here Ginkel and Sewald, they had pitched, like, three out of four days, so they were down that day.

So that was the situation. Whereas I came in first day, and they were just, like, hey, you're going to be our ninth inning guy tonight. I went out there and had a good game. I think that's kind of the momentum that started from there. That first outing could have dictated how that trust went from there. If I go out and blow the game, I probably don't continue to have that late inning role down the stretch.

Q. What's the mindset like in the bullpen when there's a game like today where so many guys are going to be counted on?

RYAN THOMPSON: I think we thrive on it, honestly. We have a really awesome bullpen here. We have a really deep bullpen of guys that do a lot of different things, and we're really connected. We have a lot of strong conversations and strong relationships down there in that bullpen. We all want the ball.

There's a lot of guys in our bullpen that maybe haven't gotten as much opportunity as of late, and they deserve to have the opportunity, and tonight they're probably going to get it. I think we're all really excited, and we're here for each other. Conversations leading up to our outings, stuff that we're communicating with in the bullpen and lifting each other up and stuff like that. We're a really strong, connected unit down there in the bullpen, and we're excited for tonight and the challenges it will bring.

Q. Just curious about playing at home here. Obviously yesterday you got the win. Today, tomorrow, and just the momentum that maybe that brings with the home crowd, those kind of things, how are you feeling as a team?

RYAN THOMPSON: We feel good. I think home crowd matters. It really does.

You know, our fans showed out last night. It was awesome to have that support. You see it in Philadelphia. You can tell that those guys, their intent is to try to get the crowd in it to kind of feel them. I think that's a good mindset to have because the fans, they matter.

Coming from Tampa to here, it's like Tampa has such a strong fan base, but it's just the inability to get to the stadium. A lot of times it's frustrating over there not having the support in the stadium even though the fan support is really strong over there.

So coming over here and just having the home crowd being as passionate as they are and fueling us is -- momentum is a big thing in baseball. So we're going to try to take what we had yesterday. And the Phillies swept us at their place; we're going to try to sweep them at our place.

Q. Just a couple of questions on your background. Growing up in Oregon, what was it that drew you to baseball? Did you play multiple sports growing up as well?

RYAN THOMPSON: Yeah, I played basketball too. I love basketball, but I was just always better at baseball. A lot of it was my dad too. My dad was a huge baseball fan. I'm living the dream that he had when he was a kid, so it's awesome being able to live this experience with him.

But it's kind of funny. It's a side story. But when I was a kid and I was probably a sophomore in high school and I was probably throwing 80 miles an hour over the top, nothing special. Went to a camp.

Make a long story short, went to a camp. A guy suggested, hey, you should maybe consider throwing sidearm. I had been fascinated with Byung-hyun Kim for years. Sidearm, closer, Diamondbacks. I'd mimic to be like him in my backyard since I was 8 years old.

When I finally got that approval from this coach to be, like, you should try this, that's all the excuse I needed to tell my dad, Hey, I can be like Byung-hyun Kim. We practiced it every day for, like, three months. And then all of a sudden it went from sophomore year not being very good to junior year, I was like breaking records at my high school.

So that was kind of the lead-in to where it was, like, wow, there's something here with baseball. Having that experience with my dad to -- like, we were in this warehouse where we were pushing couches and everything aside, getting to where we can barely squeeze a mound in to practice this sidearm thing that we were just flying by the seat of our pants trying to figure out how to do it. That really sparked the baseball dream.

Q. Then moving across the country to Campbell, what was that journey like? And the culture that you have at Campbell, I think four Major Leaguers right now.

RYAN THOMPSON: That's a good question. I always had a desire to play Division I once I started performing in high school. You know, I was really ignorant at that time of like -- I went to a really small school, so I was performing really well, so I was, like, oh, University of Oregon, Oregon State, everyone. Maybe I'll get drafted, you know. Nobody gives me calls or anything.

So I went to my junior college in Oregon for a couple of years, and then I started getting these opportunities with all these big south schools. Campbell just seemed like the right fit for me, and so I kind of took that leap of faith and went over to Campbell.

Campbell changed my life. It helped me grow up as a human being. I found my faith in the Lord there. My baseball career just took off. I had no idea how to pitch. I was just throwing good stuff over the plate. I was taught how to pitch.

Coach McCarty is the head coach at Abilene Christian. He is phenomenal. I learned how to be a good person. I mean, Campbell is just an amazing place, and we built this culture there. Greg Goff, he is the head coach at Purdue. He was our head coach there.

When I first signed there, I think we were the third or fourth worst team in the country. By the time I left there, we had three straight 40-win seasons, and now we're -- it's going so far beyond what it's like when I was there. We're a regional every single year threatening to win the championship. I really believe that.

What Coach Haire is doing there now is extremely special. It's an awesome place.

Q. When learning the sidearm, how long did it take you to be able to throw the ball even in the direction you wanted to? I don't mean like hitting spots in the zone. I mean like just getting it in the right direction. How long did that take?

RYAN THOMPSON: Not very long because of me playing wiffle ball in my backyard when I was a little kid. So we called it Major League Wiffle Ball, me and my neighbor kids. We broke down all the rosters of all the teams, and we had it in our little binder.

When we would play, we would pick a team. Today I'm going to be the Diamondbacks. Today I'm gong to be the Red Sox, whatever it was. If we hit, we had to mimic that batting stance. If we pitched, we didn't have to throw lefty. We had to hit lefty, but we didn't have to throw lefty, but we had to mimic everybody's mechanics.

So I felt like when I got to that stage maybe five, six years later, it was, like, I had the ability to do all sorts of different things and at least throw strikes. Maybe a pitch wouldn't be very good, but I could throw it where I wanted to.

Q. Since you opened it up, getting back to Tampa's situation, do you think it is a wise decision to spend $1 billion on a new stadium in the same spot that you are still going to have the same problems getting there, or do you think it will change the optics and the whole situation?

RYAN THOMPSON: I do think that question is above my pay grade for sure. You know, if it were me, I probably wouldn't put it in the same location, but I do think the excitement of a new stadium is going to be awesome for that community. I know they're really excited for that.

My thought was always if you put it in Tampa, you bring over the Orlando crowd because it's close enough I think. But they do things for a reason. They have a lot of people that are way more qualified than me on those decision, but I am really excited for that community because they deserve an awesome new stadium.

Q. Based on your opinion about the size of the actual fan base, do you think that it will be an attraction?

RYAN THOMPSON: Yes, I do. I think it will be an awesome attraction for them.