NL DIVISION SERIES: DODGERS VS PHILLIES

October 8, 2025

Rob Thomson

Dodger Stadium

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Phillies - 8, Dodgers - 2

Q. Going into the eighth, was it your plan to get six outs from Duran. And if so, how big was that offensive outburst in potentially saving him for tomorrow?

ROB THOMSON: That's what we were going to do, especially starting with Betts, I believe, who started in the eighth. Once we added on we went to Kerk, and Kerk threw the ball great. So it saved Duran for tomorrow.

Q. What was the plan with Nola and Suarez coming in, and how close did they come to executing it exactly what you wanted?

ROB THOMSON: They pretty much did exactly what we wanted. We wanted to use those guys to get as close to Duran as we could to save some of the bullpen for tomorrow if we want.

Nola was really good. The plan was to go one time through the lineup and Ranger is on Ohtani. Ended up with Edman lading off the third. He's 1-for-20 with nine strikeouts against Ranger, and he hit the first pitch out of the ballpark. Yeah, they executed perfectly.

Q. How satisfying is it for you as a manager to come into a game that you have to win, literally a must-win, and have an unorthodox plan work out pretty much perfectly?

ROB THOMSON: It really is. I give credit to the players, for sure. Our offense was really good. We swung the bats, we had good at-bats up and down the lineup, the first four guys in the lineup were, what, 9-for-16. They kept grinding, kept adding on. We had chances in other innings than the innings we scored.

They just put pressure on them all night long. And Nola, Suarez, Kerkering, even Taijuan threw the ball really well. He didn't really give up much exit velo but they got hits off him, and then Banks throws one pitch. I thought we really played well all around.

Q. You guys seem to be pretty aggressive with Yamamoto early. Could you talk about, did that kind of get the guys into the flow at the plate, being able to attack fastballs right away?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I think we had good at-bats against them for sure. We got them into some counts where we expected some fastballs. And I think the Schwarber home run just sort of woke everybody up and got a lot of energy going in the dugout.

Q. Part of your job as a manager is to get guys sort of able to flush what happened earlier. And you guys, you lost four in a row, I think, in the postseason. And you came out here and they seemed to be, I don't know, focused, refreshed, I don't know. Do you take a degree of satisfaction in that as well?

ROB THOMSON: They're an experienced group of guys. They've been through this a little bit. One thing they did, I think, is they stayed in the moment, stayed relaxed. If you stay in the moment, trust the process, trust your teammates and not really focus on the result, you have a better chance of getting to the result. And they did that. So I'm happy with them.

Q. Did you, I guess, re-impress that upon them over the last couple of days?

ROB THOMSON: I think they do it inside the clubhouse very well. The veteran guys, they spread the word. And one game at a time. And that's kind of our motto today.

Q. I know you announced it after Game 2, but when did the Nola-Ranger plan first start to come together, and how long ago?

ROB THOMSON: It didn't happen until after Game 2 because we wanted to figure out where we were at after that game. And then we sat down and talked about it and tried to figure out, okay, how do we navigate this lineup with using both those guys. And that's sort of what we came up with.

Q. The fourth inning, there you don't have a hit yet, they just took the lead, how big is that Schwarber home run? And can one swing in a short series like that turn everything around?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, it could. We'll see about the rest of the series. But certainly I thought we hit balls hard prior to that, too, some balls deep, almost to the wall, to the warning track. So we were on Yamamoto decent, but I did think we had good at-bats. The lineup woke up.

Q. Duran, I know you mentioned earlier, Dave Roberts was in here said I would have loved to get him in the game. If he pitched two tonight what would he have been available for tomorrow?

ROB THOMSON: One, if any.

Q. There's been a lot of -- you've taken a lot of criticism the last three seasons, including this one --

ROB THOMSON: I have?

Q. Yes. For some of the decisions you've made they haven't worked out. The way the guys played as well. Have you felt that pressure going into, especially tonight, which was an elimination game? And has it affected you at all?

ROB THOMSON: I don't think so. I think that's part of this job is that you make decisions. You plan it out. It's not like we're throwing stuff up in the air. But you plan it out, if it doesn't work, then, yeah, there's criticism there. That's just part of the gig. It really is.

Q. Finally, the uniforms, are you going to stay in the powder blues forever?

ROB THOMSON: Well, not necessarily because it's Major League Baseball's decision depending on the home team's home uniform.

Q. Your druthers?

ROB THOMSON: Based on tonight, I would. But if their home colors match up with our powder blues, then they won't let us use them.

Q. The pitch clock violation, what went into that? There was an argument about it. At that time, it was a pretty big at-bat.

ROB THOMSON: Huge at-bat. I think in that situation you've got to have a little bit of leniency because Bohm is at first base. He gets an intentional walk, the clock starts right away.

Now he's trying to get his glove on, his sliding mitt. So Marsh is watching him, assuming -- you shouldn't assume -- but assuming they're not starting anything until he's ready. But the time ran out. But I think there should be a little bit of feel there.

Q. The second run you score, it's after Harper goes first to third, the throw gets away. Do you like him rolling the dice there? And what can be kind of being aggressive do in a game like this?

ROB THOMSON: I think you have to be aggressive. Sometimes you've got to force the issue a little bit. He did and caused an error and got us a couple more runs.

Q. Probably the biggest story of the postseason, despite the Dodgers winning, is that Shohei is 1-for-14 with seven strikeouts against you guys. Has the plan sort of worked, or is it a combination of maybe he's not where you expect him to be at this point?

ROB THOMSON: I really don't want to comment on that because, I mean, he can explode at any time. He's that great of a hitter. But we have pitched him well.