NL DIVISION SERIES: DODGERS VS PHILLIES

October 9, 2025

Rob Thomson

Dodger Stadium

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame 4 Press Conference

Dodgers - 2, Phillies - 1 (11)

Q. Obviously a heartbreaking way to lose. You had a long conversation with Orion coming off the field. Do you want to share what you told him?

ROB THOMSON: Just keep his head up. He just got caught up in the moment a little bit. Coming down the stretch there, he pitched so well for us. I feel for him because he's putting it all on his shoulders. But we win as a team and we lose as a team.

Q. Could you just take us through the decision to take Luzardo out at that point and put Kerkering in the game at that point?

ROB THOMSON: Just with the two righties and Zus had 30 pitches on him with three days rest. I didn't want to push him too much further. Really going into the game thought about just one inning for him, really, because it's kind of his side day. But he was so efficient in the first we decided to send him back out in the second.

Q. Obviously the devastation of it all is pretty fresh, but can you speak to the way this team fought until the end?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I told them after the game, I said, you know, I appreciate what they've done all year. They prepared, competed, picked each other up. True professionals the entire year.

I'm extremely proud of how they went about their business, and I'm proud that I'm their manager, to tell you the truth. That goes for the coaching staff. It goes for all the support staff. Just and really elite group of people.

Q. Do you think of everybody coming to Orion after that play and supporting him?

ROB THOMSON: That tells you about what they're made of, you know? Like I said, they win as a team, they lose as a team, they support each other. As bad as you feel, it's good to see them be there for each other.

Q. How impressive was Sasaki for the Dodgers? And were you surprised he went out there for a third inning?

ROB THOMSON: Not really. He's been starting. He's been lengthened out. When you get into these games you've got to do things that are a little unconventional. He was really good, real good.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the pitching in the series, how impressive it was from both teams?

ROB THOMSON: Yeah, I mean, all the starters were tremendous. We got some great relief, especially today, Luzardo stepping up, coming out of the pen. Strahm was really good today. Their bullpen was good. It was a pretty impressive four games.

Q. Obviously now four years in a row, World Series hopes and the way this one ended. How does this one feel compared to the others? Is it harder to take with the way it ended?

ROB THOMSON: I can't really compare because they all feel just awful. I mean, when this happens, it's like your entire world comes to a stop. It's just a thud. It's just not a good feeling. It really isn't.

Especially, regular season we were really good. We had a lot of wins. We expected a lot more.

Q. Typically a guy like Zack Wheeler has taken on a lot of innings in the series. The starters, every plan you did, pitching-wise, seemed to work. Does that make this even tougher to swallow?

ROB THOMSON: It is tough, but I take my hat off to our starters for picking it up. And when Zack went down, they just did a heck of a job. They just kept getting better and better as the season went on. They pitched great in the playoff.

Q. Take us back to, I think it was the seventh inning, the decision to, obviously Ohtani's great, the decision to intentionally to walk him, load the bases, and then Duran walks the guy. Any concern about, I know sometimes you don't like to walk, intentionally walk the bases because it doesn't leave the pitcher a margin for error there.

ROB THOMSON: That's Duran first career bases-loaded walk. You're not expecting that. And his ability to throw strikes, really wasn't expecting that. But it happened.

Q. You made several decisions this series with logical baseball reasoning behind it, but it just seemed not to work out a lot of the time. Did you feel kind of snake bit at all or is that just part of managing?

ROB THOMSON: I think it's just part of managing. And when something doesn't work, you're up for criticism. And I understand that. It's just part of the job.

Q. You talked about how great the pitching was in this series, but when you look at your lineup, other than what you got a couple innings last night, they really struggled against the Dodgers. Is there anything you can kind of identify as to maybe what didn't click for them against this team?

ROB THOMSON: The Dodgers have really good pitching. So their lineup is good, too, and they didn't score a whole lot of runs either. It really comes down to the pitching. They pitched great. We pitched great. It was a well-fought series. They came out on top, unfortunately, and that's the way it is. I feel awful.

Q. This team has a lot of free agents. Obviously there's a lot of work for the front office to do. But from your perspective, where does this team go from here? Do you think there's great years ahead?

ROB THOMSON: Oh, I do. And I don't know what Dave and John and Preston are going to do in the offseason. We haven't really talked about anything like that.

But our farm system is being built up. I know that they're going to -- I mean, John is going to spend money. He wants to win. He wants a world champion. There's good years ahead, no doubt.

Q. Do you expect to manage next year?

ROB THOMSON: Do I? Again, it's out of my control. I'm not even thinking about it. I've got 60 people in there that are brokenhearted right now. So I'm thinking about that more so than my job right now.