NL WILDCARD GAME: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

September 29, 2026

Kyle Schwarber

Truist Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame Press Conference

Q. How much of a relief was it to make the playoffs on Sunday, and does that carry over into the Wild Card series?

KYLE SCHWARBER: I wouldn't call it a relief. I would more call it the fact that it was exciting because that's why you play 162. That's why we keep playing is to have this opportunity to be here and to play in the postseason and to earn that right.

It's not a right to be in the postseason. To have this right, it's something that you hold on to greatly and you appreciate it.

We're all looking forward to that challenge. It's kind of like the little reset button we have after traveling, coming yesterday, have a workout, take care of all the meetings that we need to take care of, and today is the ballgame.

Today is a day that we're really looking forward to.

Q. What was the plane ride here like? Was that celebration carrying over?

KYLE SCHWARBER: No, didn't carry over into it. It was more the fact of we got on that thing and kind of just felt like a normal travel day for us getting here. Get in, we knew we were going to have an early workout yesterday, knowing that, 2:00 game.

Pretty standard day for us, but it's nice that we were able to get in yesterday, focus, get everything we needed to get in, and today focus on the game.

Q. You've been in the postseason quite a bit in your career. Just talk about the familiarity of playing a division opponent.

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, I think just being able to play a team that both teams know each other. They know our pitching, we know their pitching; they know our hitters, we know their hitters; they know our strengths on defense, we know their strengths on defense. There's not going to be many surprises that are going to get thrown at each other. It's going to be more executing baseball and executing our game.

We know that obviously it's a really quality opponent over there. You start off with Chris Sale who I think everyone in our clubhouse has a ton of respect for. And obviously we have respect for their whole organization just for how many games we've played against these guys, kind of the same core.

But starting with him and knowing that it's going to be a fight in this game, we just have to take it a day at a time, a pitch at a time, and try to find a way to capitalize on different things.

If there's mistakes, you try to capitalize on that. If there's any sort of inch given, you try to capitalize on that. We're looking forward to the task.

Q. Everyone talks about how you throughout the regular season -- doesn't matter if you come in cold, hot -- it's all about what you do in these next few week. It's only been one day since the regular season. How different does today feel and how easy is it to do or not do that?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Today feels amazing. It's a new season. That's the best part about the postseason is that it's not regular, it's post.

I don't care how many times you've been in it. You still get anxious. You still get goosebumps. You still get the butterflies. We have a lot of guys here too on our club that haven't made it before, and this is going to be their first time.

My fun thing I like to look at is new guys when it's their first time playing in the postseason to kind of see when they take the line and see what it means to them. Because it brings you back to your first time when you were on that line and you couldn't sleep and all you were thinking about was the game and thinking about how can we find a way to win.

It still doesn't change even though you've been in it so many times, because this is what you play for. This is the point of the season, and it starts here, that it's an opportunity to find yourself at the end of the road holding up something special. We took care of that first task, which was getting in. Now this is task two.

Q. Does your previous success against the Braves in the postseason factor into the team's mindset for this series?

KYLE SCHWARBER: I mean, I think that we don't -- there's never an assumption. Like we said, both teams know each other really well. We played so many games against each other, especially with a lot of the same people.

Every year is different, right? Every year there's going to be new, there's going to be different changes, there's going to be new players, but a lot of the same people. And I think the styles of our club haven't really changed that much. There's a lot of similarities.

There will be some differences, but there's a lot of similarities.

I think just the experience on both sides, knowing styles of games, it's helpful. It's not saying that just because we beat these guys in the postseason before means that we're going to go out there and do it again. We have to go out there and prove that. We have to go out there and show that and execute our game.

But at the end of the day, it's more about the familiarity of both sides knowing each other and us knowing them, that we just have to be prepared for us and knowing what we have to do at the end of the day to go out there and win a baseball game.

Q. You obviously did this on a completely different level 10 years ago, but what are the challenges of trying to come back in time for a postseason series, coming back from an injury, and what kind of confidence do you have in Jesus today?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, there's a lot of different challenges. I think the biggest challenge is your brain because your brain is going, I haven't done this in a while. But the body kind of takes over, and your brain adapts to it.

I remember 10 years ago just thinking that -- excited, but so many different thoughts of what could happen if -- doubts, this, that. And then you get in there in your first at-bat and then all of a sudden it just felt like a normal baseball game. It felt like you didn't miss a beat.

To have Zeus come out of the bullpen the other day and get that touch on the mound and let him kind of feel it a little bit, I think that could definitely help us and help him settle his mind a little bit.

I know that just looking at his demeanor and looking at the way that he attacked coming into that last game that he was ready for that opportunity. I know that he's champing at the bit to be out there today.

I don't think anyone knows the type of restrictions, whatever it is, but if we have him on the mound and we have our other starters out there on the mound taking the ball and all of our other pitchers that we have a ton of confidence in those guys, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he has.

Q. Bryce said yesterday this is one of his favorite stadiums to play in. Do you agree with that? And how much, especially when the energy reaches a different level in the postseason, can that fuel you as a visitor in the park here?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, I always love playing any sort of division opponent in the postseason because it brings out a different atmosphere, I think.

Like we said, us as players, we know each other. The fan bases know each other as well. I think that that brings out a little bit more passion, brings out a little bit more energy.

I'm sure that this fan base is going to be coming in and trying to pour everything they have into their team and to pour everything against us. That's something that you try to latch on to. It's something that you try to embrace and you try to -- you know, when you're at home, get the crowd up. On the road, make it silent. Those are things that you try to embrace as players.

It's always a fun atmosphere. I've always loved coming here in the postseason. Even in the regular season, just with our games. I feel like we always have hard-fought games here and hard-fought games at the Bank, and it always brings the best out of everyone.

Q. You mentioned Chris Sale a little bit ago. Can you describe that slider and what it's like seeing it as a left-handed batter?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, it's unique, right? He has a unique arm angle. He has a unique -- everything is kind of unique about him. It starts, obviously, in one side of the batter's box and could end up on the plate, could end up off, away.

Obviously a unique fastball, too, with two different ones. So that is a challenge, right? When he has his fastball and he has command of his fastball and then he's able to subtract off his slider, there's the challenge of that as well.

When he's mid 90s, upper 90s, and then he's high 70s, low 80s with that breaking ball, that's a significant velocity change. That's the task for us always is not just the velocity but also the movement profiles of things, just trying to make sure that we're getting him in the zone.

That's the hard thing about him is that it's moving a lot. We have to make sure that we're sticking to our plans and sticking to our approaches to try to get him on that plate and go from there.

Q. Kyle, we talked to Trea a little bit about this yesterday. Did you learn anything new about this group of players that you've been around for five years this year based on the way you started and everything you were able to do to prevail?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah. I think that's the beautiful thing about our game is that every year brings new challenges, and every year is different.

I think we all know the capabilities of our team, and we know what we're all capable of. But also, too, just because we're capable of something doesn't mean that that's always going to be the case.

I think you can look back to our start, where 9-19, 10-game losing streak, we lost our manager. There's just a lot of adversity there to start the year off. Guys weren't playing the way they wanted to.

But I don't think that took away from our ultimate goal, and it didn't take away from what guys wanted to do. Guys were really focused and they were really, I would say, direct in how they were trying to approach the game and the way that they were trying to approach trying to get better on a daily basis.

I feel like, too, for our young guys, they saw a lot of different things to start the year off. It wasn't just all peaches and roses. It wasn't just a breeze. It was we were fighting from the get-go as a team.

I think when you see guys, too, that have had a lot of success in our game, and they're fighting as well to try to make adjustments and trying to get better on a daily basis, I think that's key for young guys, too, to see that. That it doesn't just take you showing up to the field and doesn't take you just doing the status quo.

There's going to be so many different things throughout 162 games that you're going to have to do, and I feel like not even our young guys but even our older guys too, we all see each other working together.

It's great. Like that's what it takes for us to get to where we want to be is the constant battle, the constant grind.

I felt like we attacked so many different things this year, and I'm proud of our guys and the way that we handled things. We earned the right to be here, and now we have to go out there and we play our game.

Q. I'm curious, you guys are playing all these games at 2:00 in the afternoon. Do you expect shadows to be a factor? Did you guys talk at all about it in the hitters' meeting?

KYLE SCHWARBER: I haven't looked into that. I know from playing some day games here that normally once we get done with the game, that hasn't been the case. But you never know once we start getting towards the later innings. But I know that for the first good part of the game, we're going to be fine.

I don't foresee that to be an issue. If that is an issue, both teams are going to have to go through it. Both teams are going to have to find a way. Yeah, we haven't looked too far into that right now.