NL WILDCARD GAME: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

September 29, 2026

Don Mattingly

Truist Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame Press Conference

Braves 5, Phillies 3

Q. Don, what all went into the decision to go to Duran in the seventh, and was he the plan for the last three or did you have a plan for the ninth?

DON MATTINGLY: We talked about it before the game if we were at the top, we were getting to the top, go seventh, eighth.

Q. Were you going to try to get three out of him today if possible?

DON MATTINGLY: He made it look easy the first inning. If the second one would have went really quick, I would have just checked with him. If not, we would have went to somebody else.

Q. Can you just give us the rationale, the thinking, because the top of the lineup was coming up, you felt better with Duran than your best reliever facing the top of the lineup in those two innings, or did the matchup matter?

DON MATTINGLY: Not with Jo. We don't really worry about the matchup. It was more the spot.

Q. Luzardo went seven innings, 77 pitches. Was that a preset max for him? Did you ask him if he wanted to go back out? Were you not comfortable putting him back out there for the sixth?

DON MATTINGLY: No, I definitely wasn't comfortable for the sixth, but he gave us more than we thought honestly. Just kept checking with him every winning, checking with the trainers seeing if he was having trouble getting loose between innings. Zeus was great today.

Q. Did he fight to stay? Did he ask to stay?

DON MATTINGLY: No, we kind of watched, and in my mind, if we got 75 pitches out of him today, we were going to be in a good spot.

Q. Duran, after that line drive after he got an out, he seemed a little unsettled, seemed like maybe he was pulling his right side a little bit. Was he healthy that you know of?

DON MATTINGLY: Yeah, nothing from the trainer after the game.

Q. How devastating is this outcome? You had the lead late and got Sale out of the game. How frustrating?

DON MATTINGLY: Anytime you lose a game late, obviously it's frustrating, but in our minds we had our best guy out there. You live with this one.

Q. Could Painter have pitched the ninth?

DON MATTINGLY: Could have.

Q. What was the plan for the ninth if Duran got out of the eighth?

DON MATTINGLY: It depended where we landed. We had Bowlan. We had different guys, we'd probably combo the inning a little bit. If he gets a quick out, we'll check with him and we see.

Q. The story flipped quickly in that inning, but the narrative was very different going into that inning. It's kind of tangential, but J. T. Realmuto has had two big hits in two games. He's a big time player. Can you speak to what he did today and the resiliency to that point of the rest of the team?

DON MATTINGLY: Yeah, we hang in there. Stotty gets a big hit. De La starts the inning, gets a hit, I think, maybe a walk. Then Stott gets the big hit to get us first and third and give us a shot. Obviously J. T.'s hit was huge. He had a big one the other day in 162, obviously a big one today.

Yeah, J. T. Has been great. He's had a rough year from the standpoint of numbers-wise, but we've talked about him all year long. He seems to get big hits, and he got another one today.

Q. The state of your bullpen right now, are there injuries or guys who are struggling? How difficult has that made your job in designing your path to get 27 outs?

DON MATTINGLY: It's not so bad right now. Our guys have been rested for the most part. We were willing to use Zeus the other day, could have used Paint today. We're in a pretty good spot.

Q. Tomorrow you've got Cristopher Sanchez on the mound with your season on the line. How do you feel about that?

DON MATTINGLY: Always feel good with Cristopher out there. The playoffs are momentum-based it seems like, and really momentum starts with your starting pitcher. He goes out and gives you a good start to the game, it puts the -- it's just a game at that point.

Q. Is Duran available, do you think, tomorrow? You know what his history is.

DON MATTINGLY: We'll check. I don't think he threw over -- he' was at 20 something. So he was pretty efficient in the first. That one -- I mean, he's pretty much out of that. He gives up the little bleeder there to Harris and kind of gets off kilter with Ozzie. But we'll check tomorrow like we always do. We let guys go throw, see how they are, and then we decide.

Q. You mentioned Jesús. You got 77 or whatever out of him. What did you expect going in? What would have been acceptable? I imagine he exceeded those expectations.

DON MATTINGLY: Well, you go into that game with a number of scenarios. If it's two, then you have a path to get to the end of the game.

Kind of expected him to do what he did today. Honestly, he's been feeling really good. His pens were really good. The game the other day was good, bouncing back every time.

I know for a starting pitcher it's probably down a little bit, but he hasn't been down that long from the standpoint of a long year and really just almost getting, like, rest.

Q. Two days ago, it wasn't necessarily a must-win, but it probably kind of felt it. Certainly tomorrow is a must-win. What have you learned about this team that gives you the faith that tomorrow is not the last day of the season?

DON MATTINGLY: Yeah, we show up and play. These guys have been here before, so that game the other day felt like a must-win. We didn't know what was going to happen in the other game. We were playing at the same time. That was a must-win for us there.

We're back there tomorrow.

Q. It looked like the groin was bothering Sosa. Did that factor into the pinch-hit decision at all?

DON MATTINGLY: No, Kyle has been really good in that spot all year long. We've kind of had the versatility to be able to move some guys around. Felt like Kyle was the right guy for that spot.