NL WILDCARD GAME: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

October 1, 2026

Don Mattingly

Truist Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame Press Conference

Q. When Sosa came out yesterday, it looked like he might be done for the season. What happened in the last 24 hours that he's able to go, and what does that say about him?

DON MATTINGLY: Well, I'm not quite sure what it says. Obviously Sosa wants to play. He's been kind of going through this. And I think with that last step, we've talked to him a lot about that long stride he does at the end trying to get to first, that lunge at the bag. It seems like it always kind of grabs him. I think it grabbed him, and I think it scared him.

Then afterwards, strength was good. Woke up probably a little more sore today than yesterday. But we felt like this is -- he's good enough. He gave us confidence defensively that he was fine. Swinging the bat doesn't bother him. The biggest thing, it's going to be one of those if he hits a ground ball to short with a guy on first and he jogs, it's what we want today. So it's not going to be him not hustling. It's going to be more like that's the one area he has to protect. Then we'll make decisions later in the game if he has to run or something like that.

Q. Sticking with the lineup, can you explain what went into the decision to align the outfield the way you did with De La Cruz and Crawford in there?

DON MATTINGLY: Yeah, obviously this is the kind of game you don't know where anybody is going. You start the lefty, you don't think he's in there for a complete start. They've used him for multiple innings, so it's not like that's out of the realm of possibility. We really don't know where they're going.

But we felt like this kind of gives us the most flexibility to go different directions, where we pinch-hit, things like that. De La is probably our best of the righties that we kind of platooned, handling both sides, the righties and the lefties. We're more comfortable with that. So that's kind of where we start.

And then you guys have seen us enough to know that we platoon enough or pinch-hit enough and move guys around. Felt like it gave us the most flexibility to do multiple things.

Q. From having seen Aaron Nola the entire season, from your point of view, how do you think he turned around his season?

DON MATTINGLY: I just think he kept going. I think it speaks to a lot about Aaron Nola that he didn't give in and say, oh, it's going to be a bad year or anything else. Kept working. I think there was adjustments with the ABS early for him. He's a guy that's on the edges all the time. I think he changed his mix a little bit through the course of this and just kept going.

I think that's what happens with guys is they're later in their career and they've got some miles on them, they make adjustments. They keep going. They're competitive. They haven't been this good for this long for no reason. So they keep making adjustments to what they have to do to have success.

Q. You said Duran was unavailable for yesterday's game. How is he feeling right now, and what do you expect from him to be able to do in this game?

DON MATTINGLY: Kind of the same as always with the catch. And I think that's probably about right around now. You know, guys are going out and playing catch. Making sure they feel good.

He feels better today than yesterday, that's a good sign. But he still hadn't played catch at that point. We'll let him play catch. All our guys, the same way. We'll let them go through, then we decide.

Q. Will Zack be in the bullpen today? Will he be out with those guys?

DON MATTINGLY: I'd say all hands on deck today. You can kind of count on everybody that's able to throw today to be available to throw today. Again, he's going to have to go play catch too, but we kind of expect that.

Q. I've asked this every day, but is there anything new on Arraez? Is he feeling better, doing anything new?

DON MATTINGLY: I think he got into the weight room a little bit today, so he's progressing. Again, we're just hopeful, obviously, that we can move on and that he's going to be available in some form or fashion. He's getting better. I don't think he's swung a bat yet, but I know it's progressed into the weight room, doing one-leg stuff, things like that.

He's progressing. That's pretty much the best way to answer it.