NL WILDCARD GAME: PHILLIES VS BRAVES

October 1, 2026

Kyle Schwarber

Justin Crawford

Truist Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame Press Conference

Q. For both of you guys, when you see Edmundo Sosa go off like that yesterday and now he's back in the lineup today, what does that say about him and his dedication and commitment and dedication?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, I feel like it means a lot to us, right. He brings a lot of different intangibles for us. He brings energy. He brings passion. Obviously his play on the field is great as well and he's going to do everything he can to get back in the lineup.

He found his way in here, found his way back in the lineup, and we're excited about that.

JUSTIN CRAWFORD: Yeah, definitely. I think just seeing him going out there, no matter what, we're going to put everything we've got into the game, into the field, and work our tails off. I'm just kind of saying that he had a little tweak and back in the lineup today. That's just goes to show how much we want this and how much we're going to go out there and try to make this happen.

Q. Obviously you didn't find out the starting pitch time until late last night. Did you guys stay up to watch that game to see, or did you find out this morning, and how does it impact any prep you do typically the night before a game?

JUSTIN CRAWFORD: I didn't find out until this morning. I woke up and saw that it got pushed back. But I don't think it changes too much of anything. I think we still get to the ballpark, do our routine, and get ready for a ballgame. I can speak for a lot of us that we're ready to roll.

KYLE SCHWARBER: I always fall asleep but I didn't. I stayed up and watched. Kind of knew the scenarios, and once the final out was made, I knew it was going to be a later game. Nothing changes though. It's just the time of the game.

Sometimes you get those day games, you just roll right into it here. Everything just gets pushed back a little bit and then you roll right into it. So we're looking forward to it.

Q. What have you seen from Aaron Nola over the last couple months, and how much confidence does that give you also with his playoff experience that he has?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, Noles, he's been putting a lot of work in. He does every year, but I feel like he found kind of his stride. He found some new things that he wanted to do. I wouldn't say anything out of the ordinary. But there's times that -- we're creatures of habit, right. I'm a creature of habit, Craw is, and find that one thing that you might be looking for, it might just be on the outside of whatever you've been used to doing.

And it felt like he just found that niche and kind of locked him right back in his mechanics, his executions. All of his pitches look great. That's just me looking from the outside in, seeing him. And every time he looks like he takes that ball, it doesn't look like he wants to be out there and he doesn't want to be searching for anything. It looks like he has that itch, and he has that determination every time he takes the ball, and it makes everything sharper.

JUSTIN CRAWFORD: Yeah, I got all the faith in the world in Noles, kind of just being able to play behind him all year, see the work he puts in, see that even-keeled mindset he has whether it's going good or bad. Got a lot of respect for that and it's fun playing behind him and just being able to go and compete with him.

Q. Justin, what's the first taste of postseason baseball been like for you and is there anything that sticks out that you didn't expect or that you did expect that you've just noticed?

JUSTIN CRAWFORD: Yeah, definitely the adrenaline for sure, especially that first game took over a little bit. But it's been really cool. At the end of the day, I've kind of had to remind myself it's still baseball. The game stays the same. So go out there, compete, work your tail off, and leave it all out there on the field and see what happens.

I would say the biggest thing was definitely the adrenaline, and just the adrenaline factor and seeing how much that kind of played. But it was a really cool feeling to be out there and competing.

Q. On that note, you, Alex, and Andrew have been a big part of getting here and succeeding to this point. A lot of teams don't have rookies contributing in the kind of moments that you guys have contributed, you all season, Andrew and Alex down the stretch. What's your relationship like among you three, and do you sort of realize that what you're doing is kind of remarkable?

JUSTIN CRAWFORD: Yeah, it's really cool. Obviously all three of us came up playing with each other. And especially me and Alex, we were drafted the same year and really have played with each and every level with each other.

It's really cool being able to go out there and compete with those guys and being able to enjoy the moment with them as well. It's really fun to be able to go out there and just contribute anyway we can. It's been a cool ride.

Q. Kyle, what has it been like to watch these guys? Each of them have had their challenges and successes, especially the last two games. I don't know where you guys would have been without the pitchers especially.

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, I feel like when you look at our team that it's easy to kind of point to us older guys and say that that's why we succeed. I think the biggest thing is that it takes everyone, and it's going to be everyone throughout the course of a year. There's been plenty of times Craw has picked me up. He's picked us up a lot. Been plenty of times Paint, McFarlane, a lot of different guys have picked us up. They're going to continue to do that.

I think the biggest thing for these guys is -- which happened for me at a young age -- was getting this experience and getting the postseason experience and learning that this is the brand of baseball you want to be in all the time. When you get it at that young age, that's all you think about.

So it's fun to see these guys come in. I think I said it the other day that my favorite thing is just looking at the young guys whenever they play in their first postseason and seeing what it means to them. It brings you back to your first time.

It's really cool to see these guys go out there. And they're here for a reason. They're here to help us win. They're obviously extremely talented. Anytime they take the ball, they take the box, they take the field, we've got all the confidence in the world in our guys.

Q. Kyle, one of the quirks of the postseason is there's a chance you see Dylan Lee for the third straight time, their guy that's going to face that pocket of your order. Can you walk us through the chess match if you're going up to face him for a third straight time, you see him three days in a row, and what's that matchup like?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, I think it could be easy to kind of overthink or overcalculate things versus just go with the experience part of it. It's not even just a recency experience, it's just the experience that I feel like I've had a lot of at-bats against him. Harp has as well. I feel like he's kind of been one of their staple left-handed relievers here for quite a while.

It's just going back and trusting all those experiences you've had with him and just stay with your approach, stay with your plan, and don't try to feel like you have to go out there and change anything drastically. It's just trusting what I want to do and try to execute what I want to do off him.

Q. It might be a little strong -- and this is for either of you -- to call it a full-circle moment, but I'm wondering if either of you have thought about during the last couple of days that you've been here, your first trip here this year, 9-19; tough loss the first night; obviously what happened with Topper. I'm wondering if you've reflected on how far you've come since that time and to be back here at this moment.

JUSTIN CRAWFORD: Yeah, definitely. I think it goes to show why you've got to play all 162 and why you've got to come in day in and day out and just stay prepared and focus on the task at hand. No matter what it may look like, good or bad, showing up the next day, next pitch, next at-bat. That's something I know Kyle and a lot of the guys have helped me with this year, just saying, what's next.

So just kind of taking that attitude for all of us and taking it all the way up until this moment. I think that's helped us a lot this year.

Q. Bryce talked at length yesterday about how the clubhouse sort of supported Alec Bohm this year in his situation. Sort of the overwhelming sense that we get from outside your clubhouse over the last four or five years is that that's what's expected, whether it's a rookie, whether it's a guy that gets traded. Everybody talks about how inclusive you guys are. That existed when you got here, you and Nick and Trea and guys like that. What has your experience been like being a guy that was sort of absorbed into that, and what role did you play now in making sure that that continues, and how has it helped you over the years?

KYLE SCHWARBER: Yeah, I mean, I think that from my experience when I first stepped foot here in Philadelphia, it was very similar from when I stepped in as a young guy in Chicago. It's funny, right; when you step in as a young guy in Chicago, you don't know what to expect. You learn what to expect. You learn what to do. So you have those kind of -- you have those bases when you're signing in Philadelphia, but it's still like a first day of school. You're still walking into something new, the unknown.

To feel like you get accepted right away, you get brought in right away -- like my biggest thing that we always talk about is obviously you got brought in -- if it's me, if it's a young guy, if it's we traded for you, if it's anything -- you're here to help us win. The best version that we can get out of that person is for them to be themselves and for them to be them, because they're here because they're good.

That's what we believe, and that's what I felt like when I walked in here. That's when I felt when I first came into the Big Leagues. I just feel like that's the way that our clubhouse works, and we need to get the best versions out of every single player.

That doesn't mean that it's just everything -- everything slides by. Like there's standards. There's things that we hold ourselves accountable to. That's how it should be. But if there's anyone that ever needs anything -- this is like my favorite line. The closest person that could ever really know, if it's struggles, if it's the grind, if it's -- whatever it is, that you can be going through, it's probably going to be us because we're doing a lot of the same things on a daily basis.

But there's going to be a lot of different things that can pop up throughout the course of a year or someone's personal life, and the best thing that we can do is to be there for those individuals, our teammates, our family, and show them all the love that we can give them, because we want to get the best out of them.

Also, this is a game. We want the best out of everyone as people as well.