Rob Thomson was shocked that the Phillies crumbled against the Mets
On paper, the Philadelphia Phillies should beat the New York Mets in the NLDS. However, no stat describes the mental toughness of this year’s Mets team, who beat them 6-2 in Saturday’s Game 1.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson spoke on his bullpen’s failures, via NBC Sports’ Corey Seidman.
“It was stunning, it was, to see Hoffy [Jeff Hoffman] and Strahmy [Matt Strahm] give it up like that,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But that’s baseball sometimes. They haven’t done that since we’ve had them, really.”
After starting pitcher Zack Wheeler tossed a seven-inning shutout, Hoffman came in to preserve the 1-0 lead in the eighth inning. The right-hander got shelled for three runs and no outs, and Strahm followed that up with two earned runs and just one out recorded.
This was unusual, as Hoffman had a 2.17 ERA in the regular season, while Strahm had a 1.87 mark. However, October baseball is a different animal.
“It stings,” Hoffman said. “Definitely want to capitalize on an outing like that [Wheeler’s]. He did everything he could to keep us ahead.”
Wheeler struck out nine batters while giving up just one hit and four walks. The ace continued his stellar regular season form into the playoffs, as he ranked third in the MLB with a 2.57 ERA in 32 appearances. He also was third with 224 strikeouts and tied for second with 16 wins, via MLB.com.
“Wheeler was unbelievable,” Thomson said. “We haven’t seen that type of velocity out of him and stuff out of him for a while. It’s as good as it gets.”
Regardless, Wheeler’s teammates couldn’t close the book on his spectacular outing, and New York now has the upper hand in the series.
“Just gotta be better tomorrow. We play five games for a reason,” Hoffman said. “Show up at the same time tomorrow and get it done. I’m gonna treat tomorrow for what it is, which is one ballgame. Won’t be thinking about today or yesterday or two days ago.”
Will Philadelphia avoid an 0-2 deficit?
The Phillies’ offense was also at fault
While Philadelphia’s bullpen got dominated, its offense was far from exceptional. The rest of the lineup behind leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber had just three hits. Schwarber hit a leadoff homer in the first and had a single in the third, but nobody else had an exceptional day.
One of the issues was plate discipline.
“There was some chase in there tonight for sure,” Thomson said. “We’ve got to get back in the zone. We’ve got to start using the field. It’s what we talk about all the time. And just put better at-bats together.”
