LOS ANGELES — Don’t try harder. Trust harder.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson thought about the things he might say to his team before Game 3 of the NL Division Series on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. They faced elimination in the best-of-five series, but they still had a puncher’s chance to win it.
“I think instead of trying harder, you trust harder in the situation,” Thomson said before a convincing 8-2 victory over Los Angeles. “You trust that your teammates are going to get it done.”
The Phillies hatched a season-saving plan, long before they stepped onto the field on Wednesday. They would have beleaguered right-hander Aaron Nola start the game, trusting he could give them two or three quality innings. They would hand the ball to left-hander Ranger Suárez, trusting he could give them several more. If everything broke right, if Nola and Suárez did their jobs and the offense showed up, they could hand the ball to closer Jhoan Duran for potentially the final six outs.
The Phils didn’t even need Duran because Kyle Schwarber jumpstarted a slumbering offense with a massive, game-tying solo home run to right field in the fourth inning that cleared the right-field bleachers.
But Nola pitched two scoreless innings with his best fastball velocity (94.2 mph) in the first two innings of a game since Game 3 of the 2023 NLDS (94.5 mph). Suárez started the third because the Phillies didn’t want to push Nola any further, especially with Shohei Ohtani up third in the third inning. They also didn’t want Suárez to enter the game in the middle of an inning.
Suárez allowed a home run on the first pitch to Tommy Edman to hand the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
But Suárez settled. It was the only run he allowed in five innings as he became one of just four pitchers in Phillies postseason history to pitch four or more innings in relief: Jim Konstanty (6 2/3 innings in 1950 World Series), Eppa Rixey (6 2/3 innings in 1915 World Series) and Dickie Noles (4 2/3 innings in 1980 World Series).
So now the Phillies have life.
A video circulated in the Phillies-verse since Monday’s Game 2 loss. It was from the 2004 AL Championship Series. Red Sox first baseman Kevin Millar is chatting with Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who called the Sox “frauds” after the Yankees took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
“Let me tell ya, don’t let us win today,” Millar said.
Thomson is not on social media, but he is familiar with the clip. He worked with the Yankees in 2004, when the Sox won the series. He felt then that the Yankees wanted to beat Boston so bad, that they tried too hard the rest of the series.
“They were more focused on the win and the result, than the process,” he said.
So, does he feel the same way about the Phillies? Don’t let them win Game 3 because they have Cristopher Sánchez on the mound in Game 4 and Jesús Luzardo on the mound in Game 5? Both pitched well in the first two games of the series at Citizens Bank Park. They could have won either game, but the offense never showed up.
“That’s the way you have to feel,” Thomson said. “You have to feel that. There’s nothing else you can do.”
