The Phillies are up 3-1 in the NLCS and can clinch a trip to the World Series in front of their home fans on Sunday – and will try to do so with Zack Wheeler on the mound.
The only problem? Rain is in the forecast intermittently all day in Philly, meaning the game could start on time at 2:30 p.m. and get delayed for quite a while.
“I'm not really sure. I've heard a couple of different things, that there's some -- there's rain in the area. One forecast says it's going to rain all day, and the other one says it's not, so I don't know,” manager Rob Thomson said Sunday morning ahead of game time.
Don’t think, though, that means Thomson would hesitate to keep Wheeler in there if there is an early delay that doesn’t last long.
“It all depends on the pitches he's thrown. Usually just rule of thumb is an hour if you're under 30 pitches. I don't think that situation will come up, but that's kind of the rule of thumb,” Thomson said Sunday morning. “Then usually as we get into the rain delay, 20 minutes, we'll take a guy down to the cage. He'll throw a little 15-pitch piece in the cage, and then he'll do that every 20 minutes until he's out of pitches, what his normal pitch count would be, and then he's done.”
Related
And if it doesn’t start on time, that’s actually better for both teams.
“Knowing Major League Baseball, the way they're looking at these games is that they will make sure that there's a three- or four-hour window that you can play through because they don't want to have that situation where one team gets an advantage because they lose their starting pitcher,” Thomson said. “They want to make it fair for everybody, and I agree.”
With a 3-1 lead, it’s likely hard not to think about the World Series and what it would be like to close it out in Philly – but Thomson doesn’t have to look too far, just a couple hours up I-95 to where his old team is now down 0-3, to know what looking ahead can do.
“We’ve just got to go out and prepare the same way as we always do every day and go out and compete and leave it out there,” Thomson said. “I was on the 2004 Yankees, so I know what it's like. You've got to keep going. You've got to finish it.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN