Rob Thomson may still have moments of reflection about last year's decision to pull star starter Zack Wheeler in the sixth inning of the Phillies' 2022 World Series Game 6 loss to the Houston Astros.
The Phillies' manager made that fateful call to bring in Jose Alvarado with a narrow 1-0 lead, runners on first and third base, one out in the inning and lefty slugger Yordan Alvarez coming up to the plate. As we all remember, Alvarez took Alvarado deep and the Phillies' chance at winning the World Series evaporated.
Thomson, managing his first playoff game since last year's Game 6 loss, made a similar move tonight in his team's 4-1 Wild Card Game 1 win over the Miami Marlins. Wheeler was again phenomenal, though showed signs of slowing down in the top of the 7th when the Marlins scratched a run across a run with two straight two-out infield singles. That left runners on first and second base and the go-ahead run coming to the plate.
Thomson, as he did last October, decided to make the move from Wheeler to Alvarado. Thankfully, the result was far better this time around. The lefty reliever struck out Yuli Gurriel and maintained the Phillies' 3-1 advantage.
"It was a big srikeout," Thomson said postgame. "We knew Gurriel was going to pinch hit for [Jesus] Sanchez. But we liked the matchup. [Alvarado's] cutter has been fantastic the last 3-4 outings. So we just liked the matchup. Wheeler was running out of pitches at that point. But Wheels was fantastic all night...I thought tonight his stuff was as good or better than any other start all year."
Thomson was also asked if he had a 'deja vu' moment to last year's World Series while making the move:
"Well, not really. But I might be lying," Thomson said. "It was a little bit different the last time, Wheels still had a lot of pitches left. He didn't have many pitches left [this time], he threw a lot pitches in that particular inning tonight. So I thought it was the right move and it worked out."
It did work out, and Wheeler was in a much different position pitch count-wise. He was sitting with just 70 pitches in World Series Game 6 when he was pulled, and had his count up to 100 tonight when Thomson made the call. The result was clearly much different, but so was the context of the situation.
The game as a whole went about as perfectly as possible for Thomson and his coaching staff. Wheeler dominated over 6 2/3 innings, Alvarado had a clean inning of relief, Jeff Hoffman got out of the 8th inning unscathed and Craig Kimbrel shut the door in the 9th.
The Phillies now lead the Marlins 1-0 in the best-of-three Wild Card Series. Game 2 is schedule for 8:08 p.m. eastern at Citizens Bank Park. It will be seen on ESPN and can be heard here on 94.1 WIP.