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By Valentina Martinez
Contributing Sports Writer
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The Philadelphia Phillies made a statement Wednesday night.
On the brink of elimination, the Phillies stepped up to the plate and hammered the Los Angeles Dodgers with an 8-2 victory in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
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A big credit to Philadelphia's success was manager Rob Thomson's unorthodox game plan to start Aaron Nola and piggyback him with Ranger Suarez. Thomson had recently come under fire after the Phillies dropped the first two games of the NLDS.
Thomson revealed the criticism he's faced hasn't plagued him, and the pressure hasn't affected him despite his team being in jeopardy of being swept by the Dodgers.
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"I don't think so. I think that's part of this job is that you make decisions," Thomson said. "You plan it out. It's not like we're throwing stuff up in the air. But you plan it out, if it doesn't work, then, yeah, there's criticism there. That's just part of the gig. It really is."
Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber heaped high praise for Thomson's willingness to do whatever it takes to win Game 3, specifically opting to start Nola and have Suarez follow him.
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"I think it shows that he's going to be doing anything that he feels like is going to be the right move to win a baseball game," Schwarber said. "And for how unorthodox it is, yeah, right, you want your starter to go out there and give you seven innings; but also, too, we have two guys who are two very quality starters. So we wanted to make sure that both these guys go out there and they do their thing.
"And it worked. And I don't know what's ahead of us. I know we've got Sanchy going tomorrow. It's going to be exciting. They have another really good starter going tomorrow. You never know what you'll see in a postseason baseball game, but you just have to make sure you go out there play great defense, take great at-bats, 27 outs, and go from there."
Thomson took no credit for the Phillies' success in Game 3, highlighting his players and their resilience this October.
"They're an experienced group of guys," he said. "They've been through this a little bit. One thing they did, I think, is they stayed in the moment, stayed relaxed. If you stay in the moment, trust the process, trust your teammates and not really focus on the result, you have a better chance of getting to the result. And they did that. So I'm happy with them."
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