NEW YORK \u2014 Whatever this thing is that’s going on at Citi Field, causing the Phillies to lose nine in a row here to the Mets, manager Rob Thomson doesn\u2019t really worry about it.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t let negative thoughts enter his mind. Doesn\u2019t think his team is doomed nor unable to compete with the Mets in their ballpark. He is more convincing than others when he states that, and before Wednesday\u2019s series finale, he even had some evidence as to why he\u2019s there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough but you\u2019ve got to grind through it,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cI was looking at some of the Yankees’ stuff from when I was there. So, from \u201805 to \u201809, when we were in California against the Angels, we went 3-13. In \u201808 and \u201809, we were 0-6. Actually, we had lost eight in a row and we beat them in the ALCS. It\u2019s one of those things. You\u2019ve just got to fight through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe the Phillies have just the right person taking the mound in Game 3 against the Mets. Taijuan Walker had a couple of decent seasons for the Mets, so he\u2019s used to their home field. More than that, though, he\u2019s got the makeup that maybe a situation like this calls for, according to his manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy for him, he put a lot of work in [last] offseason,\u201d Thomson said of Walker. \u201cCame in, velocity jumped up. Now it\u2019s kind of settled in but it\u2019s still more velocity than he had last year. The other stuff moves up just because of the velocity \u2014 the split, cutter\u2019s been really good, the slider\u2019s been really good. <\/p>\n
“But I\u2019m really happy for him because he went through some rough times last year and he\u2019s fought through it. That\u2019s the sign of a competitor, a grown man.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s tough and he hasn\u2019t complained, he\u2019s done everything we\u2019ve asked. He\u2019s been a true professional while he\u2019s doing it. I love him because you know that he\u2019s going to prepare and you know nothing is going to scare him. He\u2019s going to compete through thick and thin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marsh sits<\/strong><\/p>\n In the ever-changing world that is the outfield for the Phillies, Brandon Marsh was the odd-man out on Wednesday against the Mets’ right-handed rookie Nolan McLean.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve liked Casty\u2019s (Nick Castellanos) at-bats the last couple of weeks,” Thomson said. “Marsh is in a little bit of a tailspin and (Harrison) Bader\u2019s been hot, (Max) Kepler\u2019s had good at-bats. Just give him the night. He\u2019ll be back in there tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s another part of the continued platooning that has become the norm for Thomson. And changing things doesn\u2019t seem to be in the plan anytime soon.<\/p>\n \u201cA little bit of that (hot player), a little bit of history, a little bit of the pitcher\u2019s stuff versus Casty hits velocity for the most part,” Thomson said. “So, it\u2019s a combination of a lot of things, really. I\u2019d like five guys hot. That\u2019s what I\u2019d like.\u201d<\/p>\n In McLean, the Phillies are facing him for the first time. In his two games, he\u2019s won both and allowed just six hits and two earned runs in 12 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can really spin it,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cHe\u2019s got carry to his fastball. It\u2019s heavy, he can spin it. For the most part he can throw strikes, but you still have to be patient with him. Yeah, he\u2019s got good stuff. It\u2019s tough because you can do all the film and all the machine work, you can set up his breaking ball to how it\u2019s going to look in the game. But until you get out there, you really don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Romano speaks<\/strong><\/p>\n It was announced Tuesday that relief pitcher Jordan Romano was being placed on the injured list because of right middle finger inflammation. This came a day after he got tagged for four earned runs in an inning of work in a 13-3 loss Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis just popped up a few days ago,\u201d Romano said. \u201cIt\u2019s my middle finger. When I woke up (Monday) it was numb for a little bit, like four or five hours. We got it going, worked on it to where I felt comfortable throwing at least. Then after the game just feeling a little off a bit the next morning, too. Shut it down, run some tests on it, make sure everything\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n Romano has struggled most of the season, posting an 8.23 ERA in 42 2\/3 innings pitched this season. After three stellar seasons with Toronto, in which he made two All-Star teams, Romano made just 15 appearances last season and had arthroscopic surgery on his throwing elbow.<\/p>\n \u201cMy last pitch that inning was 97, so it\u2019s kind of frustrating to me, too,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it\u2019s in there. It could be a delivery thing, health thing. So, we\u2019re just kind of running through it and then see how it goes throwing and hopefully be able to be consistent again.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure more motivated to pitch. Just missing time absolutely sucks, I just wanted to be available, at least. Obviously, I wasn\u2019t pitching well, but if there\u2019s one thing I can do is at least be available. A little more motivation to pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Whatever this thing is that’s going on at Citi Field, causing the Phillies to lose…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":181116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,35360,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-181115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-phillies-news","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115103658517249511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}