HOUSTON — The quickest way for a manager to earn the trust of his players is to say things like this:
“I’m not really doing the work, the players are doing the work,” said the Philadelphia Phillies’ Rob Thomson, after managing the game of his life at Minute Maid Park on Friday. “I’m just sort of making the final decision on who goes where.”
Sort of making the final decision on who goes where. It’s a simple collection of words but the perfect distillation of a job Thomson had always wanted but resigned himself to never getting.
His performance in Game 1 of the World Series — a 6-5, comeback victory over the Houston Astros in 10 pulsating innings — was a master class of managerial urgency. Yes, the players had to do the real work. But when they believe in the manager, the work is easier to do.
“I honestly don’t have an opinion on it, other than, I mean, I trust anything that man does,” outfielder Nick Castellanos said, when asked about Thomson’s Game 1 strategy. “That’s just what he decided to do and it worked. He’s the manager and he has the respect and support of all the guys on the diamond.”
Thomson called for José Alvarado, the power lefty who saved the opener of the National League Championship Series in San Diego, in the fifth inning. He used Ranger Suárez, his presumptive starter for Game 3 or 4 of this World Series, in the seventh. He summoned his best reliever, Seranthony Domínguez, with a tie score in the eighth.
For Thomson, the philosophy was clear: Win the game in front of you. There are no absolutes in October, but that comes pretty close. Grab that win if it’s there for the taking — especially when it’s the opener on the road.
“We definitely needed to pick up a game down here, because when we get back in front of the Philly faithful, we’re in good shape,” said David Robertson, who earned his first postseason save in his 38th appearance.
“Those fans are electric there, that atmosphere is what we’ve been waiting on all year. Being able to pick up at least one on the road to get back and have a chance to close it out is exactly what we’re trying to do.”
Robertson became the fifth Phillie with a save this postseason. All of them were fully rested and took turns in Game 1: Zach Eflin, Alvarado, Suárez and Domínguez, who is on an extraordinary postseason run. In seven games, Domínguez has worked nine and a third innings, allowing four hits and one run with no walks and 18 strikeouts.
His appearance in Game 1 stood in contrast to the Phillies’ last game, the N.L.C.S. clincher, when the Padres’ best reliever, the left-hander Josh Hader, never left the bullpen. Bob Melvin, the San Diego manager, found only one spot for Hader in the five-game series: to hold a three-run lead for the final three outs of Game 2. A right-hander, Robert Suarez, allowed the go-ahead homer to Bryce Harper, the Phillies’ lefty slugger, in the eighth inning of Game 5.
Melvin is a three-time manager of the year with 19 seasons of major league experience. The Astros’ Dusty Baker is another three-time award winner, with 25 years in the dugout. Yet who has been better this month than Thomson, the longtime Yankee coach who was passed over when the team hired Aaron Boone instead of him after the 2017 season?
“He’s done a tremendous job, that’s obvious,” Suárez said through an interpreter. “I think for everyone on the team, if he needs you that day, you better be ready.”
Thomson got his chance this year after the Phillies started 22-29 and fired Manager Joe Girardi, who had a championship pedigree but projected a kind of tension that wore down the players. Thomson’s promotion by Dave Dombrowski, the president of operations, settled the players.
“We have his back in every move that he makes,” Kyle Schwarber said.
On Friday, Thomson told Suárez he might need him in relief. Suárez was scheduled for a bullpen session, anyway, so he held off doing it until the middle innings. Thomson liked the idea of using his top left-handers, Alvarado and Suárez, against the Astros’ 3-4-5 hitters, the left-handed Yordan Alvarez, the right-handed Alex Bregman and the left-handed Kyle Tucker.
That group went 1 for 6 with a single off Alvarado and Suárez — all after the Phillies had tied the game off Justin Verlander in the fifth inning, erasing the Astros’ 5-0 lead.
“I think once we scored the three you were kind of feeling it, like, ‘OK, we got back in this thing, now the momentum’s changed,” Thomson said. “And that’s really why I went to Alvarado in the fifth inning, which I haven’t done all year, because I thought that the momentum change there was so important to keep that momentum. Get through those guys, and we’ll figure out the rest later.”
Like the 2019 Washington Nationals, who beat the Astros in the World Series, the Phillies have only a small handful of reliable pitchers: mainly starters Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Suárez, and relievers Eflin, Alvarado and Domínguez. Their best chance to win is to use those six as much as possible.
With Wheeler scheduled to start Game 2, though, Thomson needed someone else for the bottom of the 10th after J.T. Realmuto’s go-ahead homer in the top of the inning. The duty fell to Robertson, a pitcher nicknamed Houdini as a young Yankee for his knack of escaping self-created traps.
In the N.L.C.S. clincher, Robertson could not escape. Called in for the ninth — three outs from a pennant with a one-run lead — he issued a pair of one-out walks. Suárez bailed him out, and later, in the clubhouse, Robertson spoke of his outing with disarming candor.
“I lost a little confidence in my pitching ability when I couldn’t make a pitch when I needed to,” he said. “I needed to throw a curveball in the strike zone but I was fearful of a home run.”
He added: “I was so nervous, and Ranger just came in like, ‘No big deal, I’ll fire it where I need to, where do you want it?’ Thoms made the perfect call.”
Undaunted this time, Robertson used his curveball to strike out Alvarez and Tucker. In between, though, Bregman doubled off the left field wall (“He’s 10 feet away from tying the ballgame,” Robertson said. “You’ve got to be careful and get lucky a little bit”) and soon Robertson found himself wrapped in padlocked chains: a walk to Yuli Gurriel, and a wild pitch that put the tying run on third and the winning run on second.
He fell behind Aledmys Díaz, 3-0, the last ball hitting Díaz when he leaned into it; James Hoye, the home plate umpire, did not award first base. Díaz then surprised Robertson by swinging at a slider for a strike. He grounded another to third baseman Edmundo Sosa to end the game.
“That’s who he is, too,” Thomson said of Robertson. “Sometimes it’s not going to be 1-2-3. But he’s mentally tough. He’s going to keep grinding and keep pitching. He’s not going to be afraid of the moment, that’s for sure.”
Thomson wasn’t, either. He rose to meet the moment, his players performed, and the Phillies have a lead in the World Series.