Rob Thomson on Phillies’ playoff bullpen usage: ‘It’s a sprint’ originally appeared on NBC Sports PhiladelphiaThere’s no second-guessing quite like the second-guessing that big league managers face for every pitching change they make in the postseason. Phillies manager Rob Thomson is no different, even though his team needs just one win in the next two National League Championship Series home games to book a return trip to the World Series.The stakes are higher. The spotlight is brighter.And teams deploy their bullpens in a totally different way than they do during the regular season.Take Phillies lefthander Jose Alvarado. From April through September, Thomson almost never used a reliever three days in a row or three times in four days. But there was Alvarado, who had pitched in Games 3 and 4, warming up in the eighth inning of Game 5 on Saturday night. As it turned out, the Phillies tacked on two insurance runs and Alvarado didn’t end up pitching a third straight game for the first time this year.Alvarado has also been called on for more than three outs twice and pitched in multiple innings five times already in the playoffs, which he never did during the season.Rookie Orion Kerkering, who last season pitched for the University of South Florida and ran the table of the Phillies farm system this year, has been used in the seventh, eighth and ninth already. Titular closer Craig Kimbrel has been called on as early as the seventh. Jeff Hoffman, who has found money with a 1.35 earned run average in his last 23 appearances, has entered games as early as the third and as late as the eighth.The self-imposed rules have changed. Not just for the Phillies. For all the postseason teams.“Now it’s a sprint,” Thomson said during a Zoom call from his office on Sunday afternoon. “During the regular season it’s a marathon, so you’re always thinking two, three, maybe four days ahead. You want to make sure your bullpen remains full.“I stay with the starters a little bit longer during the course of the season. It may cost you some games, but I think it wins you games down the road because your bullpen is fresh. Or fresher, and you have available people down there.“During the playoffs, you’ve got all these days off. So you can be a little more aggressive to go to your bullpen. But. . . I’m not a guy who scripts out a game. We’re constantly reading it. It’s just a little different. A little less aggressive with your bullpen during the season. A little bit more aggressive during the playoffs.”Thomson was asked why he doesn’t script his pitching plans at a time when it seems like many teams do.“Oh, we have a general plan,” he explained. “But I don’t think I’ve ever said, ‘Okay, we’re going to go 13 hitters with this guy. Then we’re going to this guy. Then we’re going to that guy. Things change. The game situation changes. You get up six, seven runs and maybe you want to let that starter roll past whatever you scripted out.“Also, let’s say you decide to let a guy go two times through the lineup. And he’s rolling. Now you might have to use four or five different pitchers to finish the game. And if one or two of those guys (aren’t pitching well) that night, it just doesn’t make much sense. Every game is different but I try to go with my eyes, my feel and go by a general plan.”NOTES ON A SCORECARDThe running game was expected to be an advantage for Arizona coming into the NLCS but the Diamondbacks have just one stolen base (on one attempt) in the first five games. The Phillies, in the meantime, have swiped six bags and been caught twice.The Phillies are 6-0 in the postseason so far and 3-0 in Aaron Nola’s starts and will be attempting to keep both streaks going – which would clinch their second straight pennant – Monday night at Citizens Bank Park.Nola has a 0.96 earned run average in October. He pitched six shutout innings against the Diamondbacks in Game 2, allowing three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. He’ll once again be matched up against RHP Merrill Kelly. Last week at Citizens Bank Park, Kelly gave up just three hits in 5 2/3 innings, but all were home runs, one by Trea Turner and two by Kyle Schwarber.

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