Before starting against each other, Jesús Luzardo and Aaron Nola warmed up side by side in the home bullpen on Wednesday night.
They each pitched three scoreless innings in the seven-inning Phillies intrasquad game, a final tuneup before the National League Division Series begins on Saturday. The Phillies sold more than 31,000 tickets for the scrimmage at Citizens Bank Park for $10 each, more than the 26,186 tickets the Cleveland Guardians sold for Game 1 of their American League wild-card matchup against the Detroit Tigers.
» READ MORE: Bryce Harper is ready to become Mr. Red October again for the Phillies. There’s only one thing missing …
With real umpires, walk-up music, and thousands of fans, the Phillies did their best to simulate a real game environment in the contest between the pinstripes and powder blues. Last season, the Phillies’ intrasquad matchup during the bye was closed to the public. This time, they had more time to plan.
“We wanted to do that last year actually, but it was just too late,” manager Rob Thomson said. “You’ve got to get a lot of people in here, workers and concessions and EMTs and all kinds of people. … A lot of money going to charity, so it’s for a good cause, and hopefully it helps the players.”
Also unlike last year, when players drafted their own teams for the game, this time Thomson determined the lineups. He wanted to keep the middle infield of Bryson Stott and Trea Turner together on one team, and had Weston Wilson and Otto Kemp each starting in left field to get extra reps in the outfield.
Ranger Suárez, who took a comebacker off the upper left thigh in his final regular-season start, did not pitch in the game. But Thomson said he was feeling fine and threw a bullpen session on Wednesday.
“I think he asked if he could be a bat boy tonight,” Thomson said. “So he’s moving around all right.”
Suárez will be ready to make his next appearance, Thomson said. He declined to reveal his roster decisions or starting rotation for the NLDS beyond left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, who will start Game 1.
Like many other managers, Thomson has tended to have a quick hook for his starters in the postseason. But he said Wednesday he would feel confident pushing them as well, if the situation warranted it.
“I think managers go to their bullpen a little bit early, earlier than normal, just because the guys will be rested and you can use them back-to-back days and you get a day off,” he said. “But in our case, we had 84 quality starts this year. So it’s a big strength of ours, is our starting pitching, so I think you just handle it accordingly. I feel pretty confident with our rotation.”
The scrimmage gave Turner another opportunity to test his hamstring in a real game environment after he was reinstated from the injured list for the final game of the regular season.
It was also a chance for the team to iron out some mistakes that had crept in toward the end of the regular season. The Phillies committed 12 errors in September and they ran into several extra outs on the bases. Thomson described the team as “a little bit sloppy” after a two-error game against the Marlins on Sept. 24.
During Tuesday’s workout day, the Phillies focused on fundamentals and defense. Thomson said he was confident that the sloppiness had been ironed out.
“You can never tell until you get out there and compete and execute,” he said. “But I think the guys are pretty focused, and they understand what they need to do.”