Former Yankee Rob Thomson: No extra motivation to beat the Astros

There’s no shortage of story lines entering this World Series, but one that hasn’t received as much attention is Phillies manager Rob Thomson’s experience facing the Astros.

In 2017, he was the Yankees’ bench coach when they took on the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. The Astros won that series in seven games. They were later implicated in a sign-stealing scandal that led to the suspensions of general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch, among others, and a few rule changes, including restricting players’ access to video during games.

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Thomson said he has no bitterness toward Houston, and doesn’t think that experience will impact how he approaches the World Series matchup, which begins at 8:03 p.m. Friday in Houston.

“It’s not just the Astros,” he said on Wednesday. “I think we’re constantly looking at our pitchers, our infielders, our catchers, as to [whether] are they ever giving something away, whether it’s pitches, whether it’s location, that type of thing. And for me personally, there’s no extra motivation just because of that, to beat the Astros. I just want to win a World Series.”

The Astros have yet to play in Citizens Bank Park this season, and will surely hear about the team’s past transgressions from Phillies fans when they take the field for Games 3, 4, and 5, if necessary.

A big question ahead of Game 1 is how each team will approach left-handed power hitters. The Phillies will have to contend with the Astros’ Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez, while the Astros will have to face Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

The Astros one left-handed starter, Framber Valdez. They haven’t carried a left-handed reliever for most of the season, and didn’t carry one in the ALCS, but that hasn’t made them any less formidable. As a staff, they have a 1.88 ERA this postseason, and their bullpen has been even better with a 0.80 ERA over that span. The lefty-righty splits are negligible; the Astros held opposing lefties to a .202 batting average in the regular season, and righties to a .219 average. In the postseason, they’ve held lefties to .141 and righties to a .199 batting average.

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“They’ve got some even-split guys and got some reverse-split guys coming out of the bullpen,” Thomson said, “so having a lefty, I don’t think it really concerns them too much. But I still like our matchups. I mean, I like our hitters. And I think our lefties are swinging the bat pretty good. And so I’ll take my chances.”

One name to keep an eye on is Will Smith. The Astros didn’t carry him for the ALCS, but he is a left-handed relief option with extensive postseason experience.

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Despite that, if there is any pitcher the Phillies could do some damage against, it is Smith. The Phillies know him pretty well from his time spent in the NL East with Atlanta from 2020 until the 2022 trade deadline.

Smith posted a 3.27 ERA over 22 innings for the Astros and a 4.38 ERA in 37 innings for the Braves before that. For his career, he has a 4.65 ERA against the Phillies in 31 innings. He relies primarily on his slider, which has worked for him in the past but hasn’t looked as sharp this season.