WASHINGTON — Dave Dombrowski has thought about this — an extended October layoff without baseball — for years. He ran the Detroit Tigers in 2006 when they swept the American League Championship Series and went six days between playing only to lose the World Series in five games. In 2012, they had a five-day pause after sweeping the ALCS again. Then, the San Francisco Giants swept Dombrowski’s Tigers in that World Series.
Around that time, executives from other clubs facing similar situations called Dombrowski to pick his brain. What did the Tigers do? What regrets did he have? Is there any way to compensate for an irregular schedule in a sport rooted in routine?
“There’s things that we’ve researched ourselves,” Dombrowski said. “Probably the most difficult part for me, as a team, is keeping your bats going.”
After two more games at Nationals Park this weekend to conclude the regular season, the next time Dombrowski’s Phillies play is Oct. 5 — Game 1 of the National League Division Series. They’ll take that five-day break because, this year, the idea of a best-of-three series is not appealing. The National League is strong.
“The good effect of it all,” Kyle Schwarber said, “is that we don’t have a chance to get knocked out in a three-game series.”
That’s not a loser’s mentality. That is just being realistic about how weird things can dramatically swing a three-game series. Things like a six-run ninth inning fueled by two walks and a hit batter.
But staying sharp without playing is a challenge. It’ll be the dominant storyline until the Phillies begin the postseason. This is new territory for them. They will have Monday off, followed by a workout Tuesday afternoon. They will play an intrasquad game on Wednesday — complete with umpires, a working scoreboard and walk-up music. They have a voluntary workout Thursday, then a mandated workout Friday.
The Phillies will have a taxi squad — pitchers Max Lazar and Spencer Turnbull along with hitters Rafael Marchán, Aramis Garcia, Buddy Kennedy and Cal Stevenson — join them at Citizens Bank Park for the workouts. While there’s only one scheduled scrimmage, the Phillies could have batters facing live pitching on three days next week.
“I know when this team gets to those five days, we’re going to use them the way that we need to use them,” Kyle Schwarber said. (Brett Davis / USA Today via Imagn Images)
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said the club will take cues from Kevin Long, whose 2019 Washington Nationals had a six-day break between the NLCS and World Series. While the “rusty after a bye” narrative has permeated baseball after prominent failures by the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, players inside the Phillies’ clubhouse have pointed to the Houston Astros. They have succeeded with a first-round bye. Rafael Peña, one of the Phillies’ assistant hitting coaches, was with the Astros organization for five years. He played a small role in their bye-week preparations last October.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about it,” said Dombrowski, the club’s president of baseball operations. “I don’t think you can just sit back and think, ‘Oh, everything’s going to be fine if you just sit around for a week and don’t do anything.’ Now, we’re not going to do that. But it’s a challenge. … Some guys will benefit more by rest. But I do think that you have to put a focus on still keeping your intensity levels up.”
Regardless, simulated at-bats against teammates are not like the real thing.
“I mean, for me, it is,” Phillies lefty Matt Strahm said. “Every time I face a hitter, I want to break their bat or punch their ticket. So I don’t care if they’re wearing pinstripes in a back-field game or not. That’s what I want to do.”
Maybe that’s all it takes.
“Yeah,” Strahm said. “No doubt.”
The entire thing requires players to be serious about their work. It’s not as if the Phillies need a reminder: Some were miffed in spring training when Atlanta manager Brian Snitker cited his team’s layoff to explain why it could not defeat the Phillies for a second straight NLDS.
“I don’t think anyone needs extra motivation,” Schwarber said. “We know what we’re playing for. We’re going to stay as ready as we possibly can.”
Dombrowski expects it to be a frequent topic next week.
“I would think it’d be a very big reminder,” he said. “We’ve benefited off that. When you get to this time of year, people will ask me, ‘Oh, who do you think’s going to win? Who would you prefer to play?’ I say: The reality is everybody’s good. I mean, there’s not bad teams making the postseason. Any team we play is going to be really good.
“So you have to be ready to go full bore. We know how good teams are. But we have an experienced club with good leadership and a good manager and coaching staff that I think will keep our focus in the right direction.”
These games against the Nationals are the last tuneup against another team. The priority is to avoid injury. But Friday night, a 9-1 loss, was a sloppy game played in sloppy conditions. Ranger Suárez, who could have used a better outing to instill confidence, needed 42 pitches to record the first three outs of the game. He was lifted after two uninspiring innings.
He’ll be the club’s Game 4 starter, Thomson said. But Suárez has had a precipitous fall since June, when he was considered a Cy Young Award contender. He has not looked his sharpest since returning from a month on the injured list with a sore back.
The Phillies can deploy him like they have in previous postseasons; he threw no more than 75 pitches in his four starts last October. They will be aggressive with their bullpen usage behind him.
Suárez has elevated his game in past Octobers. The Phillies will have to trust that he can do it again. They believe their advantage is their robust staff — four deep in the rotation and at least five deep in the bullpen. Suárez could go 12 days between starts; he could pitch in the Wednesday scrimmage. Thomson said the Phillies consider Suárez healthy.
“Maybe he needs a little bit of time off, which he’ll get, and then pick it up with adrenaline in the playoffs,” Thomson said. “Maybe that’s what it is. I don’t know. But it wasn’t very crisp tonight.”
Ranger Suárez allowed six runs in two innings against Washington. (James A. Pittman / Imagn Images)
Keeping the hitters sharp, in Dombrowski’s evaluation, will be tougher. The veteran executive acknowledged there have been technological advancements since his Tigers teams stumbled. Some Phillies hitters like the expensive Trajekt machine that shows a pitcher’s windup and duplicates his arsenal. But the arm action isn’t the same as the real thing.
Three of the club’s star hitters — Bryce Harper, Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto — have stopped taking traditional batting practice in favor of pregame work in the underground cages against high-velocity machines. That routine should help them during the five-day break.
“There are better ways to cope with it than there used to be,” Dombrowski said.
Schwarber agreed. The Phillies can see velocity without games. But, again, it’s not the same as the real thing. Plus, this is a lineup that has crushed fastballs all season. They will have to be disciplined against breaking balls designed to make them chase.
That is the challenge — with or without a break.
“I know when this team gets to those five days, we’re going to use them the way that we need to use them,” Schwarber said. “And when we do get to that series, there’s no extra motivation needed. We’re playing for an opportunity to move on to the next round. There’s going to be no excuse. If we win and we move on, great. And, if we lose, it’s because we lost. There’s no other reason why.”
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(Top photo of Brandon Marsh in batting practice: Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)
