With the expectation of shadows Saturday afternoon early in Game 1 of the NLDS, the Phillies went with Johan Rojas in center field and Brandon Marsh in left rather than Marsh in center with Austin Hays in left.
Sounds like it will be the same arrangement to start Game 2.
"There's going to be some shadows early, so there's a potential it's going to be tough to score some runs, so I want the best defense available," manager Rob Thomson said three hours before the series opener against the Mets. "These 4:00 games in the postseason can be very difficult.
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"I'm really comfortable when (Rojas) is playing center field. And then Marsh, who's one of the best left fielders in baseball, is manning left field. So for today anyway, and probably tomorrow with the shadows, I just want the best defense out there."
Bryce Harper also referenced the shadows when asked about the difficulty of facing right-hander Kodai Senga. The Mets are turning to Senga in Game 1 after he made just one regular-season start. He was out from February through July with a shoulder injury then suffered a season-ending calf injury in his lone start July 26.
"We'll just have to adjust on the fly. I was surprised," Thomson said. "(Mets manager Carlos Mendoza) announced it in his press conference yesterday. That was the first I had heard of it. They kept it under wraps pretty good."
The Phillies will face right-handed starters in Games 1 and 2 in Senga and Luis Severino. When facing a righty starter in the second half, Thomson tended to lean toward Rojas with a flyball pitcher on the mound like Aaron Nola or the No. 5 starter and Hays when it was a groundball-heavy guy like Zack Wheeler or Cristopher Sanchez. But for the first two games of this series, the shadows will give Rojas the edge.
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That doesn't mean Hays will lack for opportunity. He'll start against lefties and the Phillies feel comfortable pinch-hitting in three different spots — left field, center field and second base — to gain the platoon advantage. If the Mets have one of their lefties in to face Marsh, Hays or Weston Wilson could come off the bench. If it's Bryson Stott, in could come Edmundo Sosa. Kody Clemens could be used for Rojas.
"Just giving guys a heads up that we might move a little bit earlier than usual so that they're not surprised," Thomson said. "Same thing with Wilson, Hays and Clemens, gotta be ready a little bit earlier than usual. Those guys are usually moving around anyway from the get-go."
The only spot on the Phillies' NLDS roster that was in question was the final bullpen role. It went to left-hander Kolby Allard over righties Max Lazar and Spencer Turnbull.
It boiled down to length. The ghost-runner-on-second-base rule for extra innings goes away in the playoffs.
"If we get into an extra-inning game, the rules go back to Abner Doubleday rules," Thomson quipped, "so I just wanted as much length as we could get."