Dave Dombrowski pushes back against Matt Strahm’s comments about fielding practice: ‘He didn’t do them, but we did them’

PHILADELPHIA — Phillies president Dave Dombrowski pushed back against the notion that his team did not do enough pitchers’ fielding practice leading up to the club’s National League Division Series loss that ended on a botched tapper back to the mound.

Shortly after Orion Kerkering’s game-ending blunder to hand the Dodgers an extra-inning win in Game 4 last Thursday, reliever Matt Strahm reportedly questioned whether or not the Phillies focused enough on PFPs and if that could have made a difference on the play. A week later during Philadelphia’s end-of-season news conference at Citizens Bank Park, Dombrowski said that the team worked on PFPs during its bye week ahead of the NLDS — and that Strahm may not have been a full participant.

“We did plenty,” Dombrowski said, “and actually, as it turns out, we did do PFPs in the postseason.

“He didn’t do them, but we did them.”

Strahm, a veteran in the bullpen who’s taken the younger Kerkering under his wing, spoke with reporters, including Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, in Los Angeles following the series defeat. The left-hander mentioned that he wished he had called for the pitchers to work on fielding their position more often.

“As soon as it left his hand, my initial thought was, ‘Why didn’t I, as a veteran guy, bring up the fact that we need to do PFPs?’” Strahm said to Zolecki. “It’s something that you can’t expect to do right every time if you don’t practice it enough. Or at all. It sucks that play was in the (11th) inning and not the seventh. If that’s in the seventh, we have a chance to score after it.”

While Phillies manager Rob Thomson also asserted on Thursday that the team did do “a long PFP” in the days prior to the NLDS, he doubted that any number of repetitions with the glove would have helped Kerkering in that disastrous moment. With the bases loaded and two outs, Dodgers nine-hole batter Andy Pages hit a ball back to Kerkering, who fumbled it, picked it up and fired wildly to home plate. He had a play at first base, but the right-hander seemed to panic in the chaos. Game and series over.

In Thomson’s view, there wasn’t any type of practice or drill that could have properly prepared Kerkering for the situation. The players can do all the PFPs in the world, but nothing will recreate the pressure of needing to recover after a ball eluded your grasp inside a packed Dodger Stadium with the season on the line.

“Me, or nobody else,” Thomson said, “can simulate that situation: bobble, bases loaded, 55,000 people, tie game, extra innings. We could hit them that ball 1,000 times and they’ll make the play, but I can’t simulate all the other things. So you just keep working at it and try to get better, but we did do PFP.”

Both Dombrowski and Thomson said they’ve spoken with Kerkering on multiple occasions since the error, and the Phillies will offer him “whatever assistance” and the “support system” that he needs to get past the tough finish to the season. Thomson said that Kerkering will have to put the play behind him and that he’s confident the 24-year-old will bounce back to have a “long” and “successful” career.

And if another dribbler comes his way in 2026?

“If he has the same play next year,” Thomson said, “he’ll make the right decision.”