The Phillies lost to the Braves, 5-3, in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series Tuesday afternoon in Atlanta. The Phillies took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh inning on a two-RBI triple from catcher JT Realmuto before manager Don Mattingly decided to hand the ball to closer Jhoan Duran.
Duran was one of the best defenders in baseball during the regular season, but seeing him enter the game in the seventh inning was still a surprising decision. He hadn’t worked the seventh inning all season and only did it twice (once in the regular season, once in the playoffs) last year. He’s usually closer only in the ninth inning, but has made a few four-out saves.
In this situation, the Braves were ahead of the standings going into the top of the seventh (it was 9-1-2 to start).
“We talked about it before the game: If we were on top, we would get on top, go seventh, eighth (innings),” Mattingly said after the game.
Duran threw just 11 pitches in the seventh inning, then got two outs in the bottom of the eighth before a weak tapper from Michael Harris II turned into an infield single. Duran then hit Ozzie Albies with a pitch before Austin Riley hit a three-run homer. That 3-2 lead turned into a 5-3 deficit that would hold for a final score.
There’s an argument that Duran should have been out before Riley struck, given that the closer was up more than 20 pitches at that point — but there were two outs and he’s the Phillies’ best reliever. Harris’ throw was only 85.5 mph, just a perfectly placed bouncer in the infield.
Mattingly noted after the game that had Duran come through the seventh and eighth with a tidy pitch count, he would have checked with his closer and perhaps returned it for the ninth. This was a case of the Phillies trying to do their best and see how far he could go.
If the Phillies had used a lesser reliever and ruined the game, one would have wondered why one of the best relievers on the planet was sitting in the bullpen, unused. Instead of hitting the save stat, Mattingly put his best guy in position to take the game to the ninth with the lead intact. The next question would be who would win the ninth round. If you can’t get it right with the leader, it doesn’t matter much. Saving the best reliever often backfires in the postseason. We’ve seen famous shots of Farmers like Zach Britton and Craig Kimbrel helplessly watching their team lose their minds. This time, Mattingly and the Phillies made the right choice. It just didn’t work.
“It’s frustrating,” Mattingly said. “But in our minds, we had our best guy. You live with that one.”
Sometimes even the best plans backfire.
Gn sports
