Girardi fired with Phillies fading fast

PHILADELPHIA — Joe Girardi was managing a Philadelphia Phillies team with the reigning National League MVP, five 2021 MLB All-Stars, a $225 million-plus payroll that nudged the franchise above the luxury tax, and expectations of ending the longest playoff drought in the NL. That same team can now be characterized as having a sagging squad of relief pitchers, defensive deficiencies and slumbering starts by a few high-priced veterans. Throw in some of Girardi’s questionable handling of the bullpen, epic late-game collapses, sloppy baserunning and injuries to Bryce Harper and Jean Segura, and the Phillies appear to be out of the division race again. This time, Girardi is out of a job as well. With the club buried deep in the NL East standings, Girardi on Friday became the first MLB manager to lose his job this season after failing to turn a team with a record payroll into a playoff contender. Bench coach Rob Thomson was named interim manager. Expected to contend for the division title, the Phillies entered the day with 22-29 record, 12 games behind the first-place New York Mets in the East and 5 1/2 games out of the second NL wild-card spot. Although Dave Dombrowski, the team’s president of baseball operations, said he believes the Phillies “can battle back” to make the playoffs for the firs time since 2011, anyone who doesn’t share his optimism couldn’t be blamed after a run of 12 losses in 17 games. Girardi was hired ahead of the 2020 season, three years after spending a decade as manager of the New York Yankees — a stretch that included that franchise’s most recent of its record 27 World Series championships — but the Phillies went 28-32 during the pandemic-shortened schedule and were third in the NL East. Last year they were 82-80 to finish second as the Atlanta Braves won a fourth straight division title, and this year they have’t kept pace with the Mets, who also spent big. “There’s blame on us, as well,” Harper said. “There’s not just blame on Joe. We haven’t played to the best of our ability. We haven’t done the things to be the team we should be.”

BASKETBALL

› SAN FRANCISCO — Once their balanced roster of NBA Finals first-timers found a groove from long range, the determined Boston Celtics delivered a memorable comeback and rallied past Stephen Curry and the rest of the Golden State Warriors’ old guard. Jaylen Brown fueled the late charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Warriors in Game 1 late Thursday night. Horford finished with 26 points on the eve of his 36th birthday, and the Celtics outscored the Warriors 40-16 in the final 12 minutes after trailing by 15 points late in the third quarter. Horford, the big man in his 15th year in the league, had played in 141 previous postseason games, the most ever before appearing in the NBA Finals. “I felt like the guys kept finding me time after time. Also, Derrick White hit some tough shots there, too,” Horford said. “I was just getting the looks, knocking them down. That’s that.” Boston made its first seven tries from long distance in the fourth and wound up 9-of-12 beyond the arc in the period as almost everybody got involved in the 3-point flurry. Jayson Tatum was the lone Celtics regular who struggled offensively, finishing 3-for-17, though he did have 13 assists. Curry scored 34 points in Golden State’s return to the league’s big stage for the first time in three years — although this is the Warriors’ sixth NBA Finals trip in an eight-year run — but the hosts couldn’t sustain momentum from a 38-point third quarter that put them ahead 92-80 going into the final 12 minutes. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday night, also at the Chase Center. Boston is on a quest to capture a record-breaking 18th championship, which would move the franchise past the Los Angeles Lakers.

MOTORSPORTS

› MADISON, Ill. — NASCAR driver Chris Buescher has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss Sunday’s Cup Series race. RFK Racing said Truck Series regular Zane Smith will replace Buescher in the No. 17 Ford at World Wide Technology Raceway, which is hosting NASCAR’s top national circuit for the first time. It will be the Cup Series debut for Smith, who has three wins and eight top-10 finishes in 10 starts in the third-tier Truck Series this season. Buescher is 21st in the Cup Series points standings with three top-10 finishes this year, still in contention for a playoff berth with nearly half of the regular season remaining. However, he did not finish last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, completing 346 of the race’s eventual 413 laps before being involved in a crash that flipped his car onto its roof but did not injure him. RFK said Buescher expects to be back in the car next weekend at California’s Sonoma Raceway.