Nats sweep Phils, drop them below playoff position
Nola loses Game 1, bullpen blows Game 2 as Phils drop two and fade in race for playoffs
What could’ve possibly gone wrong in a game where the Phillies starting pitcher warmed up on the mound at Nationals Park at the same time that his eventual replacement started tossing in the bullpen? How could a game manned by, statistically, one of the worst bullpens in baseball history, have failed to stop a three-game Phillies losing streak from metastasizing into four?
The upshot Tuesday was not just the garden variety bullpen capitulation by the Phillies. Instead, it was more wrenching: An early lead blown, then the battle to fight back to tie the game, force it to extras, take the lead in the top of the eighth and then see deadline disaster Brandon
Workman blow the save with a two-run homer by Yadiel Hernandez. It added up to an 8-7 loss to the Nats, the Phillies’ third straight in the series, fourth straight overall and 11th in 16 seven-inning doubleheader contests this year.
“It’s hard to explain,” manager Joe Girardi said. “We’ve worked at it and tried to get them right. They had success in the past and been pretty good. For whatever reason, it hasn’t happened here, and it’s extremely frustrating.”
Easier to explain is the Phillies predicament: They are 27-29 with four games to play. They have to win out to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2011. They’ll need close to four wins and some help to end a nine-season playoff drought.
Add another bullpen meltdown for a unit that was rebuilt midseason but still sports an ERA north of seven. The main culprits Tuesday were three pitchers not with the big club to start the season: David Phelps, JoJo Romero and Workman.
“I know it’s happened to other bullpens, but I personally have never been a part of one that has struggled (like this),” Girardi said. “And you had some great performances tonight by some guys. … That’s the risk sometimes when you do a bullpen game and you try to set it up, is when one or two guys struggle, you could be in trouble.”
“This obviously isn’t what I was looking for when I came over here,” Workman said. “It wasn’t what the team was looking for. I don’t know, we’ve got one left here tomorrow, then three in Tampa, and we’ve got to play well on the back stretch and get ourselves into the postseason. But this definitely wasn’t what the plan was.”
The bullpen concept started out well enough. David Hale needed 11 pitches for a 1-2-3 first inning, then Adam Morgan retired all four batters he faced, with RBI singles from Andrew Knapp and Roman Quinn staking the Phils to a 2-0 lead.
But the wheels came off in the third. Phelps, with his 12.91 ERA since being acquired, gave up hits to his minimum of three batters, starting with a Michael A. Taylor double. Girardi had positioned Phelps to deliver lefty power hitter Juan Soto to Romero, which he did … to allow Soto to launch a three-run homer.
The Phillies clawed back thanks to a Scott Kingery solo homer, Didi Gregorius two-run double and J.T. Realmuto legging out a bases loaded infield single in the sixth. Two spotless innings each from Tommy Hunter and Hector Neris put the latter in line for the win when Phil Gosselin, starting the eighth on second base, scored on a Brock Holt overthrow of Roman Quinn’s sacrifice.
That wasn’t enough for Workman, who got one out and then allowed the rookie Hernandez, in just his seventh big league game, to yank a 2-1 hanging cutter out to right for his first MLB homer.
It leaves Girardi to pick up the pieces of his tattered bullpen and try to salvage results over the last four games to scrape into the postseason.
“I still expect to get the job done every time out,” Workman said. “I’m not doing that obviously at this point. I’m doing it at a career worst at this point. I’m working hard, trying to figure it out right now.”