LOS ANGELES — Orion Kerkering walked off the field at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night with Nick Castellanos’ arm draped around him, with Bryson Stott consoling him, with J.T. Realmuto having run to his aid. It wasn’t the way he would’ve ever expected to walk off the mound.
Kerkering’s throwing error on a fielder’s choice with two outs in the 11th inning ended the Phillies’ season, the Dodgers surviving a 2-1 marathon to take the NLDS in four games.
Kerkering knocked down but couldn’t find at his feet a comebacker from Andy Pages with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th. With J.T Realmuto pointing to first base and the infield screaming at him to throw that way, Kerkering instead airmailed it to home. A good throw may never have gotten pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim. But Pages was dead to rights at first if only Kerkering looked that way.
It was an ignominious, if fitting, ending for a bullpen that has let the Phillies down each of the last two years.
While Ranger Suarez in Game 3 and three relievers in Game 4 kept the game close, Kerkering was unable to push the game to the 12th.
It’s the latest in a long line of postseason bullpen failures.
The numbers are so crooked as to bear repeating: In the 2024 NLDS and first two games of this series, (six games), the Phillies bullpen has allowed 21 earned runs in 19 innings, an ERA of 9.95. Potentially worse, they’ve allowed 16 of 22 inherited runners to score. They improved those numbers with Suarez’s five-inning outing from the ‘pen in Game 3 in which he allowed one run, then Taijuan Walker allowed one in the ninth, Tanner Banks stranding an inherited runner.
Whether it was Jose Alvarado running out of gas in the 2022 postseason or Craig Kimbrel in 2023 or Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez last year, every option the Phillies have used has turned into a pumpkin at midnight. That ineptitude has cost the Phillies a fourth straight postseason.
Thursday, both starters were as advertised.
Tyler Glasnow, who recorded five crucial outs in Game 1, navigated six innings with two hits and three walks. He bailed himself out with eight strikeouts. Dave Roberts got him out of the game at 83 pitches before he got into trouble, but his replacement courted it.
Emmet Sheehan allowed a lead-off single to J.T. Realmuto, who was erased on a fielder’s choice, but Sheehan whiffed on the return throw to first, allowing Realmuto to get into scoring position. That extra 90 feet helped when Nick Castellanos roped a double down the line to make it 1-0 in the top of the seventh.
The lead didn’t survive an inning.
Thomson was always going to ride Sanchez until he faltered and hope the bullpen could prevent damage. When Alex Call walked and Kike Hernandez singled with one out in the seventh, Sanchez’s day was done. Jhoan Duran induced a ground out from Andy Pages, who had homered off him in the past, and intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani, who even though he’s struggling has two career homers off Duran.
That left little room for error on Mookie Betts, who held off on two splitters out of the zone to start the at-bat and held back on two fastballs above it to draw the bases loaded walk. Duran recovered to get Teoscar Hernandez to wave at a curveball and end the threat.
The Dodgers likewise went to their closer in the eighth.
But Roki Sasaki, the converted starter who spent most of the summer injured and never built back up to a starter’s workload, managed to eke out three uber efficient innings. He threw just 36 pitches to retire all nine batters he faced.
Duran was done after five outs. The Phillies turned to Matt Strahm for a clean 9th, then ostensible Game 5 starter Jesus Luzardo for the 10th.
Luzardo got five outs, before singles by Tommy Edman and Max Muncy chased him.
Kerkering walked Kike Hernandez after going up in the count. Then Pages put the ball in play, on a night where the Phillies struck out 12 times and got only four hits.
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
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