The Phillies lost to the Braves, 5-3, in Game 1 of the best-of-three 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 J.T. Realmuto before manager Don Mattingly decided to hand the ball over to his closer, Jhoan Duran.
Duran was one of the best closers in baseball in the regular season, but seeing him enter the game in the seventh inning was still a surprising move. He hadn't worked in the seventh inning all season and only did twice (once in the regular season, once in the playoffs) last year. He's generally a ninth-inning-only closer but has gotten some four-out saves.
In this situation, the Braves had the top of the order coming up in the top of the seventh (it was 9-1-2 to start).
"We talked about it before the game: if we were at the top, we were getting to the top, go seventh, eighth (innings)," Mattingly said after the game.
Duran only threw 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 home run. That 3-2 lead turned into a 5-3 deficit that would hold for a final score.
There's an argument that Duran should've been removed before Riley hit, given that the closer was up over 20 pitches at this point -- but there were two outs and he's the best reliever the Phillies have. The Harris hit was only 85.5 mph, just a bouncer that was placed perfectly in the infield.
Mattingly noted after the game that had Duran gotten through the seventh and eighth with a tidy pitch count, he'd have checked with his closer and possibly sent him back out for the ninth. It was a case where the Phillies were trying to use their best and see how deep he could get.
Had the Phillies used a lesser reliever and blown the game, there would've been questions about why one of the top relievers on the planet was sitting in the bullpen unused. Instead of managing to the save stat, Mattingly put his best guy in position to get the game to the ninth with the lead intact. The next question would be who was going to get the ninth inning. If you don't get there with the lead, it doesn't much matter. Saving the best reliever often backfires in the postseason. We've famously seen shots of stud closers like Zach Britton and Craig Kimbrel helplessly watching as their team blew the lead. This time around, Mattingly and the Phillies made the right call. It just didn't work out.
"It's frustrating," Mattingly said. "But in our minds, we had our best guy out there. You live with this one."
Sometimes even the best plans backfire.
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