‘It was awesome’: Some of the least likely culprits caused Phillies’ Game 1 implosion originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Jeff Hoffman brought a 1.65 ERA into the final weekend of the regular season.
Matt Strahm brought a 1.87 ERA to the playoffs.
Hitters were 12-for-134 against that duo after starting an 0-2 count, a .090 batting average.
None of that mattered in Game 1 of the NLDS and none of that dominance was in sight.
Hoffman and Strahm each faced three batters in the decisive eighth inning of the Phillies’ 6-2 loss to the Mets. Five of those six counts started 0-2 or 1-2, the other started 0-1, and the results were four singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly.
Two of the best in baseball at corralling a batter couldn’t find an out pitch for nearly a half hour as the Mets flipped the script again with their third comeback in six days in the eighth inning or later.
“It was awesome to see Hoffy and Strahmy give up like that,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But that’s baseball sometimes. They haven’t really done that since we’ve had them.”
It spoiled another masterpiece by Zack Wheeler, who allowed one hit in seven scoreless innings to lower his playoff ERA to 2.18 and maintain the lowest WHIP (0.73) in postseason history. He’s the biggest lead the Phillies have in this series, but he might not even pitch again. The Phillies would need the series to reach Game 4 for Wheeler to appear on short rest or Game 5 for him to pitch on regular rest.
“It hurts,” Hoffman said. “I definitely want to take advantage of an outing like that. He did everything he could to keep us ahead.”
Wheeler’s six fastest pitches of the season, which ranged between 98.2 and 99.0 mph, came in Saturday’s first inning. He was feeling it. Kyle Schwarber gave him a lead in the first inning with a mammoth solo home run and that lead held until Wheeler exited.
“Wheeler was amazing,” Thomson said. “We haven’t seen that kind of speed from him and stuff in a while. He’s the best there is.”
The Phillies have supreme confidence in Hoffman, Strahm, Orion Kerkering and Carlos Estevez for good reason, but two of the least likely culprits to cost them a game did so on Saturday.
“We just have to get better tomorrow. We played five games for a reason,” Hoffman said. “Show up tomorrow at the same time and do it.
“I’m going to treat tomorrow as what it is, which is a baseball game. I won’t think about today, or yesterday, or two days ago.”
However, this loss wasn’t just for two relievers. The Phillies didn’t get their third hit of the day until there were two outs in the bottom of the eighth. They didn’t score after Schwarber’s leadoff homer until Kody Clemens’ double with two outs in the ninth.
And it’s not like they had bad luck, moving all over the place. They didn’t square many balls and, like in the last games of the 2023 National League Championship Series, they expanded the strike zone.
“There was probably some chasing there tonight,” Thomson said. “We’ve got to get back in the zone. We’ve got to start using the field. It’s what we talk about all the time. And just put together better at-bats.”
It’s hard not to see that as a concern given how many Phillies kicked off their shoes in Games 6 and 7 of the National League Championship Series. Then they felt the pressure and the subconscious response was to swing harder, which rarely works in baseball.
Everyone knows it, but it’s a problem that can be difficult to correct in real time, especially for always-aggressive hitters like Trea Turner and Nick Castellanos.
“We shouldn’t,” Bryce Harper said. “You have to know what they are trying to do. We have to be better.
“It’s the same thing, man. Chasing balls in the dirt didn’t work on deep counts like we should have. We have to understand what they are going to try to do to us and activate the offensive switch immediately.”
They will have less than 24 hours to think about it.
