The Phillies are already down 1-0 in their best-of-three Wild Card Series after a brutal 5-3 loss to the Braves in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon, and it all came down to a shocking decision by manager Don Mattingly with his closer, Jhoan Duran. Seriously, can you believe what went down?
Duran in the Seventh?! What Was Mattingly Thinking?
Talk about a curveball! The Phillies had just snagged a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh on a huge two-RBI triple from catcher J.T. Realmuto. Everyone expected a setup guy, right? Nope. Mattingly handed the ball to Duran, one of the best closers in baseball. Now, Duran is usually a ninth-inning-only guy, not a seventh-inning hero. He hadn’t even pitched in the seventh all season, and only did twice last year, once in the regular season and once in the playoffs. It was a wild move, especially with the Braves’ top of the order coming up (9-1-2 to start the inning). Mattingly said they had discussed it, “We talked about it before the game: if we were at the top, we were getting to the top, go seventh, eighth (innings).”
The Eighth Inning Implosion That Blew the Game
Duran got through the seventh inning clean, only throwing 11 pitches. You think, okay, maybe it worked out! But then came the bottom of the eighth. He got two outs, then Michael Harris II hit a weak tapper, just 85.5 mph, that found its way into the infield for a single. Next, Duran hit Ozzie Albies with a pitch. Then, boom: Austin Riley stepped up and launched a three-run home run. Just like that, the 3-2 lead flipped into a 5-3 deficit. Duran was over 20 pitches at that point, and you gotta wonder if he should’ve been pulled before Riley. But Mattingly kept his best guy out there, and sometimes, even your best guy gets snakebitten.
“You Live With This One”
Mattingly’s plan was clear: get his best reliever to carry them deep. He noted that if Duran had kept his pitch count tidy through the seventh and eighth, he might have even sent him back out for the ninth! The manager saw it as putting his best guy in position to get the game to the ninth with the lead intact. Saving your best reliever often backfires in the postseason, so the logic was there. Mattingly’s got no regrets, even after the loss. He said, “It’s frustrating. But in our minds, we had our best guy out there. You live with this one.” Sometimes even the best plans backfire, and the Phillies now have their backs against the wall heading into Game 2. They need to turn it around, or their Wild Card hopes are toast.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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