“It’s just frustrating because that’s a game I thought, in a lot of ways, we gave it away,” manager Joe Girardi said.
The Phillies gave up 3-0 and 6-5 advantages, the latter leading to the gift-wrapping moments that helped Baltimore win.
Héctor Neris entered in the ninth inning to close the game, which came after Bryce Harper’s exciting home runs and Jean Segura’s expunction of a two-run deficit in the bottom of the eighth. Neris — who has been one of the few reliable relievers Girardi has been able to call on — wasn’t his best.
“He was just a little off,” Girardi said. “I know he’s frustrated about it. But through all that, we still had a chance and we blew a pop-up.”
Neris gave up a bases-loaded, one-out single to Renato Núñez. Then, with outs, Pedro Severino hit a routine pop-up to the pitcher’s mound on the side of first base, which should have ended the half-inning.
“I heard something from the right side of the infield,” Hoskins said, “and in a typical pop-up priority, those guys typically have priority over the first baseman, but I just need to be louder. I called it early. I probably called it maybe a little bit too early. I don’t think there’s any miscue if I ended up calling it again, or maybe call it at a later time, and who knows what happens after that.”
“I think that’s probably the inexperience of Jean being at third and used to being a shortstop and taking charge, and it hurt us tonight,” Girardi added.
Down to their last strike, the Phillies still tied the game with two-out Didi Gregorius’ two-run single, which forced extra innings — the first time the Phillies experienced the 2020 extra inning rule, of starting with a runner on second base.
With Deolis Guerra on the mound facing Austin Hays to lead off the 10th, Hays hit a line drive in the direction of center fielder Roman Quinn. Despite Quinn’s speed and incredible athleticism, it was too difficult a play to make. That didn’t stop him, though, from attempting to catch it by diving.
Related
“You love the hustle, you love the effort,” Harper said. “It’s something that you never wanna take away from Q, because he plays a great center field for us and he goes and gets the balls better than anybody on our team, so you never wanna take that away, but we have to be a little bit smarter.”
Harper acknowledges the final score may have worked out differently if Quinn kept the ball in front of him and limited the damage to only one run.
“If that would’ve happened, then could’ve, should’ve, would’ve, and we might’ve been tied right there going into possibly the 11th (inning),” he pondered.
Jay Bruce led off the bottom of the 10th driving in a run, making it 10-9 — the eventual final score.
Don’t be mistaken: More happened in this game than two plays. Games rarely are determined by two plays. The Phillies’ bullpen continues to be inconsistent.
But when looking back at this game, those two plays stand out because if they didn’t happen, the Phils probably would have won.
There are only so many games. It’s not a marathon.
“We got to win games,” Harper added. “This is win or go home, pretty much. With this 60-game schedule, we can’t make mistakes.”