Jhoan Duran wants to pitch every game. And that requires listening to his body and a short memory.
If the Phillies closer feels good then “I want to be in the game.” Even if it meant pitching a third straight day for the first time in almost three years.
TORONTO — Jhoan Duran wants the ball every night.
It’s a good thing for the Phillies that he does, because they have leaned on their closer a lot this season. Even though Duran was on the injured list for 17 days this year with an oblique injury in his left side, he still ranks fourth in baseball in save opportunities.
“I need to be on the mound every day,” Duran said.
But in this week’s series against the Blue Jays, the Phillies asked even more of Duran than usual, when interim manager Don Mattingly used him three nights in a row. The last time Duran had made three appearances on three consecutive nights was from July 14-16, 2023, when he was a member of the Minnesota Twins.
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“If I feel good, I want to be in the game,” Duran said. “So that’s me. The more I throw in the game, I feel more comfortable. I feel way better.”
Duran needed just nine pitches to record a save in Monday’s series opener against the Blue Jays. He threw eight pitches on Tuesday but blew his first save of the season as Toronto walked him off. On Wednesday, he rebounded with a 10-pitch save, his 17th of the season.
Mattingly said the process this season for determining Duran’s availability largely has been following the reliever’s lead. He plays catch pregame each day and then informs the coaches how he feels.
“Jho’s been pretty good about telling us,” Mattingly said. “There’s been times when we thought he’d be available, and he says he needed a day. [Wednesday] was not one of those days, and he was adamant, and we kind of go with that.”
The “blown save” on the box score doesn’t capture the whole story of what happened Tuesday night. With the Phillies clinging to a one-run lead, things unraveled quickly: a broken-bat single (.070 expected batting average by Statcast) and another ground ball single (.150 expected batting average) put runners on the corners.
The Blue Jays used two pinch-runners, and after a wild pitch brought the tying run home, all they needed to do to end it was to get the ball out of the infield. Brandon Valenzuela delivered with a single, and Duran no longer had a perfect season.
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Mattingly said he wanted to get Duran into another game quickly after that. But for Duran, what happened the day before made no difference. Like every day, he just wanted to pitch.
The flame-throwing right-hander has always had a short memory, and regardless of the result, he turns the page quickly. When Duran walked out on Wednesday, he wasn’t thinking about Tuesday at all.
“Yesterday is yesterday,” Duran said. “I was focusing on today, not yesterday. Yesterday is just the past for me.”
His teammates felt the same.
“We got all the confidence in the world in him,” Kyle Schwarber said.
Duran threw 27 pitches in three games, not including what he needed to warm up each night in the bullpen. While that total might not seem like much, for a reliever like him who can top 100 mph on the radar gun, each pitch is thrown at a high intensity.
Duran said he handles his workload and recovery by listening to his body.
“I do a lot of recovery in the training room,” he said. “I do it [in] the hotel, too. I always have my recovery machines with me.”
On Wednesday — this time with a three-run cushion — Duran let the leadoff man aboard with a single, but got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground into a double play on the next pitch.
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Ernie Clement poked a soft single, just 60.4 mph off the bat, but Duran struck out Kazuma Okamoto on three pitches to seal the win and record another save.
“Insanely [impressive]. His stuff is always elite, and he’s a workhorse, so we love having him in our corner,” said starter Jesús Luzardo. “Seeing him bounce back after [Tuesday] night, which I would call it unfortunate.
“His stuff is second to none. And I think that that’s why he’s the best closer in the game.”
Fifty years ago, the All-Star Game came to Philadelphia as part of the bicentennial celebration. Larry Bowa was among five Phillies who represented the National League. With the Midsummer Classic returning to town next month, Bowa joined Phillies Extra to recall the atmosphere surrounding the 1976 game and being an All-Star at Veterans Stadium, as well as the state of the current Phillies. Watch here.
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