Cardinals’ late rally capped by reversed call hands the Phillies a 4-3 loss

ST. LOUIS — A few hours before Sunday’s game, the Phillies got as close as they’ve come to naming Matt Vierling — or anyone else, for that matter — as their No. 1 center fielder.

Then, Vierling came thisclose to preventing the St. Louis Cardinals from scoring the winning run.

With the bases loaded, one out, and the game tied in the eighth inning, Vierling caught a fly ball and threw a missile to home plate. Umpire Todd Tichenor called Dylan Carlson out, but a replay review showed Carlson’s hand touched the plate before catcher J.T. Realmuto’s glove touched him.

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There would be no ninth-inning magic this time. The Phillies lost, 4-3, in a game that they led by a 3-1 margin in the fifth inning. They’re one game ahead of the Cardinals for the final National League playoff spot and must win Monday night to come away with more than a split in this pivotal four-game series.

“Yeah, I really wanted that one. I really did,” said Vierling, who grew up in St. Louis and had at least 30 family and friends among the announced crowd of 36,112 at Busch Stadium. “It’s a tough pill to swallow. Man, it’s a hard one. I really wanted that throw. It would’ve been pretty cool. I think some of those people would’ve stood up and started cheering.”

Vierling started a second consecutive game in center field, even though the Phillies were facing a right-handed starting pitcher. It’s a departure from interim manager Rob Thomson’s recent allocation of playing time. Lefty-hitting Mickey Moniak had been getting most of the at-bats against righties.

But Moniak is 3-for-27 with 10 strikeouts in his last 12 games. Vierling, meanwhile, entered Sunday having reached base at a .370 clip with three doubles, three homers, and a .484 slugging percentage in 24 games since getting recalled from triple A.

“It’s not so much it’s hard to play Mickey as it is Vierling’s swinging the bat so well that he’s earned playing time,” Thomson said. “His on-base and his slug the last two weeks or a month has been really good — and playing all these different positions.

“So, let’s see what he can do in center field. If he’s swinging the bat and can play center field, that’s a premium position every day. So we’ll see what happens with that.”

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Vierling continued to make things happen at the plate with an RBI single in the fourth inning against Cardinals starter Andre Pallante. He also stole a base.

“I’ve been happy with it,” Vierling said of his recent play. “I made some adjustments and they’ve been working. [Thomson] told me I’d be getting a little more playing time, so I want to take advantage of it and just keep doing what I’m doing.”

The decisive rally came against previously unhittable Seranthony Domínguez.

Pitching for the third time in four days, he gave up a leadoff single to Albert Pujols, a one-out single to Edmundo Sosa, and walked pinch-hitting Paul Goldschmidt on four pitches to load the bases before Tommy Edman lifted the go-ahead sacrifice fly. It was the first walk allowed by Domínguez since May 21.

It was bound to happen. Domínguez has been dominant for the Phillies in the late innings. But the innings are beginning to pile up, especially considering he missed most of the last 2½ seasons because of Tommy John elbow surgery.

Thomson, like deposed manager Joe Girardi before him, has been wary of overusing Domínguez as he reacclimates to a normal reliever workload. Domínguez’s velocity wasn’t down, but Thomson thought he looked a little off.

“It’s always on our minds to make sure that he’s right,” Thomson said. “Just got to be careful. He looked like he was a little bit, not tired, I don’t know what it was. But he’s been worked pretty hard.”

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Given the right-handed pop in the middle of the Cardinals’ lineup, even with MVP candidate Goldschmidt getting a breather, the Phillies chose to start an opener rather than left-hander Cristopher Sánchez.

It mostly worked.

Nick Nelson went two innings and gave up one run before Jeurys Familia loaded the bases and escaped in the third. Sánchez started the fourth against the bottom of the order and went through the Cardinals sluggers only once. He retired Nolan Arenado before ...

Sánchez didn’t have to look. He hung a sinker to Pujols in the sixth inning, and well, everyone knows the result when that happens. Pujols crushed it to center field to trim the Phillies’ lead to 3-2.

A few eye-popping numbers:

--It was Pujols’ 684th career homer, fifth-most all time.

--Pujols tied Stan Musial for third with 1,377 extra-base hits.

--Sánchez is the 445th pitcher to give up a homer to Pujols.