Closer Jhoan Duran surrenders a walk-off single in Phillies’ 6-5 loss to the Mets
Duran allowed four straight singles, including Brandon Nimmo's game-winning hit. The Phillies have lost their last nine games at Citi Field, including last year's playoffs.
NEW YORK — As it turns out, none of the Phillies — not even the new star closer — is immune to the torment that occurs when they play in Citi Field.
Because this place is meaningless to Jhoan Duran. A Phillie for all of 26 days, he had nothing to do with anything that occurred here last October. Before exiting the bullpen in the ninth inning Tuesday night, he faced the Mets here once in his entire career.
Yet there he was, giving up four singles in a row, including Brandon Nimmo’s walk-off punch through a drawn-in infield — without recording an out — in a 6-5 Phillies loss, their ninth consecutive defeat in this torture chamber dating to last September.
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“They made contact,” Duran said, matter-of-factly. “They hit the ground balls past the defense. They had good luck today.”
Sure, maybe based on this one game. But you know better than Duran. You’ve seen so much more. When the Phillies come here, the grounders always sneak through the infield. Fly balls, like Brett Baty’s bloop before Nimmo’s game-winner, drop inside the left-field foul line.
In Queens, bad things keep happening to the Phillies.
Coincidence? The Phillies insist that’s all it is.
“It’s not the building,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I’ve been asked that numerous times since we’ve been here. They’re playing good. We played well today, too. We battled back. We come out here tomorrow and do it again.
“We’ve been playing good baseball. We’ve got a five-game lead.”
True. And two losses to the Mets this week aren’t the end of the world. Heck, even a sweep, should that befall the Phillies, shouldn’t sound any alarms.
Because the Phillies (76-56) still have a five-game lead in the National League East with 30 games to go. If they finish 15-15, the Mets (71-61) would need to go 20-10 to tie them. And the teams still have four head-to-head games in two weeks in the Phillies-friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park.
“I mean, I don’t think anybody got into this locker room by doing math,” said Harrison Bader, another trade-deadline newcomer. “Every game, win by 10, lose by 10, it’s one game, and you just try to gather information from it.”
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And for a moment there in the eighth inning, it seemed the Phillies finally slayed the demons. Bader, who saw this rivalry from the Mets perspective last season, skied a game-tying two-run homer in the eighth inning.
It would’ve only been fitting for a former Met to change the Phillies’ mojo here.
“I like the presence he has about him,” Thomson said when the series began. “There’s a little bit of swagger to him. I’m glad he’s here.”
But after the Phillies didn’t score in the ninth inning, Duran came in to try to force extra innings and gave up singles to Starling Marte, Pete Alonso, Baty, and finally, Nimmo.
“He was probably just up in the zone,” Thomson said, and Duran agreed. “It’s a shame. But that’s going to happen.”
Especially, it seems, in New York.
For a second consecutive game, the Phillies had a lead in the middle innings. But like Monday, when they coughed up a 3-0 edge with Cristopher Sánchez on the mound, the Phillies’ 2-0 lead went poof in an ugly fifth inning.
How ugly? Some lowlights:
The first four batters reached against Jesús Luzardo, who hit No. 9-hitting catcher Luis Torrens with a pitch to open the inning. “Obviously it can’t happen,” Luzardo said. “Just trying to make a good pitch, but that can’t happen, especially leading off an inning with the nine hole.”
Bader airmailed home plate when he should’ve thrown the ball into second base on Juan Soto’s RBI single. It enabled Soto and Francisco Lindor to move into scoring position.
Luzardo left the game with the bases loaded. And after handing the ball to Thomson, he shouted at plate umpire Willie Traynor. “Wake the [heck] up,” Luzardo said, only he didn’t say heck. He thought he had Marte struck out on a 2-2 pitch that was on the inside corner and was still riled up that Traynor granted time to Soto while he was in the middle of his windup.
Orion Kerkering inherited a bases-loaded, no-out jam from Luzardo and promptly gave up a two-run double to Alonso.
All together, the Mets scored five runs on four hits, one hit batter, two walks, and a sacrifice fly.
Say it together: Ugly.
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But it’s also par for the course for the Phillies in their den of horrors, even if they choose not to acknowledge it or claim not to know better.
“I can’t really speak to the history of the rivalry or the history of how the Phillies have played here,” Bader said. “I don’t know. If there’s a game to be played, if I’m penciled in, I go out there and put my best foot forward and try to play winning baseball.”