Rob Thomson’s pitching decisions haunt him in another Phillies playoff loss, this time to the Dodgers

Sometimes, nothing works.

Shohei Ohtani, the best baseball player on the planet, struck out four times.

Mookie Betts, formerly the best player on the planet, didn’t get a hit.

Cristopher Sánchez, the Phillies’ ace, dominated for 17 outs and had a 3-0 lead.

So, how did this happen?

How did the Dodgers snatch Game 1 of the National League Division Series away from the Phillies, with Citizens Bank Park rocking like the Bank of old? How did they turn a 3-0 hole into a 5-3 win?

Bad luck for the Phillies. Bad decisions. Bad pitching. A little of each.

With two on and two out in the sixth, Rob Thomson left Sánchez, a Cy Young contender, in the game to face Kiké Hernández, who pulled a 1-0 slider down the left-field line and scored two runs, making it a 3-2 game.

Did he consider replacing Sánchez with a right-hander, like David Robertson?

“I did think about bringing him in on Kiké, but he had handled Kiké pretty good,” Thomson explained. Hernández had grounded out twice.

Thomson then called on Robertson, who escaped.

But then Thomson sent Robertson right back out for the seventh. Robertson, who is 40 and was unemployed until July, had not pitched in consecutive innings — and “up-down” — all season. He looked like it. He gave up a single and hit a batter.

“He didn’t throw that many pitches,” Thomson said. Robertson threw six pitches to end the sixth. “He was good to go.”

Theoretically.

Thomson did not want to use lefties Matt Strahm and Tanner Banks to start the seventh because he didn’t want them to face the two scheduled right-handed hitters before Ohtani, who bats left-handed. Thomson didn’t want to use a second right-handed reliever because of the three-batter rule, which states that a reliever must either face three batters or finish an inning before he can be replaced. Thomson did not want a right-hander to face Ohtani, who hit 40 of his 55 home runs this season against right-handed pitching.

Strahm entered with two runners on base, though it’s been six weeks since he entered a game with inherited runners. It didn’t matter at first: He struck out Ohtani and got Betts to pop out. However, his mandatory third batter, right-hander Teoscar Hernández, blasted a 91-mph fastball over the right-center-field wall, and it was 5-3.

» READ MORE: Like the 1980 team, these Phillies have a ’sense of urgency’ to win it all. Can they get it done too?

Thomson knew it had been a while since Strahm had come into a game to extinguish someone else’s fire, but the manager did not hesitate Saturday.

“I trust him in those situations,” Thomson said. “He’s been through it before. He’s experienced.”

For better or worse, he’s more experienced now.

The upshot is, Thomson had three more high-pressure playoff pitching decisions to explain. To own. To live with.

Two years ago, in the National League Championship Series against the Diamondbacks, Thomson rode worn-out closer Craig Kimbrel and rookie Orion Kerkering too long, and they collapsed.

Thomson’s first controversial decision came a year earlier, and it nearly mirrored Saturday’s scenario. In Game 6 of the 2022 World Series, with two on and one out, leading by one run in the sixth inning, Thomson, a rookie manager, pulled ace Zack Wheeler so lefty José Alvarado could face Yordan Alvarez.

Alvarez hit the game-winning, three-run homer.

» READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber? Cristopher Sanchez? Nope. Rob Thomson is the Phillies’ MVP this year. Extend him.

On Saturday, Thomson decided to do the opposite. This time, he left his ace in the game.

Damned if you do ...

The criticism will land with bitter rancor because of how things began.

Ohtani, the likely NL MVP and the Dodgers’ starter Saturday night (incredible, right?) saluted the TBS camera at home plate as he prepared for the first at-bat of the NLDS. The 45,777 at the Bank did not appreciate his performance.

Boos rained.

The game began.

Ohtani, the centerpiece of the best offense in the National League, swung and missed a 95-mph fastball. Then he missed an 86-mph changeup. He called timeout. He adjusted his arm guard.

And then he whiffed at an 88-mph changeup.

The Bank went berserk.

We were off.

Sánchez got Betts to weakly ground out to third base on a 1-0, 86-mph changeup. Teoscar Hernández took a 95-mph fastball strike, missed an 87-mph slider, watched a wasted changeup, then whiffed on an 88-mph change.

Nine pitches.

Three outs.

Citizens Bank Park, gone loud and wild and crazy.

Red October had returned.

Three hours later, it felt more like Dead October had returned.

This, for the Phillies, is a referendum run that likely will determine the future of the highest-paid roster in franchise history, and likely will tell the future of Thomson, the unlikeliest Philadelphia hero since Joe Blanton.

That was how it all began, the matchup between Ohtani and Sánchez, a lowly regarded prospect three years ago who’s probably going to finish runner-up in Cy Young voting. Sánchez got to this point thanks, in part, to the mentorship of Wheeler, the recognized ace, who won’t pitch in the playoffs as he recovers from recent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. He’s been around the team sporadically for the past two months but was there in both spirit and body Saturday, dressed in his uniform, cheered in pregame warmups.

» READ MORE: Rob Thomson will need to come up big in a lot of ways for the Phillies to beat the Dodgers

What he saw from his protégé early must have made his heart swell.

Ohtani hit again in the third inning, with no outs, a hit batsman on first, and his team in a 3-0 hole thanks to J.T. Realmuto’s two-run triple a few minutes earlier.

This time, Ohtani ran the count full, fouled off a fastball ... then froze, watching a perfectly placed, 95-mph fastball on the outside corner, just above his knees. Ohtani tried to sell a walk, but home plate umpire Nestor Ceja punched him out, with gusto.

The third battle came in the fifth, framed by much drama. Center fielder Harrison Bader dove into the right-center alley to catch a sinking liner and push a runner back to first. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts elected to pinch-hit for catcher Ben Rortvedt with Will Smith, also a catcher, a lesser defender but a superior hitter.

Huge moment.

Huge response.

Fastball, whiff; changeup, outside corner, strike; changeup, low and away, whiff.

So, with two out, Ohtani, who hit 109 homers and drove in 232 runs the last two seasons, had a third chance to make a difference against the Phillies’ default No. 1.

Four pitches later, Sánchez froze him with a 1-2 fastball, pretty much down the middle, 97 mph. This time, no argument.

Sánchez avoided Ohtani-based disasters, but the Dodgers scored twice on him in the sixth with two outs when Freddie Freeman walked, Tommy Edman singled, and, after a mound visit, Kiké Hernández doubled them in. That ended Sánchez’s night at 94 pitches, and Robertson ended the Dodgers’ scoring for the inning.

» READ MORE: Watch: Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler introduced before Game 1 of the NLDS

It was the beginning of the end for the Phillies in Game 1.

Fairly or not — I say not — it might also have been the beginning of the end for ol’ Topper, too.