ATLANTA -- Jhoan Duran didn’t know the entire plan, either.
He just knew the Phillies needed him. The Phils just don’t have many pitchers they trust right now. So, when they took a one-run lead in the seventh inning on Tuesday afternoon in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series against Atlanta at Truist Park, Duran exited the bullpen doors in left field to pitch the bottom of the seventh.
No MLB pitcher had earned a postseason save of three or more innings since Brad Peacock in Game 3 of the 2017 World Series, but the Phillies were prepared to push Duran, who is one of baseball’s best closers, to become the next.
But then disaster struck again.
Duran allowed a three-run home run to Austin Riley with two outs in the eighth inning to send the Phillies to a 5-3 loss.
“It’s hard to see something like that, you know?” Duran said.
“Yeah, that’s a dagger,” Bryce Harper said.
“We had our best guy out there,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. “You live with this one.”
The Phillies have lived like this for years. It’s the third consecutive postseason their bullpen has blown a late-inning lead to lose Game 1 of a series.
Matt Strahm blew a seventh-inning lead against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2025 NL Division Series. Jeff Hoffman blew an eighth-inning lead against the Mets in Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS. The Phillies’ bullpen is now 2-7 with a 5.94 ERA and eight blown saves in eight opportunities since Game 3 of the 2023 NLCS against Arizona, when Orion Kerkering blew a seventh-inning lead at Chase Field.
“We keep going,” Kyle Schwarber said. “We’ve got belief in ourselves. It's Game 1.”
The Phillies have had bullpen problems since the beginning of the season, but they were unable to improve before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline. They acquired right-hander Caleb Kilian, who got hurt almost immediately, and left-hander Brooks Raley, who struggled so much that he didn’t make this postseason roster.
Other things happened along the way. Brad Keller suffered a season-ending right elbow injury in the summer, which was a blow. He was supposed to be Duran’s setup man. Kerkering got optioned to Triple-A on the second-to-last weekend of the season. Left-hander José Alvarado has been inconsistent this year. Jonathan Bowlan hasn’t pitched since Sept. 17 because of an injured calf, making high-leverage spots in Game 1 risky.
Rookie Alex McFarlane has stepped up the past few weeks. He allowed a run in the sixth inning following a tremendous performance from Jesús Luzardo, who allowed one run in five innings in his first start since Sept. 7.
It was a gutsy performance by Luzardo, win or lose.
The Phillies told Duran before the game to be ready to pitch earlier than normal. Mattingly said they originally planned to have Duran pitch the seventh and eighth. He had pitched two innings just once before this year, on Aug. 29 vs. the Angels.
Including Tuesday’s homer to Riley, Duran has a 1.84 ERA in 22 career appearances of two innings.
But Duran had never pitched three innings.
“He made it look easy the first inning,” Mattingly said. “If the second one would have went really quick, I would have just checked with him. If not, we would have went to somebody else.”
It could have been rookie Andrew Painter, but maybe not. Mattingly said before the game that he would consider Painter for high-leverage situations, even though he had never pitched out of the bullpen like that before.
“He’s one of our better guys,” Mattingly said. “It's hard to go to somebody else that -- and I don't want to use names really -- but somebody else over him.”
Painter had started to loosen up on his own in the bullpen, but the Phillies never told him to get ready to pitch the ninth.
It never got to that point anyway. With two outs, Michael Harris II hit a two-out chopper up the middle in the eighth. Trea Turner fielded the ball, but he never had a play at first. Duran then hit Ozzie Albies with a 3-2 curveball to put runners on first and second.
But Duran just needed one more out. Instead, Riley crushed a first-pitch, 99.9 mph fastball middle-in.
“I knew it wasn’t good as soon as he hit it,” Realmuto said.
The Phillies were stunned.
They must regroup quickly. Game 2 is at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and in the history of the best-of-three Wild Card Series, teams taking a 1-0 lead have gone on to win the series 21 of 24 times (88%), including 17 two-game sweeps.
“It’s frustrating, but it’s not over,” Turner said.
The Phillies might need Cristopher Sánchez to pitch as deep as possible in Game 2 because Duran, who threw 27 pitches, might not be available.
Still, they all believed it was worth the shot on Tuesday.
“Best closer in the game on the bump,” Harper said.