PHILADELPHIA -- Everything had been going so poorly for the Phillies on Friday night that Jhoan Duran exited the bullpen door at Citizens Bank Park in the eighth inning without the lights, tarantulas and flames that traditionally accompany his jog to the mound.
Duran needed to pitch because he hadn’t pitched since Tuesday. But because the Phillies trailed by five, they only played his warmup music.
Duran pitched a scoreless inning. Then the Phillies sparked a five-run, game-tying rally in the bottom of the eighth only to lose to the Rockies in 11 innings, 9-7. It’s the first time the Phils have lost consecutive games since their 10-game losing streak last month.
“The boys kept going and got us back to a spot where we had a chance,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said.
Justin Crawford hit the first homer of his career, a game-tying, two-out, two-run shot in the eighth.
“Really special,” Crawford said. “It was a great feeling, tying the game up right there. Wish we would have won, but definitely a feeling and a moment that I’ll remember forever.”
The Phillies had runners on first and second with no outs in the 10th, but they did not score. Brad Keller allowed two runs (one earned) in the 11th.
The fact that Crawford and Keller played a late role in Friday’s game was something of a surprise. After all, Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo allowed six runs in three-plus innings to put the Phils in a 6-0 hole.
Luzardo had allowed only a run in his first three innings. He struck out the side swinging in the third. He looked good. But then he allowed five runs in the fourth, when he failed to record an out.
“Hard to pinpoint,” Luzardo said. “I feel like they were grinding out every at-bat throughout the whole game, a lot of foul balls, falling behind early … I mean, it's really hard to pinpoint what exactly is just kind of a medley of things.”
It was the fourth time in eight starts this season that Luzardo has allowed five or more runs. He is the first Phillies pitcher to do that since Roy Halladay in 2013, which was the final year of Halladay’s career.
Luzardo has an 11.84 ERA (25 earned runs in 19 innings) in those four starts.
He has a 1.46 ERA (four earned runs in 24 2/3 innings) in the other four.
It’s been a season of extremes.
“Obviously, would like to right the ship ASAP,” Luzardo said. “Just frustrating at times. You know, you feel like you make some good pitches. The hits today were on some really good pitches that they put some good swings on. It's just the results have to be there. So that's what we're chasing. So, just gotta get better.”
But the Phillies still had a chance to win, thanks to Crawford and the club’s five-run rally. The Rockies intentionally walked Brandon Marsh to start the 10th, putting runners on first and second.
J.T. Realmuto has only one sacrifice bunt in his career, and it came in 2015. He flied out to right.
“Yeah, obviously you want to move the runner,” Mattingly said. “For me, it's hard to ask a guy to do something that he doesn't really do. I think the bigger question is, it's something that we want to continue to work toward. Maybe it's something that in a game like that, that you would want to be able to do it. But it's hard for me to put a guy in a position to try to do something that he doesn't really do.”
Bryson Stott popped out to third and Edmundo Sosa lined out to left to end the inning.