Phillies’ most trusted relievers melt down in Game 1

It would be incorrect to say that the Philadelphia Phillies had a bad bullpen during the regular season. They sent two relievers to the All-Star Game in Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm. Orion Kerkering finished his first full big league campaign with a 2.29 ERA over 64 games.

If the Phillies had anyone in their bullpen to be reasonably concerned about as it became apparent Game 1 of Friday’s NLDS against the New York Mets was going to be a low-scoring affair, it was de-facto closer Carlos Estévez. Over his last six outings of the regular season, Estévez gave up at least one hit in five appearances. Three times, he allowed multiple hits. The idea of turning to Estévez with a 1-0 lead in the ninth inning of Game 1 wasn’t a calming one.

But Estévez never ended up pitching.

The Mets put on a clinic in terms of situational hitting in the top of the eighth inning, scoring five runs without a single extra-base hit. It’s the type of inning you wonder whether the Phillies — for all their long ball heroics — are capable of putting together.

But the Mets had some help from what had been the most trusted trio in the bullpen this season for the Phillies. Hoffman didn’t record a single out, as he walked a batter, gave up two hits and was charged with three runs.

“Yeah, I obviously would have liked to put them away … get ahead and stay ahead,” Hoffman acknowledged after the game. “It happens. So, come out and do better tomorrow.”

Perhaps the struggles from Hoffman shouldn’t have been shocking. He gave up four runs in his final outing of the campaign, and had a 4.87 ERA over the final two months of the regular season. But it still felt like when Hoffman took the mound in the eighth inning, he would find a way to get the 1-0 lead — which the Phillies had thanks almost exclusively to Kyle Schwarber and Zack Wheeler — to the ninth. Hoffman didn’t get the job done.

Strahm came into the tie game with runners on second and third base and no one out. It probably wasn’t realistic to think he would get out of the jam unscathed. What was surprising though is that in addition to giving up two hits and two earned runs of his own, Strahm only recorded one out.

“We [Strahm and Hoffman] don’t think we need much,” Strahm said. “Like I said, that’s a scrappy ball team over there and they smelled blood in the water. And they got us.”

The struggles for Strahm weren’t something you would have seen coming. He did posted a 6.00 ERA in July, but that rebounded nicely in August and September, posting a 0.83 ERA across 21 2/3 innings pitched. But Strahm wasn’t able to stop the bleeding in Game 1.

Kerkering wasn’t charged with any runs, and did record two outs in only eight pitches. But he allowed two more inherited runners to cross, giving up an RBI single to J.D. Martinez and a sac fly to Starling Marte. It wasn’t a great first impression in the 2024 postseason after Kerkering ran out of gas in last year’s NLCS.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for how Saturday panned out. Schwarber led off the game with a titanic home run. Between Schwarber’s leadoff home run and an RBI double by Kody Clemens off the bench in the ninth, the Phillies recorded just three hits, one of which also came off the bat of Schwarber. Trea Turner and Alec Bohm — two of the top run producers on the team — went 0-for-8. An argument can definitely be made that the offense is the biggest culprit in the Game 1 loss. Expecting to win 1-0, particularly given how feisty the Mets have been late in games, isn’t realistic.

But if you said before the game that Wheeler gave you seven strong innings and Hoffman and Strahm would be the first two relievers out of the bullpen trying to hold a one-run lead, you probably would have bet on a Phillies win. And you, like the Phillies in Game 1, would have lost.

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