With a game-tying two-run home run from Harrison Bader in the eighth inning, the Philadelphia Phillies appeared poised to end their losing streak at Citi Field on Tuesday night. Bader, who played for the Mets last season, hit his homer off Ryan Helsley after a seven-pitch at-bat.
However, the Phillies were unable to hold on. In the ninth inning, Jhoan Duran gave up four consecutive singles, with Brandon Nimmo delivering the walk-off hit that sealed a 6-5 victory for the New York Mets. This loss marked Philadelphia’s ninth straight defeat at Citi Field, including postseason games.
“It’s not the building,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “They’re playing good. And we played well today, too. We battled back.”
Bader commented on the challenges of playing in different ballparks: “Every playing surface just has a different feel to it. Different batter’s box, different batter’s eye. Sometimes, it’s really just as simple as that.”
The game followed a pattern similar to Monday’s matchup. Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo held a 2-0 lead into the fifth but hit Luis Torrens with a pitch to start the inning before allowing three more batters to reach base and losing control of the game.
“It can’t happen,” Luzardo said of the hit-by-pitch. “It’s something that I did earlier in the game with [Tyrone] Taylor, backfoot sliders that actually hit the back foot. Can’t happen.”
Orion Kerkering was called from Philadelphia’s bullpen early as part of manager Thomson’s plan to rest David Robertson and other relievers.
“We wanted to try our best to stay away from David Robertson,” Thomson said. “We have a bunch of guys who could be down tomorrow, so that was kind of the plan, to have him come in and kill an inning for us. That didn’t happen.”
Kerkering allowed Pete Alonso’s go-ahead two-run double during an inning where New York sent ten batters to plate and scored five runs.
Despite falling behind by several runs again, Philadelphia rallied with Edmundo Sosa’s RBI single in the sixth and set up Bader’s tying home run in the eighth following Nick Castellanos’ walk.
Jhoan Duran had previously been reliable for Philadelphia since joining as closer but has struggled recently.
“I threw the pitch where I wanted to throw it,” Duran said after giving up four singles in succession in his first blown save since joining Philadelphia. “They made contact, the ground ball past the defense. So they put the ball to the spot [where] there isn’t anybody there. So they had good luck today.”
The Phillies entered this series holding a seven-game lead atop National League East standings while New York continues its efforts to narrow that gap.
“I thought Bader’s home run, that was something that went our way,” Thomson said. “They battled. We’ve been playing good baseball. We’ve got a five-game lead. We come in here tomorrow and go to battle again.”
