They led for seven innings, they had held the Mets one hit, and now these Phillies know what it's like to lose Game 1 of a playoff series.
Saturday was a complete meltdown from a couple of the least-expected sources.
The Phillies lost, 6-2, in their NLDS opener, with Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm failing to finish the job after seven stellar innings from Zack Wheeler.
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Hoffman put the first three men of the eighth inning on base and all three scored. He has been the Phillies' most reliable reliever in 2024 but his last two appearances have been his worst with the team — four runs in an inning the final weekend in Washington, three runs without recording an out on Saturday.
The Phillies' most reliable reliever after Hoffman has been Strahm and he was nearly as ineffective, allowing two singles and a sacrifice fly to the only three hitters he faced after Hoffman. Both of his baserunners scored as well.
Hoffman and Strahm faced six hitters in total, five reached base and one hit a sacrifice fly. Four of those results came on an 0-2 count with another on a 1-2 count.
There was plenty of talk this week about rust, about the long layoff. The Phillies' lineup (five hits) and bullpen (six runs) did little to alleviate those concerns.
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This is new territory for Rob Thomson's Phillies, who had won the first game in all seven prior playoff series. They now need to even the NLDS Sunday to avoid going to New York in must-win mode.
The Phillies had just two hits through 7⅔ innings and both belonged to Kyle Schwarber. He led off the bottom of the first with a home run and blooped a single to center with one out in the third. Bryce Harper doubled with two outs in the eighth and Nick Castellanos singled but Alec Bohm grounded out to keep the deficit at four.
Before Kody Clemens' double with two outs in the ninth inning, the Phils had gone 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and the lone hit didn't produce a run. They wasted 111 brilliant pitches from Wheeler and a 116 mph crowd-pleasing blast from Schwarber.
The Mets have been doing this to everybody lately. Just this week, they came back in the eighth and ninth innings Monday against the Braves to clinch a playoff berth, they came back from two deficits to win Game 1 of the wild-card series in Milwaukee and shocked the Brewers with four runs in the ninth inning to advance on Thursday.
Now, they've taken the Phillies' best shot. Wheeler, who already owned one of the most impressive resumes in postseason baseball history before allowing one hit over seven scoreless innings Saturday, provided one of the Phillies' main advantages leading into the series. But he can be used only once more. He can't do it himself.