GDT 10/9/25 Philadelphia Phillies (Sánchez, C) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (Glasnow)

[zambonir]

As a professional baseball pitcher he practices and has to know the situation, and react under pressure. Given the stakes it was probably a moment where it even should have been discussed before the AB. But overall it's easier said than done. He actually did choke under pressure, but yeah it's neither the reason they really lost the series nor an unforgivable mistake.

Murphy had a good summary of it.

You could see that dreadful moment when Kerkering’s reaction began to outpace reality. Pages’ grounder struck him sharply in the foot, but it settled in plenty of time for an easy throw to first. By then, the panic had set in. He did not see J.T. Realmuto pointing toward first. He did not sense that Pages was less than halfway to first when he picked up the ball. He saw the winning run bearing down on home. Not until his wild throw home had left his hand did reality catch up. By then, the ball was sailing high and right and nowhere near its target.

“It just hit off my foot,” Kerkering said. “Once the pressure got to me, I just thought it was a faster throw to J.T., a little quicker throw than trying to throw cross the body to Bryce [Harper at first].”

Orion Kerkering learns his Phillies teammates are winners | David Murphy

[Lucky_Beagle]

From the looking on the bright side for Kerkering....even if he gets the out at first base how many people think the Phillies would have ever scored a run to win the game anyways? At least it was a tied game that ended and not a 1 run lead in which 2 runs scored making a winnable game a losing game.

[Lucky_Beagle]

Duran walked Mookie was the key....Phillies may have won without that run, although who knows how the game would have played out. I by the way was fine with the IBB. Duran had walked 3 batters in 22+ innings they said. It didn't help he got behind 2-0 and Mookie became selective (something few Phillie batters did)

[zambonir]

I can't really blame Duran for anything in what was a completely novel situation for him. That's the problem with the rigid closer/clean inning role once you finally move away from it out of necessity. Certainly it's hard to argue that they should have pitched to Ohtani with the possibility of him hitting a double or a HR. But either way, even with Duran's low number of walks, he could have also easily given up a two-run single to Mookie. Or a HR.

[Philsmania]

I can't really blame Duran for anything in what was a completely novel situation for him. That's the problem with the rigid closer/clean inning role once you finally move away from it out of necessity. Certainly it's hard to argue that they should have pitched to Ohtani with the possibility of him hitting a double or a HR. But either way, even with Duran's low number of walks, he could have also easily given up a two-run single to Mookie. Or a HR.

Plus, the home plate umpire squeezed Sanchez earlier in the inning. I was traveling so I had to listen to the game on Sirius/XM. Franske said he was squeezing Glasnow too. The home plate up was real bad.

[zambonir]

Yes depending how you view it he was either robbed of a K or "didn't get the corner." But if you need either perfect umpiring or perfect relief to win you know something else wasn't working well

[julio]

Yes depending how you view it he was either robbed of a K or "didn't get the corner." But if you need either perfect umpiring or perfect relief to win you know something else wasn't working well

Or else whatever was/was not working was working/not working more or less equally for the two teams. If the Phils are not objectively a better club than the Dodgers, then you more or less need perfection to win. The clubs were very evenly matched; one of them won, one of them lost. That's the nature of baseball; you don't win all the time.

Yeah, they failed. Failure is an inherent part of the game. Nobody wins all the time. Nobody succeeds all the time. It's disappointing when the Phils don't win, for sure. But if you understand the nature of the game, failure to win against an evenly-matched opponent is not a reason for anger. It's not as if the Phils just blew a series against an inferior opponent.

[Callison]

I was, however, hoping for that loss to come in a style that wouldn't make Phillies fans act like crazy people all winter.

Many of us have ben crazy a long time so we won't notice.

The series shows how good the WC LAD still are. The Phils had to play their best to beat them and could only come close. 3-D disappointment will take all of the offseason to heal.

Likely Wheeler was the margin of victory.

Still not over it for a long time.

[flyers19rw]

Evidently after the game the umpire apologized to Sanchez for missing the strike three call on Call. Fine. It cost Sanchez his removal from the game. Call’s spot was the tying run which took away the lead and caused extra innings and a loss. It caused Duran to be brought in which messed up the BP rotation.
An apology is not good enough. That umpire should be terminated for incompetence. It’s gone on too long where their mistakes are tolerated. Hello Angel Hernandez types. Firing this guy would send a long overdue message. Make the call and get it correct. Use replay if necessary.

[zambonir]

As JT himself said this one did not hurt as much as last year. Last year we saw the randomness of a hot inferior opponent, this year we saw the randomness of the coin flip every night against an equal. We should have won a home game and it should have gone five but the margins were thin. Maybe they were Wheeler thin, maybe they were Bader thin, but they were definitely one reliever thin. Only one team makes it to the end without their bullpen failing generally, I just figured it was going to be Duran on a home run in the 9th. Not what we got last night.

[andyb]

You can't fire somebody for a mistake. Assume MLB was going with the crews with the best accuracy (hopefully anyway).

This is why I want full robo umps once they work out the kinks. Challenges won't cut it if you run out and there is an awful call. Pitch framing (i.e. stealing strikes) should NOT be a skill.

[RolenRules]

MLB needs to implement robo umps to prevent these errors in the future.

[zambonir]

The umps never get all of them right. I am sure it is not unusual for one to occasionally say he missed one, plus he is going to find out postgame. You hope it doesn't happen as often in the playoffs or affect the outcome, but it can. And already had in the series before that.

[RolenRules]

Andyb beat me to it

[julio]

You can't fire somebody for a mistake.

The man made a mistake, and he owned up to it. flyers97rw wants the guy fired.

Here's a question. Some poster here posts something that is wrong (false, just an error), and subsequently acknowledges he made a mistake. So... I should ban that poster from philliesphans?

Obviously not.

I understand that it's frustrating. I've been living the life of a Phillies fan longer than most here, so yeah, it can get frustrating. But some of the reactions we see are just really over the top, IMHO.

[Sabin]

I've been living the life of a Phillies fan longer than most here,

There's an understatement.

[flyers19rw]

According to ump scorecard, Mark Wegner had only 90% accuracy on balls called. Ten of the ninety-seven that he called were actually strikes including the ball that put Call on base. His calls gave LAD .66 of a run which in this game was enough to give them the wining margin. That's too many mistakes. For that he deserves to be called out. In the Cubs Brewers game last night Lance Barksdale's call resulted in 1.85 runs for the Cubs. Granted the game ended up 6-0 Chicago but that's close to two runs in an important game. Not good.
These guys resist the robot umps and challenges but they make too many crucial mistakes. It needs to be stopped. It's an important job so get the calls correct. Unless/until an ump suffers consequences for poor performance it will continue. A good ump would welcome the robot call and make use of it. It's happened with instant replay in other parts of the game to the benefit of all.

[allentown]

Or else whatever was/was not working was working/not working more or less equally for the two teams. If the Phils are not objectively a better club than the Dodgers, then you more or less need perfection to win. The clubs were very evenly matched; one of them won, one of them lost. That's the nature of baseball; you don't win all the time.

Yeah, they failed. Failure is an inherent part of the game. Nobody wins all the time. Nobody succeeds all the time. It's disappointing when the Phils don't win, for sure. But if you understand the nature of the game, failure to win against an evenly-matched opponent is not a reason for anger. It's not as if the Phils just blew a series against an inferior opponent.

A plus regular season and a step to progressively less playoff success. Dodgers were the better (and costlier, and the only team in this division series for whom Japanese stars and star prospects are willing to sign). Ilm glad they salvaged a win in LA and almost took the second game. This season has to be counted as an overall plus. This season was 2011; I hope next isn't 2012. Big decisions to be made this off-season.

[zambonir]

This season was 2011; I hope next isn't 2012

Hopefully it's actually 2010 (the fourth trip to the playoffs) even if those teams didn't get further year-by year after 2007.

[EastFallowfield]

I'll take a 1980, the team that always choked in the playoffs and whose window was closing...