The Philadelphia Phillies’ four-game winning streak ended Friday night with a 5-4 loss to the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. The game saw Phillies closer Jhoan Duran blow his first save opportunity since joining the team.
Duran entered in the ninth inning with a one-run lead and quickly struck out Luis García Jr. He then got ahead of Dylan Crews, but Crews hit a double down the right-field line. Daylen Lile followed with an RBI single to tie the game, and a series of errant throws allowed Lile to score what proved to be the winning run.
“That’s the game, you know?” Duran said after the game. “Sometimes, that happens.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson referenced legendary closer Mariano Rivera when putting Duran’s performance in perspective. “Mariano [Rivera] had 80 of them,” Thomson said. “So it’s going to happen every once in a while.”
Duran gave up two hits to five batters faced in the ninth, matching his hit total from his first seven appearances with Philadelphia. Prior to this outing, he had not allowed a runner past second base.
“He still struck out the side,” Thomson said. “There are going to be hits in there sometimes.”
Several fielding mishaps contributed to the Nationals’ rally. Brandon Marsh’s throw home deflected off Crews and catcher J.T. Realmuto, allowing the tying run to score. Lile later stole third base and scored when Realmuto’s throw sailed into left field.
“I don’t know what it hit — it was either his leg or his back — but it hit something,” Realmuto said about Marsh’s throw that struck Crews. “Then it hit me up in the helmet.”
Realmuto also reflected on his decision-making during Lile’s steal: “I probably shouldn’t have thrown the ball in hindsight,” he said. “Because it was a curveball away, I didn’t really get to set my feet and get around the runner, so I did have to throw it over his head.
“In that situation, it’s tough to do, but I probably should have just eaten it, let him have third base and give Duran a chance to strike out the next two guys.”
Duran responded by striking out Brady House and Jacob Young consecutively after falling behind in both counts.
“That’s just who he is,” Realmuto said of Duran’s ability to recover mid-inning. Realmuto had earlier given Philadelphia its brief lead with a home run in the seventh inning—his third homer in four games.
Despite snapping their win streak, Philadelphia remains atop the NL East standings with a six-game lead over the New York Mets.
“Right now, I’m good,” Duran said when asked how he moves past difficult outings like this one. “Sometimes, we do good. Sometimes, we do bad — that’s the game.
“Tomorrow, I’ll be ready for tomorrow. So, it’s OK.”
