After Walker’s departure from the game, Phillies drop as an extra to the Mets originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
In a season filled with happily-ever-after endings for the Phillies, another raucous crowd at Citizens Bank Park was gearing up. Ready to sing along with Harry, professing their great hopes for all the world to hear. Ready to celebrate a fourth consecutive win over the division rival Mets, three of them comebacks in the fifth inning or later.
It was such a magical journey to baseball’s best record that no one in the crowd of 38,267 predicted the cruel plot twist.
Not after the Phillies rallied and took a one-run lead in the eighth. Not with relievers Jeff Hoffman and Jose Alvarado fully rested and lined up to secure the win. Definitely not, with almost everything going the Phillies’ way this season.
But on Thursday night, at Citizens Bank Park, the script was flipped. The Mets went ahead with two unearned runs in the eighth. The Phillies tied it in the bottom of the ninth, but the Mets won, 6-5, by scoring twice against Alvarado in the 11th.th.
The Phillies came back with one in the bottom of the inning, but the game ended with the Phillies missing the potential tying run in the third and the winning run in the second. Overall, the Phils went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position.
This is a team that can absorb a May loss, however disheartening and disappointing it may have been. That’s one of the advantages of having one of the best starts in the franchise’s history.
It remains to be seen how well they will be able to cope with the loss of one of their starting pitchers — or whether they will need to.
Taijuan Walker wasn’t smart from the start. Six of the first 15 batters he faced reached base. He had already given up two runs and then limped into the clubhouse after being hit in the big toe of his left foot by a shot to the middle of the bat from Mets right fielder Starling Marte.
The initial diagnosis was that the veteran right-hander had suffered a concussion, but would undergo further evaluation. After the game it was revealed that the x-rays were negative.
“It hit him right on the toe,” reported manager Rob Thomson. “We won’t know about his next start until he arrives (Friday).
Said Walker: “It’s better now (after the game) than when it first happened. I tried to move away a little, but it felt kind of hot and numb and started to hurt. It’s definitely sore, bruised, starting to swell a little. But it could have been much worse.”
If Walker isn’t ready to pitch in his next inning, the Phillies will have some flexibility because of a bad day on Monday. They also have Spencer Turnbull in the bullpen. When Walker opened the season on the injured list with shoulder pain, Turnbull stepped in and went 2-0, 1.67 in six games.
“That’s what depth is all about,” Thomson noted.
The bullpen was excellent again after Walker was forced to leave the game, with special praise for Matt Strahm and José Ruiz, who pitched two scoreless innings each. Hoffman was nearly automatic all season, but he couldn’t get around the fact that Tyrone Taylor reached on a throwing error by shortstop Bryson Stott to lead off the eighth and then steal second.
Hoffman walked Pete Alonso, who struck out Walker in the first, and then struck out the next two batters. But Harrison Bader scored up the middle — the ball appeared to graze Hoffman’s back — and then a wild pitch allowed the second unearned run to score.
The game ended with Kyle Schwarber batting with two runners in scoring position and throwing his bat away in frustration. He also walked one and a runner on second in the bottom of the ninth.
“You show up twice with the game on the line and you can’t pass, it’s frustrating,” he said. “If you want to thrive in these positions, come to the team. But we were resilient all night and just couldn’t hit that big one at the end.”
When it was all over and the Mets began to celebrate, there was a moment of amazement and disbelief in the stands. Almost as if the fans couldn’t believe that a team that had found a way to win so many times early on hadn’t managed to pull off another one.
Schwarber was asked if he, too, was almost surprised by the Phillies’ failure.
“Any time you lose, it’s frustrating,” he said. “Sometimes you’d rather be beaten 10-0 than keep finding a way to be just one hit away, right? But I think it’s good that we can look at what was possible, but also use that frustration to show up tomorrow ready to rock and roll.”
