BOSTON _ As the hours and the minutes and the seconds tick down to 4 p.m. Tuesday and the deadline to make trades without waivers, Phillies officials are debating one complicated question.
Is it worth pursuing upgrades on the margins of the roster for a division-leading team even if it comes at the expense of playing time for some young players?
It's a fascinating discussion. Reasonable arguments can be made on both sides. But when Maikel Franco is coming to the plate with two on and two out in the sixth inning against one of the toughest pitchers on the best team in baseball, and when Seranthony Dominguez is facing the middle of that team's lineup in the ninth inning of a tie game in front of a Fenway Park crowd still roaring after a chorus of "Shipping Up To Boston," it's difficult to overstate how much they are gaining from that experience.
Those were two of the scenes here Monday night. Here was another: Aaron Nola, his pitch count climbing over 100, retiring Boston Red Sox stars Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi to leave the go-ahead run in scoring position in the eighth inning and punctuate a brilliant start.
The fact that the Red Sox won it, 2-1 in the 13th on Blake Swihart's one-out double against reliever Luis Garcia underscores only that the Phillies could use another late-inning arm in the bullpen. There won't be any shortage of those available before the deadline, and the cost isn't likely to be particularly prohibitive.
Given the youth of even some of their more established players, the Phillies will make mistakes. Odubel Herrera had a pair of misadventures _ one on the bases, the other in center field _ in a three-inning span against the Red Sox. But there is a sense within the organization that some of those players will be better for having been on the front lines of a playoff push, and with one game separating the Phillies and the second-place Atlanta Braves, there's going to be a playoff push.
"My feel is that I think up until the last moment (general manager) Matt (Klentak) is going to be working his fingers to the bone, and that's kind of what he's been doing to this point looking for ways to upgrade either marginally or making a significant impact," manager Gabe Kapler said. "So, I think he's just going to continue to do that through the finish line.
"But again, I'm just going to reiterate this: Everything that we need to be successful going forward is in that room. We are here in first place because of the men in that room. They take a small step forward, they continue their development, they get a little bit better, we win a lot of games from here on out."
On paper, at least, Nola vs. David Price had all the makings of must-see TV. And the starting pitchers didn't disappoint.
The Phillies scored a second-inning run on Asdrubal Cabrera's leadoff double and a Green Monster-denting RBI single by Franco. But they did little else against Price, who retired the side on five pitches in the fourth inning, 11 pitches in the fifth and six pitches in the seventh.
Nola, meanwhile, was magnificent. He pounded the strike zone, as usual, almost always staying ahead in the count. But he held baseball's highest-scoring offense to a measly infield hit through four innings and got 14 swings and misses through seven.
If not for Herrera's miscue in the fifth inning _ he misjudged and overran Eduardo Nunez's one-out line drive to center field, which went for an RBI triple _ Nola still might not have allowed a run when he took the mound to begin the eighth inning.
It marked the second gaffe of the game for Herrera, whose misadventure on the bases in the third inning also might have cost the Phillies a run. With Rhys Hoskins on third base and Herrera on first, Hoskins broke for the plate on Carlos Santana's grounder to third. When the Red Sox got Hoskins in a rundown, Herrera tried to sneak into third base without sliding. After tagging Hoskins, catcher Sandy Leon tossed to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who doubled up Herrera to end the inning.
