J.T. Realmuto held his catcher's mask Saturday night, looked to the pitcher's mound in the eighth inning of a 6-5 loss to the Braves, lifted his arms, and seemed to ask Hector Neris what exactly he was doing as yet another late-inning collapse unfolded.
Realmuto had just recovered a sinker that spiked into the dirt, but he could have been speaking for everyone when it comes to the Phillies' bullpen.
Two pitches later, Marcell Ozuna singled through the second-base hole to beat the shift for an RBI. Two batters later, Joe Girardi swapped Neris for the newly acquired Brandon Workman, and the first pitch of his Phillies career was lined to left field by Matt Adams for a two-run, go-ahead double. And an inning later, Adam Duvall singled off Workman for a walk-off win.
The Phillies entered the seventh inning with a four-run lead, but watched another team celebrate again. And the bullpen _ a new reliever and an old reliever _ shouldered the blame again.
The Phillies have won just one of their first six games on a 10-game road trip that ends Thursday. They have held a lead in each of those five losses, yet will still ride a five-game losing streak into Sunday night's series finale in Atlanta. The Phillies blew a seven-run lead on Thursday, added three relievers on Friday, and then watched the bullpen collapse again on Saturday.
The bullpen, which has the highest ERA in baseball, wasted seven strong innings by Zack Wheeler. The right-hander struck out eight batters, walked none, and held the Braves to two runs. Wheeler did not allow a runner to reach second base until Austin Riley hit a two-run homer in the seventh.
Wheeler threw 105 pitches, generated 14 swing-and-misses, and used his curveball for six of his strikeouts. He was excellent, but he needed to be perfect if he was going to leave the game for the bullpen to finish.
The Phillies remain in last place, but the National League East race is far from over, as 28 of their remaining games are against division opponents. The bullpen is woeful, but the starting pitching has been dependable and the lineup productive. The Phillies' chances to reach October depend on their ability to solve the late-inning puzzle.
Bryce Harper crushed a two-run homer in the first inning and tied the game in the ninth with a sacrifice fly to left field. Neil Walker slid home to narrowly beat a strong throw from Cristian Pache. Harper drove Max Fried's first-pitch sinker 470 feet to right-center field. It was the second-longest homer of the season, trailing only Giancarolo Stanton's 483-foot homer on July 25.
Joe Girardi gave Harper a day off on Friday, after the right fielder started each game this season and played all but three of the team's first 175 innings. Harper, Girardi said, was "dog tired." The day off seemed to be a good respite. Harper went 1-for-2 with two walks. He has reached base in 22 straight games to start the season and leads the majors in OPS. Just one Phillies player _ Mike Schmidt in 1981 _ has finished a season leading the majors in OPS since 1900.
Girardi left Alec Bohm out of the lineup a day after Bohm made three errors at third base in one inning. Jean Segura played third Saturday night and made two fine plays early in the game, including a diving stop in the first inning on a hard-hit grounder by Dansby Swanson. There were questions about Bohm's ability to play third in the majors, most of which stem from his 6-foot-5 frame, which is uncharacteristical for a third baseman.
"He's a work in progress and has made huge strides since we got him a couple years ago," Girardi said. "But he's not a finished product, like a lot of other players. He is here, and he'll be back in there tomorrow."
After the Braves took the lead in the eighth, Walker started the ninth with a pinch-hit single to left field. Roman Quinn reached on a bunt, and Rhys Hoskins was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases. The Phillies, moments after their bullpen let them down again, would not go down quietly.
But when they could only tie the game, it felt as though they were just delaying the inevitable. For another night, they asked what exactly their bullpen was doing.
