The Phillies were knocked out of the MLB playoffs in extra innings on Thursday night after a brutal error from reliever Orion Kerkering allowed the Dodgers to bring in the game-winning run.
While it is easy to point to Kerkering’s mistake as the moment that ended the Phillies’ season, the team had plenty of opportunities earlier in the game to make a play or have one break go their way that might have prevented the game from ever going into extras in the first place.
And according to starting pitcher Cristopher Sánchez, an umpire acknowledged one of those bad breaks. Per Lochlahn March of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sánchez said after the game that the umpire apologized to him for missing what should have been a called strike three on a 2–2 count against Alex Call in the bottom of the seventh.
Watching a replay of the pitch in question, you can clearly see it was a close call, but the ball did in fact hit the strike zone. On the mound, Sánchez knew he should have had the K and with it, two outs in the inning, and gave the ump quite a stare in response to the call.
Cristopher Sanchez gave the ump the stink eye after this was called a ball pic.twitter.com/909yfdFBsk
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 10, 2025
Unfortunately for the Phillies, that base runner would prove to be the difference that brought the game to extra innings. After a second runner got on base, the Phillies pulled Sánchez to turn the ball over to closer Jhoan Duran. Philadelphia decided to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani to load the bases with two outs, bringing Mookie Betts to the plate.
After working the count full, Betts was able to hold off a pitch that was high out of the zone, walking in the game-tying run.
Baseball is a game full of sliding-door moments, but had the Phillies gotten that strike called, they would have had two outs and no men on in the inning, and very possibly could have escaped unscathed, and then would have been six outs away from forcing Game 5 back in Philadelphia.
Instead, the Dodgers got the run they needed to extend the game. In extras, the Phillies bats didn’t heat up, and their defense made one mistake too many. A brutal way to see a season end.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Phillies Pitcher Says Umpire Apologized for Missing Game-Changing Call vs. Dodgers.
