With options scarce, Phillies chose to sink or swim with Jhoan Duran in Game 1: ‘You live with this one’

ATLANTA — The Phillies’ bullpen is the Phillies’ bullpen, which means the club has to make some decisions and sacrifices in the postseason. So with a one-run lead in the seventh in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series, interim manager Don Mattingly didn’t wait around for a ninth inning to summon his closer.

Duran cruised through the bottom of the seventh. He retired the first pair of Atlanta hitters he faced in the eighth. But after Michael Harris II beat out an infielder chopper, it spiraled for Duran. He hit Ozzie Albies with a full-count curveball. Then Austin Riley, who had a .654 OPS this regular season, connected on a fastball over the plate for a three-run, opposite-field home run.

With a shaky bullpen and little depth, the Phillies wanted the ball in the hand of their flamethrower. He couldn’t deliver in the most crucial moment. After a devastating 5-3 defeat on Tuesday afternoon at Truist Park, the team is one loss away from elimination.

“Anytime you lose a game late,” Mattingly said, “obviously it’s frustrating. But in our minds we had our best guy out there. You live with this one.”

Blown games have become a playoff regularity for the Phillies over the past few years. They tried to address that issue last trade deadline when they went out and acquired Duran. Still, the club coughed up leads before it could even get him the ball in Games 1 and 2 of the 2025 NL Division Series versus the Dodgers. He finally entered with a lead in Game 4, coming into a jam in the seventh at Dodger Stadium. The right-hander walked in a run, and the Phillies eventually lost in extra innings.

In this year’s postseason opener, they made sure Duran had his chance with the team ahead, an understandable decision. The Phillies do not have many great bullpen options. Jonathan Bowlan, a top setup man for much of the season, was available, but he has not pitched since Sept. 17 after hurting his groin. Deadline acquisition Brooks Raley was left off the Wild Card Series roster. Only Duran and rookie Alex McFarlane proved to be trustworthy down the stretch.

After Jesús Luzardo got through five impressive innings of one-run ball in his first start since Sept. 7, the Phillies put McFarlane in for the biggest outing of his life in a 1-1 game in the sixth. He allowed a go-ahead triple to Albies that center fielder Derek Hill nearly tracked down at the wall. But Philadelphia punched back in the top of the seventh as catcher J.T. Realmuto hit a two-run triple into the right-field corner.

Up one, Mattingly went right to Duran in the bottom of the frame.

“I just looked up and I saw him,” Bryce Harper said. “I didn’t know any any plan or anything like that. So when you have someone down there and it’s must-win games, I think obviously you’re going to do everything you can to win a game. So bringing in … one of the best closers in baseball, why not?”

Harper thought Duran could have potentially been in there to pitch three innings to finish off the game, and he might have, Mattingly said, had he continued his early groove. He recorded five quick outs — even if a line drive back to the box by Matt Olson had his heart pumping.

But it all unraveled so quickly.

“I thought,” Realmuto said, “after the infield single, the at-bat to Albies was a little uncharacteristic of him. Just not being able to find the zone there. The curveball, that wild, in a 3-2 count, I thought maybe he looked a little tired toward the end of that inning. But his stuff was good before that, for sure.”

Following a replay review and a mound visit, Duran wanted to throw a fastball up and away to Riley. The pitch went over the heart of the plate, and Riley punished it for a game-winner.

“It’s hard to see something like that,” Duran said. “I tried to keep the game like that, a one-run lead. I missed the pitch in the zone, and I paid the price.”

The approach to Duran’s usage might have been a bit ambitious, but it was a sound strategy. The Phillies didn’t have anyone else nearly as reliable, so it was worth it to see if Duran could take them all the way, or at least to the ninth. However, the 27-pitch appearance did not work out and may have even put the closer’s status for Wednesday’s win-or-go-home Game 2 in question.

“Maybe,” Duran said of his availability. “Maybe yes, maybe not. I don’t know. I need to do my [catch play] first.”

The Phillies have now surrendered a late lead in their past three playoff openers. In 2024 against the Mets, Jeff Hoffman blew an NLDS Game 1 lead. In Game 1 of the 2025 NLDS versus the Dodgers, David Robertson and Matt Strahm combined for a seventh-inning collapse. This time, the Phillies got the ball to a certified, All-Star, 100-mph closer. The result was the same nonetheless.

Everything will be on the line for Philadelphia on Wednesday. Unless lefty Cristopher Sánchez manages to throw a complete game, the bullpen will need to figure out how to come through.

“It’s tough,” Realmuto said. “I mean, there’s no secret that we’ve had our share of blown leads — not just in Game 1s but throughout the postseason — sixth, seventh, eighth inning. It’s something we have to get better at. We have the guys in here to do it. We just got to lock it in and make pitches when we need to.”