It was bound to happen eventually. Since Jhoan Duran became the Philadelphia Phillies’ closer after the trade deadline it has felt like the Phillies would never blow another save.
But the magic ran out on Friday night against the Washington Nationals and Phillies fans learned a valuable lesson: that even Duran is human and won’t be perfect.
Heading into Friday’s series opener, Duran was a perfect 6-for-6 in save opportunities with the Phillies. In three weeks, he had only allowed two hits in seven appearances (and one of those was off his ankle) and had lowered his season ERA to an impressive 1.80. That jumped up to 1.93 after he allowed one earned run (two runs total) in Friday's 5-4 loss.
After taking the lead 4-3 on a J.T. Realmuto solo home run in the seventh inning, Duran entered the game in the top of the ninth. Fans at the ballpark and at home got to witness the right-hander's electric entrance, thanks to NBC Sports Philadelphia agreeing to air the theatrics moving forward.
Jhoan Duran blows first save with Phillies, proving he's human
Duran’s outing started well enough, with a three-pitch strikeout of Nationals second baseman Luis Garcia Jr. Citizens Bank Park was buzzing — it looked like the Phillies had their 14th win of August in hand.
Five pitches later the game was tied.
Dylan Crews somehow got his bat on a 101.9 mph fastball on the outside edge of the plate and grounded a double down the right field line. Daylen Lile followed by pulling a single into left field, scoring Crews.
Unfortunately, the run that put the Nationals ahead 5-4 wasn’t even Duran's fault. As Lile attempted to steal third base, the usually lethal Realmuto airmailed a throw past Alec Bohm into left field, allowing the Nationals to score the eventual winning run.
Duran rebounded to strike out the next two batters, but the damage had been done and the Phillies went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth.
So now that Duran’s aura of invincibility in Philadelphia has been shattered, how will fans react? The simple answer is that one blown save shouldn’t change anything. He still has 22 saves in 25 chances on the season. That’s a sentiment that Phillies manager Rob Thomson echoed after the game, according to MLB.com’s Paul Casella.
"Mariano [Rivera] had 80 of them," Thomson said, per Casella. "So it's going to happen every once in a while. He still struck out the side. There are going to be hits in there sometimes."
Duran is still an elite closer, but even the best of the best have off days. And it’s easy to argue that he wasn’t even off on Friday night. The Nationals just put a couple of good swings on good pitches.
"That's the game, you know?" Duran said, per Casella. "Sometimes, that happens."
Duran is the first legitimate top-tier closer the club has had in at least 10 years, so there’s nothing to panic about. He’s still going to shut the door 90 percent of the time. And he’ll provide a huge advantage for the Phillies as they push for the division title down the stretch and then into the playoffs.