Shield your eyes, folks. It's worse than it looks. On Tuesday, the Phillies were four outs away from swiping a Game 1 Wild Card win on the road in Atlanta. Jesus Luzardo looked strong in five innings. J.T. Realmuto sliced a go-ahead two-run triple in the seventh inning. It was an exciting start to the playoffs for Philadelphia, and fans were more than happy to see Jhoan Duran enter the game in the seventh inning - wait, what?!.
The circle of trust from the Phillies bullpen is painfully small, but at least fans could rely on Duran to get the job done. Except in this game.
Austin Riley's go-ahead three-run home run with two outs in the eighth inning on a 100 MPH fastball off Duran further proved that it doesn't matter how good this team's starting rotation is — the bullpen is going to spoil it. These last three postseasons have cemented that this misery won't end.
Since 2024, Phillies relievers own a 12.19 ERA when the team has a lead in the playoffs, according to Cole Weintraub of NBC Sports. As long as this trend continues, Phillies fans should keep their postseason hopes relatively conservative.
Jhoan Duran is the latest Phillies reliever to falter in the playoffs
Duran entered Tuesday's contest with some pretty impressive postseason numbers for his career. Across 8.2 innings (seven appearances), Duran had never allowed a run. He'd also struck out 13 batters and scattered just three hits. There was faith that he would remedy the organization's bullpen problems.
And for the most part, he has gotten the job done. But when things go awry in Game 1 against a rival, fans cannot help but think back to every reliever who failed in the playoffs, and will now lump Duran in with them.
Jeff Hoffman (6 runs, 1.1 IP), Jose Alvardo (2 runs, 0.2 IP), and Matt Strahm (4 runs, 2 IP) were disappointing in the 2024 postseason. Orion Kerkering (2 runs, 2.2 IP) and David Robertson (2 runs, 0.1 IP) kept the bullpen misery afloat.
Let's hope that Duran does not fully join himself alongside these pitchers. But after this loss, Phillies fans are going to deservingly — ideally, just temporarily — place him there.
Add us as a preferred source on Google