Bullpen game dooms Phillies in 6-3 loss to the Mets
Some nights the story writes itself in the weirdest way possible, and Friday was one of them. The Phillies needed length almost immediately, got a shockingly good outing from a pitcher who wasn’t even in the organization a day earlier.
Unfortunately that still wasn’t enough and the Phillies lost 6-3 to the Mets on Friday night. A rough start doomed them, in shocking news to absolutely no one, Orion Kerkering poured gasoline on it while the offense went quiet again.
Tim Mayza doomed the Phillies before it started
The trouble started right away. Tim Mayza, who’d thrown scoreless outings in 14 of his previous 15 appearances, picked the worst time to have a clunker, allowing three runs in the first inning before departing with one out and the bases loaded.
That’s a brutal spot to hand off, and it put the Phillies in a hole they never climbed out of. When you spot a team three in the first, you’re fighting uphill all night, and the offense just didn’t have it in them Friday.
Enter Jose Urquidy
With the bases loaded and one out in the first, the Phillies turned to Jose Urquidy. About 24 hours earlier, Urquidy wasn’t even in the organization. The Phillies claimed the 31-year-old righty off waivers from the White Sox on Thursday, he arrived in New York that night, and they threw him right into a bases-loaded fire before they even really knew what they had.
Turns out, they had a lot.
Urquidy gave them 4 2/3 innings without an earned run, struck out six, and didn’t walk a single batter. For a guy who showed up with a 5.28 ERA, that’s a genuinely fantastic outing, and it wasn’t a fluke.
His underlying numbers always painted a better picture, a low walk rate, good chase, and an ability to avoid barrels, all traits he’s shown across seven big-league seasons.
Those qualities showed up immediately. Working a five-pitch mix, Urquidy got ahead of 14 of the 19 hitters he faced and threw 47 of his 64 pitches for strikes, a 73 percent clip. He’s not overpowering, but the ride on his four-seamer and the movement on his sinker opened up the rest of his arsenal.
He kept the Mets from settling in, quick-pitching at times, varying his leg kick, and changing his arm slot to disrupt timing. It worked beautifully. Honestly, this looked exactly like the kind of rotation depth the Phillies spent all season searching for.
Urquidy is NOT postseason eligible.
He learned that part after being claimed, in fact this was the first time in his career he’d ever been designated for assignment, and his agent had to explain how the postseason roster rules even worked.
So as good as he looked, he can’t follow this team into October. His job now is simply to help them GET there by eating quality innings down the stretch and if Friday was any indication, he can absolutely do that. It’s a nice depth piece for the final week, even if it’s a temporary one.
Side Note: Nestor Cortes, for what it’s worth, IS eligible, but he’s made just three minor-league appearances since signing and hasn’t looked like his old self, so that sucks.
DFA Orion Kerkering
Edmundo Sosa homered to cut the deficit to 3-2, giving the Phillies a real pulse, and then Orion Kerkering took the ball for the first time in six days and immediately snuffed it out.
Quick glimpse of the long forgotten “Fightins”
He put two runners on and then served up a two-out, two-run homer to Juan Soto to blow the game back open. That marked the SEVENTH time in Kerkering’s last eight appearances that he’s allowed an earned run.
To his credit, Kerkering owned it, calling the last couple months a “rough go” and admitting both his mechanics and pitch usage have contributed.
His sweeper, the pitch that made him a big-leaguer, has been inconsistent, and he described the issue as “a mix of everything” while saying he’s working through it with the pitching staff.
I respect the accountability but at the same time, he should have been cut last October and now we’re inching towards postseason baseball and he’s still here pitching like trash. This guy cannot be pitching in high-leverage October spots. He shouldn’t even make the roster. There’s simply no trust there anymore, and that’s a real problem for a bullpen that’s already shaky.
Phillies Offense?
The bats were quiet again. Mets lefty Zac Thornton kept the Phillies in check for most of the night, and nearly all the damage came from Sosa and Derek Hill, who both homered and combined for four of the Phillies’ six hits.
Hill added a solo shot later, but the Phillies never got any closer. When your entire offense is two guys hitting solo homers, you’re not winning many games, and that RISP-and-run-production drought continues to be the biggest concern with October looming.
The magic number stays at five, so no ground was fully lost in the bigger picture, but this was a missed opportunity to keep the good vibes rolling after two straight strong starts from Wheeler and Nola. The Phillies will try to bounce back Saturday afternoon with Andrew Painter on the mound.
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