Eighth-Inning Collapse Puts Phillies in Hole after NLDS Game One
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When you think of a typical nightmare, things like vampires, ghosts, or monsters hiding under a bed likely come to mind. For seven-year-old me, it was the baby clown from Scooby Doo that way-too-frequently infiltrated the serenity of my deep sleep. For others, it may have been the desolate furnace that collected dust in Kevin McCallister’s basement in the ever-loved holiday movie Home Alone.
Regardless of whatever your previous nightmares entailed, I can almost guarantee that a new one will surface: The Phillies game-one collapse in the 2024 NLDS.
Ironically, the game started out about as well as one could hope. Zack Wheeler dominated the New York Mets in the top of the first inning, throwing 11 pitches—all of which were strikes—and picking up two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 inning. For the first time this season, his fastball touched 99 miles per hour, which is over three miles per hour faster than his average fastball during the regular season. He even managed to get Brandon Nimmo to fish for a lethal two-strike sweeper to end the bottom of the first inning.
Making just his second start in 2024, Mets’ ace Kodai Senga toed the rubber. Despite being on a limited pitch count due to his injury, Senga was looking to finally make a difference in the Mets’ monumental season that he was unable to be a part of. It did not take long, though, for Kyle Schwarber to spoil Senga’s homecoming to a big-league mound. On his third pitch of the day, Senga left a belt-high fastball over the heart of the plate, and Schwarber took a shot for the second deck. Unlike the Mets’ pitcher, the Phillies’ active postseason home run leader did not miss his spot. Aptly, Schwarber drilled a 116-mile-per-hour home run into the second deck in right field, marking his 21st career playoff home run.
That aforementioned near-perfect start was clearly no exaggeration, but this all preceded the nightmare that ensued only a few innings later.
Zack Wheeler went on to pitch seven near-perfect innings. He walked four but allowed just one hit and struck out nine. The Mets’ bullpen—with David Peterson covering the bulk of the innings—shut down the Phillies lineup and kept the Mets within striking distance. When Wheeler exited after recording the final out of the seventh inning, the Phillies needed just six more outs to secure a game-one win. With a bullpen featuring two 2024 all-stars and one of the best closers in baseball, getting those six outs seemed like a very doable task.
But when a face other than Zack Wheeler’s was seen on the mound in the home half of the eighth inning, the Mets knew they had a chance, and the Phillies’ nightmare began. If you missed the game, “nightmare” may sound like an overstatement. But any fan who suffered through those 24 minutes knows it was a slow but painful beating.
After Francisco Alvarez singled to centerfield and Francisco Lindor drew a walk, Jeff Hoffman and the Phillies had their first major battle to evade all afternoon. Only one strike away from recording the first out of a crucial eighth frame, Hoffman left his slider just a few inches too high, and Mark Vientos poked it down the left-field line for a game-tying single.
Phillies’ manager Rob Thomson turned to lefty Matt Strahm, another all-star, to reroute what was turning into a disastrous eighth inning. And not even he could control the Mets’ momentum-driven offense. Brandon Nimmo got ahead of an 0-2 fastball and shot it to left field to knock in the go-ahead run. Pete Alonso added on with a sacrifice fly, and after Jose Iglesias‘ single, pinch-hitter J.D. Martinez hit a scorcher up the middle off Orion Kerkering—the Phillies’ third pitcher of the inning—to extend the Mets’ lead to four.
By the inning’s end, the Mets had batted around and put a five-spot on the scoreboard. They didn’t hit a single extra-base hit; instead, they ran the bases well, had situationally-appropriate approaches, and embraced the sprinkle of luck that has guided the Mets over the past two months.
The Phillies and Mets went on to trade runs in the ninth inning, but the Phillies far-too-late offensive comeback should not be a takeaway from today’s game. Sure, there’s hope for tomorrow, but the real lesson learned from today is that the regular season is meaningless as soon as the calendar gets flipped to October.
Jeff Hoffman had a 2.17 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and 89 strikeouts in 68 appearances in the regular season. He ranked in the 96th percentile in chase percentage, whiff percentage, and strikeout percentage. Opponents had a mere .197 batting average when facing him. Matt Strahm boasted an even better stat line from the regular season, with a 1.87 ERA and 0.75 WHIP. Right there with Hoffman, his strikeout percentage was in the 96th percentile among qualified pitchers.
In this exact situation, every single metric known to mankind favored these two guys over any other pitcher in the Phillies’ bullpen. They were all-stars for a reason, and they undoubtedly deserve to pitch under the brightest of lights.
They have thrived in the backend of the bullpen since April. Nothing indicated that they were unfit for their roles.
“It was stunning to see Hoffie and Strahm give it up like that,” Thomson said. “But that’s baseball sometimes. We haven’t seen them do that since we’ve had them.”
Nonetheless, Caleb Cotham, Rob Thomson, or no one other than the 15 players who stepped on the field for the Phillies is responsible for this loss. A trio of Taijuan Walker, Garrett Stubbs, and my nine-year-old cousin who trips over his own feet would have fared better than Hoffman, Strahm, and Kerkering did against the Mets’ lineup today. Simply put, today was not the Phillies’ day.
Yet again, October baseball is reminding us that the regular season is the friend that cannot be trusted—it takes us somewhere, but too much remains unknown to take down our guard.
“We’ve just got to bear down and understand that we can do it,” Bryce Harper told the media.
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Colin Daly
Colin is an editor and the lead Phillies writer for Philly Sports Reports. He has been covering sports since 2020 and has been with PSR since the summer of 2021. As a lifelong Philly fan, he has a strong passion for the core four and does not miss a game. Colin is a co-host of the Bell Ringers podcast.
