PHILADELPHIA — The story of this Phillies season, however it ends, cannot be written without mention of Bailey Falter and all that he represents.
What happened Saturday doesn’t change that.
OK, so Falter got rocked by the Atlanta Braves and didn’t survive the fourth inning in a 6-3 loss in the Phillies’ penultimate regular season home game before 36,692 at Citizens Bank Park. He gave up 10 hits, including home runs to William Contreras and Michael Harris II, and trudged off the mound after dropping the Phillies down a six-run hole against the defending World Series champions, a team they may face in a best-of-three wild-card series less than two weeks from now.
Not great.
But the Phillies almost certainly wouldn’t be holding a wild-card spot if not for Falter, a human yo-yo between Triple-A and the majors who came up in late August, filled in for injured Zack Wheeler, went 4-0 with a 2.54 ERA in five starts, and compelled interim manager Rob Thomson to keep him in the rotation after Wheeler returned and dispatch veteran Noah Syndergaard to the bullpen.
Falter wasn’t alone. Darick Hall came up from Triple-A and bashed nine homers in two months while Bryce Harper’s broken thumb healed. In Nick Castellanos’ absence, Matt Vierling, Nick Maton, and Dalton Guthrie have stepped forward as a .300-hitting three-headed right fielder.
When was the last time that happened around here? For years, the Phillies had a star-laden, top-heavy roster that caved in on itself because the foundation was weak. They lacked the organizational depth that supports the entire enterprise and collapsed down the stretch when the playoffs were within reach.
That said, Falter was far from sharp in his second consecutive start against the Braves. Maybe it was a reality check.
In the second inning, Falter gave up a leadoff double to Travis d’Arnaud and a two-out RBI single to rookie Vaughn Grissom. In the third, he allowed a hung a two-out, two-strike sinker to Contreras. In the fourth, he allowed four consecutive hits, including Harris’ two-run homer, then back-to-back RBI singles to Dansby Swanson and Contreras.
It marked Falter’s shortest start since May 27 against the New York Mets.
Meanwhile, Braves starter Kyle Wright became the first 20-game winner in the majors this season and Atlanta’s first since Russ Ortiz in 2003. The Phillies didn’t get a hit against him until Rhys Hoskins’ one-out double in the sixth inning.
Somehow, though, the Phillies came within about two feet of tying the game. After Bryce Harper halted a 3-for-32 slump with a two-run homer in the sixth inning, the Phillies put two runners on base with two out in the seventh. Hoskins hit a line drive that was just wide of scraping the bottom of the left-field foul pole against Braves lefty reliever A.J. Minter.
Two pitches later, Minter struck out Hoskins.
Big Ser
After back-to-back rough outings that he traced to a flaw in his mechanics, Seranthony Domínguez got a chance to work out his issues in a low-leverage situation and pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
Domínguez said this week that he believed his arm was “a little late” in relation to his body as he went through his delivery. As a result, he threw only 25 of 53 pitches for strikes in his previous two outings.
Things appeared to be in sync against the Braves. Domínguez retired the first two batters, including a strikeout of Marcell Ozuna on a slider, before Harris beat out an infield single and Grissom grounded into an inning-ending fielder’s choice. Domínguez threw a first-pitch strike to three of the four hitters and 11 strikes out of 15 pitches overall.
Century man
Thomson managed his 100th game since taking over after Joe Girardi got fired on June 3. With a 61-39 record, he’s the fifth in-season replacement since 1985 to win at least 60 of his first 100 games. The others: Colorado’s Jim Tracy (64-36 in 2009), the Mets’ Bud Harrelson (61-39 in 1990), Toronto’s Cito Gaston (62-38 in 1989), and the Yankees’ Billy Martin (62-38 in 1985).
“I’ve been watching managers for a long time now, so going into it, I kind of knew what was expected,” Thomson said. “I feel pretty good because we’ve won a lot of games. I feel kind of normal.”
