I’d like to tell you the ninth-inning blown save by Hector Neris, his second of the week, was unbelievable.

However, it was not unbelievable. Rather, it was entirely believable. Frankly, it was even expected.

Riding a three-game losing streak, the Phillies fell behind early tonight, couldn’t field the baseball for three innings, and needed 17 outs from a struggling bullpen. Remarkably, they got 16 of those outs unscathed before it did what it has so often done this season.

It faltered.

And, yet, on a night when the bullpen came thisclose to holding the opposition scoreless for just the third time this season, the much maligned group did enough to set the stage for the Phillies’ first walk-off win of the season.

Which, of course, came courtesy of Bryce Harper’s 11th career walk-off hit:

According to Harper, it was the first that came with a replay review:

“It was definitely close. I was a little worried right there, but once he said “safe,” I was very excited, very happy about it,” Harper said. “One of the weirder walk-offs I’ve had, for sure.”

After the game, Girardi admitted that he wasn’t totally convinced Quinn was going to score.

“I wasn’t sure that he was going to make it. I really wasn’t, but I thought it was a good send,” he said. “You take that chance in a sense, and It worked out. It was a really good slide. The thing about Roman is, when he slid, he didn’t decelerate, he accelerated through the bag which was probably the difference.”

Helping matters was the terrible tag applied by catcher Wilson Ramos.

What won’t be a recipe for success on most nights somehow worked for the Phillies on Friday night. And on this night, after a string of embarrassing losses to the Baltimore Orioles earlier in the week, the Phillies will take a win anyway they can get it right now.

Realmuto Sparks Turnaround

The three-game skid is over, and the turning point that sparked what was a listless team in the early going came in the fifth inning when, who else but J.T. Realmuto stepped to the plate:

Soon after the homer, 94 WIP’s Joe Giglio pointed out that Realmuto was homering once every 6.37 ABs this season, besting Barry Bonds’ 2001 6.52 HR/AB pace. That, of course, is absurd. By the end of the night, he remained ahead of Bonds with a 6.5 HR/AB pace.

Just spitballing here, but I’m thinking the fans of the professional Philadelphia baseball team would like it to retain the services of its catcher, who, by my count, is now on pace to hit 32 homers in 60 games. He’s hitting .288 with a 1.101 OPS, eight homers, and 20 RBI.

The Phillies held the 5-4 lead spurred by Realmuto for 16 outs, but couldn’t quite nail down the 17th and final out. Predictably, the finishing touches of an encouraging performance came with trepidation and an “oh shit” moment.

In the ninth, Hector Neris promptly put the first two batters on before bearing down to get Pete Alonso and Domonic Smith on strikes. Naturally, the Mets, down to their final out, then tied the game on a run-scoring single by Robinson Cano.

While it was a temporarily frustrating finish to an otherwise encouraging performance, the bullpen dropped its ERA from 10.13 prior to the game to a 9.12 ERA by the end of the night.

Gotta start somewhere.

Spencer Howard’s Tough Night

There’s no doubt Spencer Howard ran into some bad luck and didn’t receive a ton of help from his defense on Friday night, but he was also not sharp for the second time in as many starts.

Howard, who allowed seven hits and three earned runs, also began two of his three-plus innings of work by issuing walks.

The Phillies’ top-pitching prospect heavily relied on his fastball early on, using it on 19 of his first 26 pitches (73%). While his fastball usage would decline as the game progressed (59%), he was twice betrayed in the third inning by his secondary offerings.

This 81 mph changeup to Dom Smith stayed up in the zone and offered a predictable result:

A batter later, this show-me 75 mph curveball to Robinson Cano also lacked bite and stayed up:

“No excuse for that. It was just missed location,” Howard would say of the two homers.

An inning later, he was removed from the game with one out due to a blister on his pitching hand. Afterward, a visibly disappointed Howard talked about the weird start to his career.

“It’s mostly just getting it under my belt for me. Obviously, not always going to be perfect and not always going to have ideal situations, so it’s about just managing expectations for myself, and trying to take little lessons where I can get them.”

As of now, he expects to make his next turn in the rotation.

An Early Slopfest

It hasn’t exactly been a display of crisp baseball from the Phillies this week, and I can’t really explain what the hell they were doing early on in this one. This team has made me work to expand my vocabulary when it comes to negatively describing the events of a baseball game. Inexcusable, laughable, improbable, unimaginable, unthinkable, and mind-numbing were just some of my go-to words this week.

Anyway, please feel free to DM me some submissions that you would like to see used in future stories.

After Brandon Nimmo walked to begin the game, he promptly went first to third on a Michael Conforto single to left. He was able to reach third, in part, because left fielder Jay Bruce nonchalantly gathered the baseball flat-footed. An aggressive Nimmo saw Bruce’s casual approach and successfully gambled.

Two batters later, with runners still on first and third and one out in the first inning, Domonic Smith grounded into what looked like an inning-ending double play. It was not. Instead, Didi Gregorius couldn’t handle the transfer, and it was quickly 1-0, Mets.

Things would get worse before they would get better.

In the top of the second, Andres Gimenez would steal second base and take third on a rare throwing error by J.T. Realmuto. Gimenez would come around to score an unearned run a batter later when Luis Guillorme hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball to right field. Somehow, the ball, which carried an xBA of .090, dropped in front of Bryce Harper to make it 2-0, Mets.

After the game, a relieved Joe Girardi addressed his team’s sloppy play early on:

You have a rookie on the mound, who’s feeling his way through his first professional starts. He gets into some trouble, makes some pitches to get himself out of trouble, and you’ve got the Phillies defense out there unable to execute routine plays for the kid. It’s a shame.

Howard seemed disappointed with himself tonight, but I can’t blame him if he was also less than thrilled with the defensive support he received.

Following back-to-back homers in the third inning, the defensive troubles continued when Wilson Ramos hit another routine fly ball to right-center. It, too, fell for a “hit.”

This one had an xBA of .020, meaning the Mets had two hits through three innings that carried an expected batting average of less than .100, which almost, in a way, is impressively bad. Can’t even lie.

After the game, Bryce Harper took responsibility for his gaffe and tried to explain what happened out there.

On mine, mine just actually, it sounded really loud off the bat, so my first couple steps were back and then the wind kind of caught it and brought it in, and I had no chance. So, that was definitely on me, but I think just, Roman’s he just lost it in the sky. And that kind of happens sometimes, and I’m just glad I kind of went over there and got behind him. It’s just something that happens in the outfield, but for me, I’ve got to make that play. I have to have a little bit better ears right there, but I thought it was a little loud, and I took my first steps back, and then I came in, and it was too late. I’ve gotta catch that ball.

Lastly, we can now also add base running, which I had praised earlier this week, to the list. In the fourth inning, Jay Bruce was on second base with one away. Alec Bohm smashed a hard one-hopper to Mets shortstop Amed Rosario. Bruce, who should have been easily able to diagnose the play, broke for third and was out by 10 feet.

It was a JV baseball blunder, and such mistakes are happening with far too much frequency right now.

Scott Kingery Sits Out Again

Scott Kingery was out of the lineup for a second straight game on Friday night. He talked with the media before the series opener with the Mets and admitted he’s dealing with some minor injuries as he works his way through a rough 4-for-40 (.100 BA) stretch to start the season. His explanation:

There was a shoulder thing and a back thing and the back thing led to the shoulder thing, which was affecting me a little bit. Obviously, hitting-wise, that also plays a factor into it. The back thing, I don’t know if it was related to COVID, or if it was me missing 10 days of summer camp and jumping right back into things. I might have tweaked something in the process of coming back faster than normal. There was the back thing, very tight, led to a lot of pressure being put on my shoulder, so that’s been kind of nagging at me. But nothing serious. Nothing structurally, just some stuff that was bugging me.

When Kingery does return to the lineup, he will likely return to centerfield where he played in a total of 65 games (57 starts) last season. He was asked if a lack of defensive consistency has an impact on his offensive output:

Go Ahead, Kid

Phillies rookie third baseman Alec Bohm continues to check some boxes early in his young career. After collecting his first big league hit on Thursday, Bohm recorded his first big league RBI in the second inning on Friday night. The base-hit helped get the Phillies on the board and jump start a two-run second-inning rally to temporarily tie up the game.

Mets Are Gonna Met

And finally, I present to you the latest chapter of LOLMets: