Phillies

15 Bulletpoints as Phillies’ Star Players Come Up Small in a Failed Late Rally

By Luke Arcaini

Published: Oct 6th, 2025 · 9:36 PM EDT

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The Phillies got a gem from Jesus Luzardo in a must-win Game 2 on Monday night, but the offense let their pitcher down early. They rallied hard in the 9th, but came up 90 feet short.

Here are 15 takeaways from a heart-breaking ending.

1) Monday night’s crowd started off pretty meh compared to Game 1, I can’t lie.

2) Alright… all it took was Shohei Ohtani striking out in the first for the crowd to get into it. Still not an A+ crowd so far. Everybody feels tense, and rightfully so.

3) That’s a huge get-out by Luzardo in the 1st inning. He threw a first-pitch strike to just 1 of 5 batters faced, but he got out of the inning unharmed with a liner to left and a groundball to second. He was fired up walking off. It seemed like the nerves went away in that moment.

4) The Phillies needed to work counts on Blake Snell. Rob Thomson said it pregame. Kyle Schwarber, I understand the first at-bat of the game trying to make a statement. But Alec Bohm swinging first-pitch with two outs after Bryce Harper worked a good walk in the 1st inning was bad.

5) The early juice for Luzardo was good. He averaged 96.5 mph on his fastball this year. He was sitting at 97.8 through the first two innings, and topped out at 99.1 mph.

6) Non-competitive at-bats and an insane amount of chase. The true pain really started right around the fourth inning.

7) Fast forward to the 6th inning… no changes. Offense still silent.

8) Jesus Luzardo’s night ended in the 7th inning. He retired 17 hitters in a row before allowing back-to-back singles to Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman. Orion Kerkering struck out Tommy Edman, but a chopper off the end of the bat in no man’s land gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Turner did everything he could on a really tough play.

9) Running out of words to explain how this team just continued to come up small. Orion Kerkering wasn’t good, and Matt Strahm allowed an RBI to Shohei Ohtani. Couldn’t stop the bleeding.

10) You may think that Rob Thomson had a bad series. You may think the bullpen had a bad series. I wouldn’t really argue with either. Here’s what I’ll tell you: you won’t win a damn thing if your offense hits like this –

The Phillies offense through their first 16 innings of the NLDS:

6 for 52 (.115), 21 Ks, 2 XBH

— Luke Arcaini (@ArcainiLuke) October 7, 2025

11) At least Max Kepler showed some life. Kepler pinch-hit for Otto Kemp in the 8th inning, and ripped a triple down the right field line. Turner followed it up with an RBI single to score Kepler, the first run and just the second hit of the night for the Phillies.

12) Listen. This is nothing against Jhoan Duran, but it probably gets to a point when you have 7 hits in two games where you should debate not doing Duran’s entrance. Phillies fans felt the same way. They boo’d a lot.

13) Uh ohhhhh! We have life! Bohm led off the 9th with a single, followed by a double from JT Realmuto, followed by a 2-run RBI double from Nick Castellanos to make it a 4-3 game.

14) Bryson Stott laid down a bunt with no outs, but the Dodgers executed a wheel play to absolute perfection. I think there are some situations in baseball where a bunt there is acceptable. Is it acceptable when you’ve racked up 4 base hits, with a fielders choice in the middle of them? I don’t think so. Would we be talking about this play if the bunt worked? Nope, but it didn’t. Bryson Stott said he saw wheel route and tried to get the bunt down as close to home as possible, but the Dodgers made a great play.

15) The Phillies rallied hard in the 9th, but they came up 90 feet short. Trea Turner grounds out to end the game. They’ll face elimination on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.