They waited nearly four hours through rain and puddles and radar screens.
And when it was finally time to play baseball again in Chicago, the Phillies got a painful reminder of why they just emptied the prospect vault for Jhoan Durán.
Because what followed was one of those bullpen innings that gets etched in your brain — for all the wrong reasons.
The Phillies were tied 2-2 in the seventh on Wednesday afternoon when Max Lazar jogged to the mound. By the time the inning ended, the White Sox had sent 10 batters to the plate, scored seven runs, and turned a dead-even game into a 9-2 rout.
Lazar recorded just one out and was tagged for six runs on seven hits. Lenyn Sosa delivered the go-ahead RBI single. Then came Miguel Vargas, who launched a three-run homer to left — the beginning of the unraveling. Two more singles followed before Rob Thomson made the slow walk to the mound.
Enter Seth Johnson. He struck out Colson Montgomery, then got ahead 1-2 on Edgar Quero. And then he hung a splitter that Quero did exactly what you’d expect a professional hitter to do — he crushed it into the left-field seats for another three-run homer. Just like that, 9-2.
A game the Phillies led just three innings earlier had completely detonated.
It erased five innings of two-run ball from Taijuan Walker and a scoreless sixth from Tanner Banks. And it came just moments after news broke of the club acquiring Durán — one of baseball’s most overpowering relievers — to help stabilize a bullpen that had been, well, this.
On the other side, Mike Vasil did his best impression of a stopper. The White Sox bulk reliever entered in the fourth with runners on the corners and gave up a go-ahead single to Otto Kemp. Then? Silence. Vasil retired the next 11 batters he faced and allowed just three hits over four innings.
The Phillies had a flicker of life in the eighth. With two runners aboard, Bryce Harper unloaded on a ball that had “three-run homer” written all over it. Instead, Andrew Benintendi found the wall, found the ball, and robbed Harper of a momentum-shifting blast.
One inning later, Rafael Marchán popped out with two men on to end it.
Final score: 9-3, White Sox. Series lost. And a win-now team flying home to Philadelphia with an urgent reminder that their newest bullpen weapon can’t get here soon enough.
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