You could say this one was lost in the fifth.
You could say it was lost in the 11th.
You could say it was lost somewhere in the twilight zone of baseball absurdity — where a dropped pop-up snowballs into six runs and a .000 hitter delivers the knockout punch.
Any way you slice it, the Phillies gave one away Wednesday night. A 5-0 lead vanished. Five homers weren’t enough. And a series sweep turned into a gut-punch 9-8 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Citizens Bank Park.
Carlos Narváez, yes that Carlos Narváez — who committed catcher’s interference twice earlier in the series — smoked a 98-mph fastball from Seth Johnson into the left-field seats in the 11th to put Boston ahead for good. It was his first big-league homer. Because of course it was.
But really, this one turned on a pop-up.
Top of the fifth. Two outs. Bases loaded. Rob Refsnyder skied a ball straight up behind home plate. J.T. Realmuto raced to the fence. Looked up. Looked around. Never saw it. The ball dropped. The inning didn’t.
Eight pitches later, Romy Gonzalez — 0 for his last 19 — launched a grand slam. And just like that, a 5-0 Phillies lead morphed into a 6-5 deficit.
It was the kind of inning that defied logic. Jesús Luzardo, who hadn’t allowed a hit through four innings, came unraveled out of the stretch — again. He walked four of six batters after the Yoshida double and battled command issues. Gonzalez made him pay.
Somehow, the Phillies clawed back.
J.T. Realmuto got his redemption card punched with a game-tying solo homer off Aroldis Chapman in the eighth. Kyle Schwarber, who had already gone deep in the first, added an RBI single in extras. Johan Rojas chipped in another to make it 9-8.
But that was as close as they’d get.
The Phils crushed five homers: Schwarber’s 34th, his fourth since the break, Harper’s 350th career bomb — a second-deck moonshot, and solo shots from Castellanos, Stott, and Realmuto.
Power wasn’t the problem.
Execution? That’s another story.
Missed pop-ups. Bases-loaded walks. Questionable bullpen decisions despite a fully rested staff.
Oh, and by the way — with the Mets beating the Angels, the Phillies now trail by half a game in the NL East.
They’ll take Thursday off. Maybe they’ll try to forget this one.
J.T. Realmuto got his redemption card punched with a game-tying solo homer off Aroldis Chapman in the eighth. Kyle Schwarber, who had already gone deep in the first, added an RBI single in extras. Johan Rojas chipped in another to make it 9-8.
But that was as close as they’d get.
The Phils crushed five homers: Schwarber’s 34th, his fourth since the break, Harper’s 350th career bomb — a second-deck moonshot, and solo shots from Castellanos, Stott, and Realmuto.
Power wasn’t the problem.
Execution? That’s another story.
Missed pop-ups. Bases-loaded walks. Questionable bullpen decisions despite a fully rested staff.
Oh, and by the way — with the Mets beating the Angels, the Phillies now trail by half a game in the NL East.
They’ll take Thursday off. Maybe they’ll try to forget this one.
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