Jesús Luzardo’s shoulder created the emergency.
What happened after that exposed something larger.
Forced into a bullpen game Saturday night after Luzardo was scratched with left shoulder stiffness, the Phillies actually survived the first part of the plan. Tim Mayza gave Don Mattingly three scoreless innings. Bryce Harper homered. Philadelphia carried a 1-0 lead into the fourth.
Then the organizational depth chart became the game.
Atlanta scored eight times in the fourth inning and rolled to a 12-2 victory at Truist Park, handing the Phillies another damaging loss in a September series carrying obvious postseason implications.
And the most revealing moment may have come when Mattingly turned to Grant Holman with two runners aboard in the fourth.
That is not meant as an indictment of Holman.
It is a question about how the Phillies arrived there.
Luzardo had been scheduled to start before Mattingly announced Friday night that the left-hander would be scratched because he was having difficulty getting loose. The Phillies planned to use an opener and navigate the game with their bullpen instead.
Mayza did his part.
He allowed two hits, struck out four and needed only 31 pitches to complete three scoreless innings. Considering Philadelphia had used five relievers during Friday night’s 11-inning loss, that was almost an ideal beginning.
Harper provided the lead with his 28th homer in the first.
Then everything changed.
Brooks Raley replaced Mayza in the fourth. Ronald Acuña Jr. homered to tie the game. Raley struck out Matt Olson, but Ozzie Albies walked and Michael Harris II singled.
With two outs and runners at the corners, Mattingly summoned Holman.
That is where this became more than another ugly inning.
Holman is legitimate organizational depth. The Phillies claimed the 26-year-old right-hander off waivers from Detroit on May 7 and immediately optioned him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He produced a respectable 3.12 ERA over 20 appearances there, striking out 25 in 26 innings, before Philadelphia recalled him when rosters expanded Sept. 1.
There is nothing wrong with having Grant Holman on a major-league roster.
The question is whether a club trying to chase Atlanta should find itself depending on him to escape the fourth inning of a game this important.
Holman couldn’t.
Harris stole second. Mauricio Dubón singled home both inherited runners. Austin Riley singled. Then Bryson Stott committed a fielding error on Sean Murphy’s ground ball — a mistake that should have ended the inning but instead allowed another run to score and opened the gates.
Ha-Seong Kim walked. Holman threw a wild pitch. Drake Baldwin doubled home two more. Acuña singled home Baldwin.
By the time Matt Olson finally flied out, Atlanta had scored eight times.
The Phillies’ 1-0 lead had become an 8-1 deficit.
Five runs were charged to Holman, all unearned because of the Stott error.
That matters to his ERA.
It matters far less to the larger point.
A contender’s pitching depth is rarely tested under ideal conditions. It gets tested when a starter wakes up sore, when the previous game lasts 11 innings and when a manager has already worked through much of his trusted bullpen.
That is exactly what happened here.
Luzardo’s scratch was unfortunate. Philadelphia could not control that.
But the options underneath Luzardo are an organizational issue, and Saturday showed how quickly a September game could move from Mayza — a veteran reliever successfully stretching through three innings — to asking a waiver claim and September call-up to protect a one-run game against the middle of Atlanta’s order.
The Phillies never recovered.
Tyler Mahle allowed only Harper’s homer over seven innings, scattering six hits without issuing a walk. Philadelphia had just two plate appearances with runners in scoring position.
Justin Crawford added his third homer in the eighth.
By then, the night had deteriorated so completely that catcher Garrett Stubbs was pitching.
Michael Harris II eventually launched a three-run homer off Stubbs, pushing the margin to 12-2.
This was not Grant Holman losing a pennant-race game.
That would be too easy.
It was a pennant-race team discovering, in real time, how thin the margin becomes when one starting pitcher disappears and the bullpen is already compromised.
Luzardo created the hole in Saturday’s plan.
The Phillies’ depth determined what happened when they tried to fill it.
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