July 09, 2025
The Phillies blew a 3-1 lead in the ninth inning in San Francisco on Tuesday night in the most dramatic and unbelievable fashion possible.
With one away and two men on base, reliever Jordan Romano surrendered a blast to centerfield that took a ridiculous bounce off the wall and allowed all three runners to score for a walk-off inside-the-park home run, the first of its kind in over 100 years:
PATRICK BAILEY
— MLB (@MLB) July 9, 2025
WALK-OFF INSIDE-THE-PARK HOME RUN@SFGIANTS WIN! pic.twitter.com/xwswjv2fLP
If you watch the video, Brandon Marsh really has no chance. No matter what line he takes to try and catch that baseball, and later play the carom, the ricochet is so big it's just impossible to correctly gauge.
Romano has been awful all season and he deserved to lose the game on that bad pitch to Bailey. But he probably shouldn't have even been in the game in the 4-3 loss.
"It's tough, not contributing to wins, losing games like that," Romano told the media after the loss (h/t NBC Sports Philly). "It's baseball, sometimes. Definitely been tested a lot this year, not pitching well. No time to sulk. Trying to figure this out, trying to get better. But right now it's not really working."
Because of their decision to send Mick Abel down and the front office's inability to cast the bullpen with serviceable arms, makeshift starter Taijuan Walker started and went only four innings and 63 pitches — because he wasn't stretched out fully to start. It was essentially a bullpen game Tuesday night.
Tanner Banks, Max Lazar, Matt Strahm and Daniel Robert all posted blanks on the scoreboard. All of them have ERAs under 3.50. But with one inning left to pitch and the bullpen mostly depleted — and Orion Kerkering unavailable after blowing his own game the night before — there really wasn't an option besides Romano for the end of the eighth and the ninth.
Romano blew his third save and ballooned his already inflated ERA to 7.44 after the three-run blast.
The bullpen is the problem, and the only solution is for Dave Dombrowski and the front office to make it right before the trade deadline. The starting pitching is exemplary and the offense is doing enough to win. With even an average MLB bullpen the Phillies are well clear of the Mets, whom they now are tied with for the division lead (they lose a tie-breaker).
There is a ton of parity in the National League right now. The Phillies' chips need to be pushed to the center this summer — it could be their last best chance with Kyle Schwarber and Ranger Suárez set to become free agents in the fall.
Losses like this will continue to happen until the bullpen personnel is overhauled. Marsh did the best he could. So did manager Rob Thomson. Reinforcements are needed.
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