Phillies fall to Diamondbacks, as experimenting with the bullpen continues

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sep 20, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PHOENIX — Let’s play recent Phillies playoff trivia. Ready? OK, here goes:

Other than Zack Wheeler, how many Phillies pitchers have completed six innings in a postseason start since Octobers turned red again in 2022?

Aaron Nola, raise your hand.

That’s it.

It’s worth wondering, then, how the Phillies will handle the middle innings in this postseason. And not because Nola didn’t make it through the sixth inning here Saturday night in a 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks, only the Phillies’ sixth setback in the last 22 games.

Rather, it’s because the Phillies won’t have Wheeler this time around. He’s awaiting surgery Monday in which he’ll likely have a rib removed to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, a nerve condition in his arm. And because Nola probably won’t make a start until the National League Championship Series, if the Phillies get that far.

The last week of the regular season will be a chance for manager Rob Thomson to experiment with bullpen usage for the playoffs before getting to the late innings. In this case, he turned to lefty Tanner Banks.

With the Phillies leading 3-2, with one out and two runners on base against Nola, Thomson called on Banks, who could see his way out of the inning after striking out Tim Tawa. But he gave up RBI singles on a bloop by Idelmaro Vargas and a liner to right by Jake McCarthy.

Just like that, the Diamondbacks led 4-3.

It took six pitches for the Phillies to grab the lead against South Jersey’s Zac Gallen. Harrison Bader led off with a four-pitch walk and scored on an RBI double from Kyle Schwarber, who scored two batters later on cleanup-hitting J.T. Realmuto’s sacrifice fly.

But in rallying to knot the game, the Diamondbacks seized upon a recent trend against Nola.

The leadoff batter has reached base in 15 of 35 innings in Nola’s last six starts. And 20 of the 22 earned runs given up by Nola in those starts came when the leadoff batter reached base.

So, the Diamondbacks were set up in the first and third innings with leadoff doubles by Geraldo Perdomo and Jake McCarthy, respectively. In both cases, they scored on one-out singles — from Corbin Carroll in the first inning and Ketel Marte in the third.

Alec Bohm restored the Phillies’ lead, making it 3-2 in the fourth inning by taking Gallen deep for a two-run homer, his first since Aug. 17. In two games back from the injured list, Bohm is 4 for 9 with a double, a homer and four RBIs.