The Phillies leaned on Jhoan Duran in a way that felt more desperate than deliberate, and that alone put Andrew Miller’s 2016 October on display all over again.
Don Mattingly reached for Duran in the seventh inning Tuesday in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves, asking him to finish off a three-out save. Duran got five outs.
The sixth never came easily. A single and a hit by pitch opened the door, and Austin Riley kicked it wide open with a go-ahead three-run homer.
AUSTIN RILEY
GO-AHEAD THREE-RUN HOMER
ATLANTA IS GOING WILD 🤯 pic.twitter.com/XrPQnazvVO
- MLB (@MLB) September 29, 2026
That sequence left Philadelphia in a tough spot for Wednesday’s must-win game. The Phillies did rally and win, but they still had to turn to rookie Andrew Painter for a third inning to finish things off instead of having Duran available in the way they would have preferred.
The contrast with Miller’s 2016 postseason is hard to miss. Terry Francona used him like a weapon from the jump, calling on him in the fifth inning of Game 1 of the ALDS. Miller answered with two scoreless innings and four strikeouts, setting the tone for what became a remarkable October run.
He pitched in 10 of the Guardians’ 15 games that postseason and finished with a 1.40 ERA. Over 19 1/3 innings, he logged the second-most innings on the staff and won ALCS MVP honors. He was everywhere late, showing up in the fifth inning three times, the sixth inning twice, the seventh inning four times and the eighth once.
Miller’s workload was heavy, but it came from a place of strength. He worked multiple innings in every postseason appearance, took the ball in four of five ALCS games and did not allow an earned run until the World Series. That Guardians bullpen was built to overwhelm opponents.
Philadelphia’s bullpen is a different story. It is stretched thin, and Duran’s usage Tuesday came out of necessity more than design. The Phillies will need him again in tomorrow’s must-win game, and even if he bounces back, his Game 1 outing showed there is still a long road before he belongs in the same conversation as Miller.
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The latest flashpoint comes from Jim Palmer, who said he urged Albernaz to have Cowser study Cody Bellingers at-bats as a way to help his approach at the plate. According to Palmer, the suggestion did not get far, and it has become part of the broader debate over why Baltimores promising core underperformed in such a costly season. [Read more 🡒]