Eyes red, Orion Kerkering on Thursday received words of support from his Philadelphia Phillies teammates.
“Just keep your head up. It’s an honest mistake. Just, it’s baseball,” he remembered hearing. “You’ll be good for a long time to come,” they added.
“It’s not my fault, then. We had opportunities to score,” was the message he kept getting.
Photo: AFP
Kerkering made a wild throw past home plate instead of tossing to first after mishandling Andy Pages’ bases-loaded comebacker with two outs in the 11th inning. Pinch-runner Kim Hye-seong scored and the Phillies were eliminated with a 2-1 loss that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-1 victory in their National League Division Series.
“It means a lot. It shows they care a lot,” Kerkering said of his teammates. “It just means everything, for sure.”
Kerkering will not forget just the second error that ended a post-season series.
Photo: AP
“Test wall, for sure,” the 24-year-old reliever said, managing a small smile. “Just kind of keep going with it. It’s hopefully starting a long career. Just keep in the back of my head ... get over this hump. Keep pushing.”
Nick Castellanos’ RBI double in the seventh inning off Emmet Sheehan put the Phillies ahead, but Jhoan Duran walked Mookie Betts with the bases loaded in the bottom half, forcing in the tying run.
Tommy Edman singled off Jesus Luzardo with one out in the 11th inning and went to third on Max Muncy’s two-out single that eluded diving shortstop Trea Turner.
Kerkering walked Kike Hernandez, loading the bases. Pages, in a one-for-23 post-season slide, hit what appeared to be a harmless grounder, the type every pitcher practices gloving from spring training on.
Kerkering bobbled it, yet still had time to get Pages at first base. That is where catcher J.T. Realmuto was pointing.
However, when Kerkering reached back to his right and picked up the ball, in one motion he made a hurried sidearm toss toward home. The ball sailed up the third-base line, past Realmuto’s outstretched mitt. After originally running past the plate, Kim returned to touch it.
“I was surprised he threw it home,” Kim said through a translator. “I just ran as hard as I could.”
Kerkering hung his head and put hands on his knees.
“Just hit off my foot,” Kerkering said. “Once the pressure got to me, I just thought there’s a little faster throw to J.T. [A] little quicker throw than trying to cross-body it to Bryce [Harper at first base]. So just a [terrible] throw.”
Realmuto put a hand on the side of Kerkering’s head and then on a shoulder.
“Twenty-four-year-old kid like that, he’s probably feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders after that play,” Realmuto said. “So I just tried to reassure him that the whole game’s not on him. There was a lot opportunity for us to win that game and we didn’t do what it took.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson wrapped an arm around Kerkering when the reliever reached the dugout.
“He just got caught up in the moment a little bit,” Thomson said. “I feel for him because he’s putting it all on his shoulders.”
Philadelphia, second in the major leagues with 96 wins this season, were held to four hits and went one for seven with runners in scoring position.
“That’s a really good team over there,” said Harper, who was zero for four with a walk. “We went toe-to-toe today. Pretty [good] heavyweight fight back and forth. Really good pitching, obviously, and they came out on top.”
The result sends the Dodgers into a best-of-seven NL Championship Series against either the Milwaukee Brewers or the Chicago Cubs with an MLB World Series berth on the line.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called his team’s victory “an instant classic,” although he was full of sympathy for Kerkering.
“It’s brutal,” Roberts said. “You definitely feel for a player.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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