LOS ANGELES – Eyes red, Orion Kerkering 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.
Kerkering made a wild throw past home plate Thursday instead of tossing to first after mishandling Andy Pages’ bases-loaded comebacker with two outs in the 11th inning. Pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim scored and the Phillies were eliminated with a 2-1 loss that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-1 NL Division Series victory.
“It means a lot. It shows they care a lot,” Kerkering said of his teammates. “It just means everything, for sure.”
Kerkering won’t forget just the second error that ended a postseason series. Phillies fans won’t, either.
“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 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 Jesús Luzardo with one out in the 11th and went to third on Max Muncy’s two-out single that eluded diving shortstop Trea Turner.
Kerkering walked Kiké Hernández, loading the bases. Pages, in a 1-for-23 postseason 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’s where catcher J.T. Realmuto was pointing.
But when Kerkering reached back to his right and picked up the ball, in one motion he made a hurried sidearm toss toward home from 46 feet away. 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 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., 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.”
Teammates did their best with soothing words.
“I feel bad. Not just for him. I don’t want to feel like — put pity on him, but it could have been any one of us,” Turner said. “It’s a team effort.”
Philadelphia, second in the major leagues with 96 wins this season, was held to four hits and went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
“That’s a really good team over there,” said Harper, who was 0 for 4 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.”
Kyle Schwarber, who hit an NL-best 56 home runs, hit two more in Wednesday’s win but was 1 for 12 with seven strikeouts in the three series losses.
Schwarber, Realmuto, left-hander Ranger Suárez and outfielder Max Kepler are eligible for free agency. Center fielder Harrison Bader has a mutual contract option, and left-hander José Alvarado has a club option.
“You make so many personal relationships with guys throughout the course of the year,” Schwarber said. “They become family. You never know how (free agency) will go. But these guys know how I feel about them. I have a lot of respect for the guys in here, our organization, our coaching staff, everybody top to bottom.”
After losing to Houston in the 2022 World Series, the Phillies were knocked out in the 2023 National League Championship Series and now in consecutive Division Series.
“You’ve got a lot of talent in this room,” Kerkering said. “I know a couple guys are leaving, but the guys that we know are going to be here next year are guys that always are going to compete every single day. Just keep grabbing for it. The goal is a championship, no matter what, no matter what group of guys.”
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