Phillies: two controversial decisions by manager Rob Thomson

As we all know, during the playoffs, managers are under the microscope. And let's just say that the skipper of the Philadelphia Phillies didn't have a good night last night (Monday).

It all started when Teoscar Hernandez hit a single and Freddie Freeman followed with a double in the top of the seventh inning against Jesus Luzardo, who was still on the mound.

Thomson then turned to Orion Kerkering to avoid catastrophe, a dubious choice on the part of the Philadelphia manager. Kerkering's weakness was his inability to prevent inherited runners from scoring. Indeed, the right-hander has allowed 56% of his inherited runners to cross home plate since May 29, and 44% of them this season. The league average this year was 32%.

What had to happen happened, as Kerkering once again struggled, resulting in a three-run outburst from the Los Angeles Dodgers under his guidance. Already trailing 1-0 in the series, it was perhaps time for Thomson to bring in closer Jhoan Duran to limit the damage.

However, the Phillies rallied to trail by a single run in the bottom of the ninth inning with Nick Castellanos on second and no outs.

The Phillies manager then asked Bryson Stott to bunt, and even though Stott put the ball in play, the Dodgers managed to retire Castellanos at third base. Los Angeles then got the final two outs of the game in the next three appearances and cruised to a 4-3 victory, giving them a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five Division Series.

After the game, Thomson tried to justify himself without much conviction.

Rob Thomson speaks on some of the decision-making down the stretch in tonight's Game 2 and the offensive struggles from some of the Phillies' big bats.#NLDS | #Postseason pic.twitter.com/K2E9E3rUp3

– MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 7, 2025

Left-handed against left-handed, we were trying to even the score. I liked where our bullpen was at, compared to theirs.

Note that the Phillies were then without Kerkering, Matt Strahm, Tanner Banks and Duran at this point in the game, while meanwhile the Dodgers still had Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Anthony Banda and Tyler Glasnow available.

This defeat brings the Phillies' total number of losses in their last eight playoff games to seven. The Phillies' manager is certainly to blame for much of the team's failure.

This content was created with the help of AI.