Phillies right hander James Norwood entered Thursday’s game in the ninth inning with a six-run lead. He’s shown promising stuff so far, but he allowed three runs in his last outing against New York on May 1.
Green Day’s “Brain Stew” ominously played in the background as Norwood warmed up. What was about to transpire was something that hadn’t happened since the 1995 album “Insomniac” was released.
The Mets would send 11 men to the plate and score seven runs on eight hits. Doubt creeped into every traumatized Phillies fans’ mind when Francisco Lindor hit a two-run home run with no outs. Brandon Nimmo, who has reach based safely in 28 of 31 games started against the Phillies in the last three years, tied the game on a single. Starling Marte delivered the dagger with a double to bring him in and take the lead.
Most of these runs were scored against closer Corey Knebel, who MLB.com hilariously declared as the Phillies’ early-season MVP earlier that day.
Just like that, a six-run Phillies lead disappeared. What should have been a momentum-building win against a hated rival turned into a nightmare that not even the most cynical follower of this team can dream up. This was a million times worse than getting no-hit by the Mets, which somehow happened only six days ago.
May 10, 1994 marked the last time the Phillies surrendered a six-run or more lead in the ninth inning and lost. Shawn Boskie, Doug Jones, Heathcliff Sloucomb and David West teamed up to blow an 8-1 lead against the Atlanta Braves at Fulton County Stadium. The game ended in the bottom of the 15th when reliever Mike Stanton hit a game-winning single that drove in Deion Sanders. Yes, Deion Sanders. Somehow, this loss was much worse than the one the Phillies experienced on Thursday.
Six players on the active roster weren’t born yet the last time this happened to the Phillies. Joe Girardi went 1-for-2 with a sacrifice fly as a member of the Rockies in a victory over the Giants. The full name of the starting right fielder for Colorado that day was Michael Scott Kingery.
A collapse this bad has only happened four other times in the illustrious 139-year-history of the Philadelphia Phillies.
For Phillies fans, the number 330 will carry even more meaning than it already has. The New York Mets were 0-330 since 1997 while trailing by at least six runs in the ninth inning, per ESPN. No longer will 330 only signify the amount of millions the Phillies are paying Bryce Harper until the year 2032.
The good news is that the Phillies have Max Scherzer waiting for them on Friday or Saturday. Steady rain is expected in the Philadelphia area over the next two days. Who knows if this is a good or bad thing for the Phillies. Maybe they’ll need a day or two to really process what happened. The bad news is that two days is not nearly enough time for anyone in the organization to get to the bottom of why this team is perpetually cursed.
According to the Phillies broadcast, MLB teams were 0-684 when trailing by six runs or more in the ninth inning over the last three seasons before Thursday. The Phillies bullpen of recent years are the van Gough of late-game collapses and Thursday was Starry Night.
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