The Philadelphia Phillies, who had the best record in the National league this season are desperate for a World Series championship. They last won it in 2008, and have only won a World Series twice since the team was founded in 1883. Last night the Phillies lost the deciding game of the NL Divisional Series to the Dodgers in a dramatic, extra inning contest (with no stupid “zombie runner” because MLB plats baseball the right way in the post season) on a disastrous final play that is destined to live in Philadelphia infamy.
The culprit was pitcher Orion Kirkering. With two outs and the potential Dodger winning run on third base in the 11th inning, he got the batter to hit a weak grounder back to him. First he fumbled the ball, recovered, and only had to throw to first base to get the third out and end the inning. But he saw the base runner from second running home, and inexplicably threw the ball to his catcher, or tried to. In his panic, he threw wildly. The run scored, the game was lost, and the Phillies season was over.
In baseball terms, Kirkering choked. When the game was on the line and professional athletes are supposed to rise to the occasion and be at their best, he was at his worst. A whole city blames him for the crushing loss: he is now Philadelphia’s Bill Buckner.
All I can do for Orion is to remind him of my father’s favorite poem, by Rudyard Kipling, which he told me gave him hope and solace as young, fatherless boy during the Depression, and later, when having to cope with his own tragedies, failures and perceived shortcomings. I think of it often, and read it again just two weeks ago.
The poem is, of course, “If.”
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs, and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet, don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves, to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop, and build ’em up, with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn, long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—
You’ll be a Man, my son!
Ethics Alarms 
I dozed off watching that game in the middle innings and woke up to find the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th, score still 1-1. And then that happened.
In his defense, there was a force at the plate, but he actually had lots of time to throw to first for the last out. I suspect that if he had fielded the ball cleanly, that’s what he would have done, but as you say he finally got the ball, saw the runner coming home and made a panicked toss there. I’m not sure that a good throw would have beaten the runner.
One has to feel sorry for the guy — but he is a professional baseball player. I imagine that they have practice that play multiple times, but nothing totally prepares you to do it with a rabid home crowd yelling as loud as they can.
I am reminded of the Rangers-Cleveland game 161. Bottom of the 10th, the Rangers intentionally walked a batter to load the bases for a force everywhere. The Rangers pitcher promptly hits the next batter — walk off hit by pitch win for Cleveland to clinch the division title. Ugh.
Part of the game.
“I’m not sure that a good throw would have beaten the runner.”
Sure it would have. The base runner missed home plate and had to come back to touch it. If the catcher caught it, he either would have tagged the runner prior to arriving at home or tagged him when the runner came back to touch home plate.
jvb
The catcher would have likely been called for blocking the plate as his leg blocked the entire way to the plate. He was in that position because he was pointing to first base for the pitcher to throw there, and not really set to receive a throw home. Clearly he panicked when he bobbled the bouncer right to him, and just threw to the plate (wildly), when the right move was to throw to first.
So, yes, but the runner definitely got to home plate ahead of the throw. If the catcher is able to catch the ball, he just has to touch home plate to force the runner. As far as catcher interference — maybe so. On the other hand if the runner just slides into home he will absolutely be safe. I assume he didn’t slide and wasn’t concerned about touching home plate because he didn’t expect the play to be at home rather than first.
I have read two articles today referencing that nightmare ending for the Rangers.
At that point, I was pulling for the Rangers to win (not just as a Rangers fan) because they needed to sweep the Guardians and the Astros win their last two to make the playoffs. The Tigers had won earlier that day, clinching a playoff spot. So the Cleveland win not only clinched a playoff spot for the Guardians but eliminated the Astros as well.
And who would have thought that the Tigers would beat the Guardians and now be in extra innings in game 5 against the Mariners…..
Skubal certainly pitched great — he just ran out of pitches.
“The Philadelphia Phillies, who had the best record in the National league this season are desperate for a World Series championship.” (bolds mine)
Not to quibble, but my Milwaukee Brewers (97-66 .599) finished with the best record in MLB by the slimmest of margins, edging out Philly (96-66 .593).
And desperate? The Phillies have two (2) more MLB Championships than the Brewers.
That said, if they leave me at the altar…AGAIN…and choke in Game 5 @American Family Field, after falling flat on their faces in games 3 & 4 @Wrigley Field…….
PWS
But, as I said, the Phils have been around since the 19th Century. The Brew Crew began their quest 80 years later, in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots.
“With two outs and the potential Dodger winning run on second base in the 11th inning”
The bases were loaded, the winning run scored from third base.
Fixed. You’ll never guess why I made that stupid error (speaking of errors) and I don’t want to talk about it.
Yes, he screwed up. But the Phillies lost that series all together. If they’d gotten out of that inning, they’d have had to score a run at some damned point and actually win the game and stop the Dodgers in the bottom of whatever inning they were in, and they’d have to have gone back to Philly and won another game. The Dodgers were simply playing better and the entire Phillies team underperformed. How many games did the Phillies lose before Kyle Schwarber finally woke the hell up?
CORRECTION: The Milwaukee Brewers have the best regular-season record in MLB, with 97 wins and 65 losses.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2025-standings.shtml
NOTED
PWS