NEW YORK — One pitch wipes out six months of success. It’s the cruelty of 21st century baseball that rewards autumn ability over summer superiority.
Carlos Estévez crouched on the mound, put his hands on his knees and turned his head to watch over his left shoulder as Francisco Lindor sent his 2-1 fastball soaring toward right-center field. When the ball landed in Philadelphia’s bullpen for a sixth-inning grand slam that wiped out a 1-0 Phillies lead, the reliever dropped his hands and his head sank.
“I knew it right away,” Estévez said after Wednesday night’s 4-1 loss to the New York Mets ended the National League Division Series in four games and sent the Phillies home for the winter.
Sixteen years and counting without a World Series title. And in each of the past three seasons, Bryce Harper & Co. keep getting knocked out earlier.
“Every loss is kind of the same, man,” Harper said. “Any time you lose and don’t finish the job of a World Series, it’s the same — if it’s the next round or the World Series round, it all feels pretty similar.”
Philadelphia reached Game 6 of the 2022 World Series before losing to Houston. It seemed to be on the verge of success with an offense anchored by Harper, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos, and a rotation headed by Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler.
Trea Turner was added for 2023, and the Phillies took a 3-2 lead over Arizona in last year’s NL Championship Series before dropping Games 6 and 7 at home.
Then the Phillies started 46-20 this season to open a 10-game division lead and finished 95-67 to win the NL East for the first time since 2011.
“You just feel like you fail,” Turner said. “We had a fun season. We had some good memories and whatnot. But when your goal is to win the World Series and I think we talked about it plenty, it’s nothing but kind of a failure. So I don’t think it’s from lack of trying, lack of talent or who we have in the clubhouse. We just couldn’t get it done.”
There were signs of trouble heading into October. The Phillies lost eight of their last 13 games during the regular season.
“I didn’t feel like we were playing like ourselves the last couple of weeks,” Turner said.
Philadelphia batters hit .186 against the Mets, including 6-for-31 with runners in scoring position. And relievers had an 11.37 ERA, allowing 11 of 15 inherited to score.
A third championship after 1980 and 2008 remains elusive. The core could be kept together. Estévez and fellow pitchers Jeff Hoffman and Spencer Turnbull are the only players eligible for free agency.
“I don’t like losing a series. I want to win a World Series, But anything can happen in a short series,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “But I don’t see us going backwards, no.”
Turner understood the frustration of Phillies fans who had expected so much more.
“They’re wearing this this just as hard as we are,” he said.
The young collector who scored a one-of-a-kind baseball card featuring National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes has turned down a trade offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Topps announced Friday that the 11-year-old from the Los Angeles area had declined the deal and instead was going to put the card — which features Skenes’ autograph and a patch from a game-worn jersey — up for auction.
𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋: The 11-year-old collector who pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 Debut Patch card has DECLINED the Pirates’ offer.
The Pirates offer included: – Two Pirates season tickets behind home plate for the next 30 years – Meet & Greet with Paul Skenes – Two Paul Skenes… pic.twitter.com/oRBhhD647j
The Pirates had put together a package that included 30 years’ worth of season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park and the chance to play a softball game on the field in exchange for the card.
Skenes’ girlfriend, LSU gymnast and influencer Livvy Dunne, also offered the card’s owner the opportunity to take in a game with her in a luxury suite at the ballpark during one of Skenes’ starts.
While the collector wrote in a journal entry shared by Topps that nabbing the card was a “dream come true,” that dream apparently did not include spending the next three decades attending games at PNC Park.
The 11-year-old collector who pulled the Paul Skenes 1/1 Debut Patch card just shared his journal entries…
The team posted on X after the decision that it was “bummed” but offered to have the fan at a game sometime during the 2025 season.
Fanatics Collect, which will handle the auctioning of the card in March, said it would donate its proceeds from the sale to fire relief funds in the Los Angeles area.
The card could hold pretty high value considering the potentially bright future ahead for the 22-year-old Skenes, who finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting after an outstanding rookie season.
The No. 1 pick in the 2023 amateur draft made his major league debut in May and put together one of the most impressive rookie seasons in recent memory. Skenes was selected as the NL’s starting pitcher in the All-Star Game after only 11 starts and finished 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 games.
Skenes said over the weekend he hasn’t thought about the potential of signing a long-term contract to remain in Pittsburgh, saying instead that his focus is on helping the Pirates take a step toward contending in 2025. He is eligible for free agency after the 2029 season.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Two-time All-America safety Xavier Watts will enter the NFL draft rather than return to Notre Dame for a sixth season.
Watts made the announcement on social media Friday, four days after the Irish lost to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff championship game in Atlanta.
Watts began his college career as a receiver in 2020 and moved to defense his second season. He had 13 interceptions over the past two seasons, most by any player in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He picked off six passes this season, running one back 100 yards to help Notre Dame seal its win against Southern California. He was voted to the Associated Press All-America first team for two straight years.
Watts, whose hometown is Omaha, Nebraska, could have returned to Notre Dame to use the extra season granted by the NCAA to athletes who were active during the 2020 pandemic season. Most draft analysts project Watts to be selected late in the first round or in the second.
“As I embark on the next chapter of my football journey, I’m filled with pride as I look back on the many memories and people that I’ll forever cherish,” Watts wrote on X. “I hope that my time in the Irish uniform has helped continue the tradition of those that came before me.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
OMAHA, Neb. — Calvin Jones, who rushed for more than 3,000 yards in three seasons at Nebraska and was with the Green Bay Packers when they won the Super Bowl after the 1996 season, has died. He was 54.
Police said Jones’ body was found in the basement of a house in north Omaha on Wednesday night. Police have not confirmed a cause of death pending an autopsy.
A friend of Jones, Jo Dusatko, told the Omaha World-Herald that carbon monoxide poisoning was suspected. She said the furnace in the home was not working and that Jones was using a generator in the basement.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Husker legend and Super Bowl Champion, Calvin Jones.
Jones was a high school All-American at Central High School before he went to Nebraska, where he rushed for 3,166 yards and 40 touchdowns and was an All-Big Eight pick in 1992-93.
Jones and Derek Brown formed the tandem called the “We-Backs,” a nod to the Cornhuskers’ I-back position, with Jones the backup to Brown in 1991. Jones’ breakout that season came when he ran 27 times for a Big Eight freshman-record 294 yards and a school-record six touchdowns in a 59-23 victory over Kansas. His rushing total against the Jayhawks ranks No. 2 on the Nebraska single-game rushing chart.
Jones declared for the NFL draft in 1994 and was a third-round selection of the Raiders. He appeared in 15 games over two seasons with the Raiders and had a total of 27 carries for 112 yards and two catches for 6 yards. He appeared in one game for the Packers in 1996 but had no carries.
