The Philadelphia Phillies have clinched a playoff spot four years in a row but have ultimately come up short and been eliminated in an earlier round each year.
They were hoping that trend would change this year as back-to-back division champions and entering the postseason much hotter than they were last season.
Unfortunately, they are off to a bad start after the Los Angeles Dodgers took game one of the NLDS. They were supposed to have an inferior bullpen, but it ended up being the Phillies’ relievers who faltered.
Dodgers starter Shohei Ohtani pitched six innings of magnificent baseball, with his only blemish being a three-run second inning.
On the other hand, Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez gave up two runs in just under seven innings, but relief pitchers David Robertson and Matt Strahm blew the game immediately after.
Philadelphia’s manager, Rob Thomson, put Robertson in with one out left in the sixth inning. Miraculously, he got out of it by throwing six pitches all out of the strike zone, only being saved by some poor plate discipline by Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy.
He would walk and hit a batter in the next inning without recording an out, which led to Strahm entering the game. He got two hard-earned outs before surrendering a stadium-silencing three-run home run to outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.
TEOSCAR HERNÁNDEZ!@DODGERS LEAD! #NLDS pic.twitter.com/XeygIPFj4t
— MLB (@MLB) October 5, 2025
The Phillies didn’t allow any more runs after that, but they also didn’t score, leaving Phillies fans furious with Thomson.
“This might be the worst managed game by Rob Thomson all year,” said one fan.
“Rob Thomson is an awful postseason manager,” said another.
“Yeah you can fire Rob Thomson [I don’t care.] He wanted to retire anyway. Do him a favor,” said one more angry fan.
When Thomson was first handed the job in the middle of the 2022 season, it felt like every button he pushed was the right one.
That all changed in the World Series that year, when he pulled Phillies ace Zack Wheeler from the game and the team immediately surrendered their lead.
There is still time left for Philadelphia to salvage the series, but they have given up home-field advantage in back-to-back seasons in what is supposed to be a stadium that is impossible to play in.
The fanbase will only become more livid if the Phillies aren’t able to turn this series around and go on a run to bring home the World Series trophy.
