Sep 23, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies trainer Joe Rauch works on the hand of catcher J.T. Realmuto (10) after being injured during the ninth inning against the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
When it rains, it pours.
On Tuesday, that cliche could refer to the one hour and nine minute rain delay that halted play in the bottom of the ninth of the Phillies eventual 6-5 loss to the Miami Marlins in 11 innings.
After all, the game should have been over before the skies opened up, but the universe conspired against the Phillies and, well, nobody was getting home in time to either hate watch or stand and applaud Jimmy Kimmel in their living rooms.
Not only that, but a key piece of the Phillies puzzle suffered a scare in the top of the ninth.
Let's start there.
The Phillies were nursing a one-run lead in the ninth inning. The Jhoan Duran light show spectacular had just concluded and Duran struck out the first batter.
Two more outs and the Phillies would have locked up a playoff bye. Up to the plate stepped Miami designated hitter Heriberto Hernandez.
It's understandable if you never heard of him, but the 25-year-old rookie is having a solid season for the scrappy Marlins.
Hernandez fouled off the first pitch he saw from Duran and it nailed catcher J.T. Realmuto square on his right hand.
Realmuto immediately stood up and started to walk it off, but it was obvious this wasn't just a glancing blow. He was feeling it.
Duran walked in from the mound to check on him. Manager Rob Thomson rushed out of the dugout with trainer Joe Rauch. They spent a few minutes talking with Realmuto as Rauch felt around his index finger to see if he could feel a fracture of some sort.
Realmuto decided to try and stay in the game. He played catch with third baseman Alec Bohm for a moment. He took a couple of warm-up pitches from Duran.
Then the game continued.
And then Hernandez took Duran deep.
Heriberto Hernández hits a 101 MPH pitch out to tie things in the 9th for the @Marlins! pic.twitter.com/tilahsWvbx
It capped a three-run rally by the Marlins, who had no answers for Cristopher Sanchez in the game's first seven innings. Sanchez tossed seven scoreless innings allowing just three hits in his next-to-last tune-up for the playoffs.
But once Sanchez was out of the game, the Marlins awoke and feasted on the Phillies bullpen. A couple of sloppy plays and some bad pitches allowed the plucky Marlins to get back in the game.
And it also took Realmuto out of it.
In the bottom of the ninth, with the score knotted at 3-3, backup catcher Rafael Marchan pinch hit for Realmuto. He couldn't grip the bat comfortably, so the Phillies took him in for x-rays.
The good news is, the x-rays were negative. And the Phillies are calling the injury a right index finger contusion. They say Realmuto is day-to-day, but there's a real chance the Phillies don't use him again until Game 1 of the NLDS on Oct. 4.
Marchan did a nice job and led off the inning with a single, but two pitches into an at bat by Max Kepler, the skies opened, and the rain came.
And everyone at Citizens Bank Park sat around for one hour and nine minutes.
It also took Matt Strahm out of play. Strahm was warming before the rain delay. Once the rain happened, the Phillies couldn't warm him a second time more than an hour after he got hot.
That meant the next man up was Orion Kerkering, and boy has he been scuffling.
Nobody on the Phillies roster needs a playoff reset more than Kerkering.
He had the zombie runner (that's Tim's phraseology. I prefer ghost runner, but he's the site editor) on second to start the inning and proceeded to walk a hitter, before allowing a pair of runs to score on a Liam Hicks single and Jakob Marsee fielder's choice.
Rob Thomson said it comes down to execution for Orion Kerkering, who isn’t getting as much swing and miss as normal. pic.twitter.com/pDTrNPiAf1
"(There's) not a whole lot of swing and miss right now," Thomson said. "Execution is basically what it comes down to. The stuff's good. Probably execution of the slider is really where it's at."
Kerkering was once the most trusted reliever in the Phillies bullpen this season. He's fallen behind four others at this point.
He has allowed at least one run in four straight games. He has allowed at least one hit in six straight. And in his last 14 appearances, dating back to Aug. 19, he has a 7.36 ERA, having allowed 10 runs (nine earned), 14 hits (three homers) and eight walks in 11 innings.
It's becoming a concern.
And the list of concerns is getting a little long in the final week of the regular season:
"There's a little bit of sloppiness that we need to clean up and it's been the last couple of (games) so we have to clean it up and clean it up quick," Thomson said.
There's not a lot of time. The laundry list keeps growing longer and the Phillies are running out of time to rectify it before the games ramp up to a heightened level of importance and scrutiny.
Heck, you can add the uncertainty about Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suarez, and Edmundo Sosa's groin, and the outfield platooning to this list.
It's a lot to overcome, fix and get right in a little more than a week.
But this is what happens when the dark clouds are overhead. How the Phillies weather it the next 10 days will help write the final chapter of this season.
