Sánchez solid but Domínguez's down season continues vs. Fish

PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies needed more than Trea Turner’s dad strength on Friday night.

A day after his son Tatum was born, Turner hit a solo home run in the first inning and walked, stole second and scored in the third, but the Phillies blew a two-run lead in the sixth and lost to the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park, 3-2. They hold a two-game lead over the Cubs for the No. 1 National League Wild Card with 22 games to play.

“I tend to not think about those things in the moment,” Turner said about homering in his first at-bat since his second son’s birth. “Rhys [Hoskins] was like, ‘You want that ball.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.’ So I made a little trade for it. A pretty cool moment, looking back at it now. But in the moment, I was just happy I put a good swing on the ball.”

• Games remaining: vs. MIA (2), vs. ATL (4), at STL (3), at ATL (3), vs. NYM (4), vs. PIT (3), at NYM (3)
• Standings update: The Phillies (77-63) hold a two-game lead over the Cubs (76-66) for the top NL Wild Card spot.

It could have been a cooler night for Turner and the Phillies, but everything went sideways in the sixth. Phillies manager Rob Thomson pulled left-hander Cristopher Sánchez after pitching five scoreless innings and retiring the last five batters he faced. Thomson said he wanted right-hander Seranthony Domínguez to face Jake Burger, who had doubled against Sánchez in the first.

“That’s Seranthony’s spot right there,” Thomson said. “It was a right-handed pocket, four in a row.”

Sánchez said he had no problem leaving the game after five innings, despite throwing only 82 pitches. But he also said he had more left in the tank.

“A lot more,” he said.

Domínguez allowed a one-out single to Bryan De La Cruz and a two-out, two-run home run on a hanging 2-2 slider to Jesús Sánchez to tie the game. Jacob Stallings hit a solo homer against Matt Strahm in the seventh to give Miami the lead.

Domínguez fell to 4-3 with a 3.92 ERA in 41 1/3 innings. He hasn’t dominated like he has in seasons past, which is a concern as the Phillies enter the final few weeks of the season. The Phils need his nastiness back. He had a 1.69 ERA in nine postseason appearances last fall, striking out 18 and walking one in 10 2/3 innings. He was invaluable.

But Domínguez entered Friday with a career-low strikeout rate (21.0 percent). It is a significant drop compared to his 29.9 percent career rate from 2018-22. Domínguez’s whiff rate also has dropped from 32.6 percent (89th percentile) in '22 to a more pedestrian 27.2 percent (60th percentile), while it's 24.2 percent from Aug. 1 through Wednesday. During that stretch, he allowed one run in 12 1/3 innings, striking out nine and walking six.

“I don’t know,” Domínguez said when asked why he isn’t missing as many bats this year. “I’ve got to keep pitching, keep trying to get ahead in the count. Sometimes they hit the ball well, you know?”

Thomson thinks Domínguez’s slider command has played a role, although Domínguez said he believes it has been better recently.

But Sánchez confirmed Thomson’s assessment when he discussed his home run against Domínguez.

“Literally they told me he has fastball/slider, those were the pitches that he has, so I went with the mentality of approaching the fastball,” Sánchez said through the Marlins’ interpreter. “He threw a [first-pitch] fastball outside, and then a [second-pitch] hanging slider. Missed that one, and then the next hanging slider I was waiting for fastball, but I was able to make contact.”

The Phillies still could have won. They left eight runners on base and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

If there was any good news Friday, it was that Turner was back and he did not look rusty.

“I wasn’t worried, but I’m glad my timing was still there a little bit,” he said. “I didn’t know if a couple days would affect me. I got in the cage. It was a little weird, but when you’re out there between the lines you just react and play.”