PHILADELPHIA — Jhoan Duran held his red glove to his left ear.
He strained to hear the call from Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto in the ninth inning on Sunday night. It was loud at Citizens Bank Park. The Phils had a two-run lead with two outs. They had Riley Greene 2-2.
It could be the final pitch of the night.
Duran thought he heard “changeup” in his PitchCom receiver. He shook his head.
Realmuto switched to a fastball. Duran fired a 102.5 mph heater at the top of the zone. Greene swung and missed to end the game, giving the Phillies a 2-0 victory to win the series against the AL’s best team and move into first place in the NL East with a half-game lead over the Mets.
“Hey, what did you call that last pitch?” Duran asked Realmuto on the field.
“Curveball,” Realmuto said.
“Oh, I heard ‘changeup’ on the PitchCom,” Duran said.
“I hadn’t called any curveballs, so I wanted to see one,” Realmuto said. “It’s really loud out there. I think that’s why he didn’t hear it perfectly. But he thought he heard changeup, so that’s why he shook it.”
Duran threw four of the five fastest pitches by a Phillies pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) on Sunday:
“It feels normal for me,” Duran said. “I don’t think about it too much. I don’t think about how fast I’m throwing. It’s more like if I can control the fastball.”
Duran finished a perfect pitching night for the Phillies in a game that lasted 2 hours, 5 minutes. Cristopher Sánchez tossed eight scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk and striking out six.
He improved to 10-3 with a 2.40 ERA. He is third in the NL with 3.8 WAR, according to FanGraphs.
Sánchez threw only 84 pitches, so he could have pitched the ninth. A week ago, Phillies manager Rob Thomson might have been tempted to try it. But Sánchez threw a complete game two starts ago, and Thomson is cognizant of his pitchers’ health as October approaches.
But he also has Duran to pitch the ninth.
“That’s why we’ve got Duran,” Thomson said.
Sánchez dominated the Tigers. Even when he got in trouble, he seemed to be in control.
He allowed back-to-back singles to start the seventh. Greene grounded a sinker to second base — handled by Trea Turner — to put runners on second and third. The Phillies played the infield in. Andy Ibáñez grounded a slider to third baseman Edmundo Sosa, who threw over Jahmai Jones’ right shoulder to Realmuto for the second out.
“It was tough just because the runner did a really good job of getting up the line and blocking my view,” Realmuto said. “Sosa made a great throw because normally, he would want to throw that on the inside, but where the runner was, he couldn’t make a throw inside the line. So he threw to the other side, which briefly I got blocked out of the ball. But he put it in the perfect spot for me to make a play.”
Sánchez walked Dillon Dingler on five pitches, although a couple pitches could’ve been strikes.
No problem. Wenceel Pérez grounded a changeup to Turner, who threw to second to end the inning.
Sánchez, standing on the mound, turned to Turner and clapped politely.
It was just another big moment in another big day for Sánchez, whose continued success is pushing him more and more into NL Cy Young consideration.
“It’s just beautiful,” Sánchez said via the team’s interpreter, asked about pitching well in a nationally televised game. “It’s something special.”
Kyle Schwarber crushed a solo homer in the eighth onto Ashburn Alley, just left of the batter’s eye, to pick up an insurance run. It set up Duran’s highly anticipated entrance in the ninth.
Duran earned a four-pitch save against Detroit on Friday. He threw only splinkers (categorized as splitters).
He threw 12 pitches on Sunday: 10 fastballs and two splinkers.
It was fun. But next time, it might be different.
“I’m going to try to see a curveball eventually, but his fastball is just so good,” Realmuto said.
