Philadelphia Phillies reliever Seranthony Dominguez fell victim to a nightmare 7th inning during Game 5 of the NLCS on Sunday, and it was not completely his fault.
The Phillies and San Diego Padres played through rain in Sunday’s Game 5, and it became an increasing issue in the later innings. By the 7th, the field was wet, and Dominguez appeared to be having a hard time gripping the baseball.
Dominguez entered after Zack Wheeler allowed a leadoff single to Jake Cronenworth in the 7th with the Phillies nursing a 2-1 lead. At that point, manager Rob Thomson brought in Dominguez, who struggled. The pitcher was charged with three wild pitches in the inning, the first of which advanced Cronenworth to second. He scored the tying run on a double by Josh Bell. After that, Dominguez uncorked two more wild pitches which advanced pinch-runner Jose Azocar to third and then home to give San Diego the lead.
Dominguez can certainly be prone to wildness, but he had significantly improved there this year. He had just three wild pitches in 51 regular season innings, so he matched that total on Sunday alone. The weather certainly seemed to be a major factor in Dominguez’s issues, and one could certainly argue that the game should have been stopped due to the adverse conditions. That factor alone makes this a very different situation than the defensive issues the Padres had earlier in the series.
Dominguez had been having a dominant postseason, and entered Sunday having struck out 13 of the 22 batters he had faced in the playoffs. If the Padres end up winning the series, it’s unfortunate that his rough outing Sunday will be cited as a big reason why.
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