Amid the most optimism and the highest expectations around them in years, the Flyers opened their regular season Wednesday night and were bad. More than just bad, actually. They were horribly bad. They were terribly bad. They were Plan 9 from Outer Space bad, left-the-milk-out-too-long bad, Andy Dalton-on-third-and-goal bad. They were the kind of bad that stops being surprising and interesting and starts being embarrassing and … just more embarrassing. They were so bad that the Xfinity Mobile Arena staff could have played the final scene from Seven on the videoboard and it would have lifted everyone’s spirits.
They lost 7-0 to the Pittsburgh Penguins — their fiercest rival, the team they knocked out of the playoffs last season — in a game so one-sided that it’s a wonder they allowed themselves to be introduced before the opening faceoff. If your effort is going to be that pitiful, just stay in the locker room to spare the sellout crowd the few seconds of getting their hopes up. The Mites on Ice could have booed them. Gritty should go into hiding. Lauren Hart should have told everyone she had laryngitis.
“You saw it,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “Obviously, I don’t have an answer. I don’t think we won a battle. They outcoached us tonight. They outplayed us. They did everything better than us tonight.”
Was this the worst loss in Flyers history? No, but you have to give the club credit for trying. There was defenseman Cam York, attempting a behind-the-back pass near the Pittsburgh blue line, turning the puck over, and creating an odd-man rush and scoring chance for the Penguins. There was Travis Konecny, streaking down the right wing, puck on his stick, clean shot there to be taken, throwing a tough cross-ice pass that Tyson Foerster couldn’t handle, as if Konecny’s postseason scoring bugaboo was still hounding him like a ghost. There were the team’s two most promising players, Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov, doing silly things — the former taking a cross-checking penalty that led to an Evgeni Malkin power-play goal and getting demoted from one of the team’s top two lines, the latter staying on the ice too long on too many shifts.
“We had a lot of snowblowers,” Tocchet said. “We have plays where we don’t go through people. … I don’t know if guys are reading their press clippings. I don’t know, but it wasn’t good.”
The Flyers did almost nothing right Wednesday, as they were outworked and outclassed by the rival Pittsburgh Penguins.Matt Slocum
It was just one game out of the 84 the Flyers will play this season, yes, but Lord, was it ugly. They were lackluster in their final exhibition game last week, losing 5-1 to the Washington Capitals, and both Tocchet and team captain Sean Couturier suggested that a pattern might be developing within a still-young, still-inexperienced team that failed to prepare properly for the regular season. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s training camp. We’ll ease our way into the season,’” Couturier said. “We’ve got to wake up here.”
That was the startling part — that the Flyers weren’t as juiced as their fans were, that they seemed to be skating through sludge, to be completely uninterested in building on the good feelings they had established last spring. Just six months ago, they charged into the postseason, beat the Penguins in six games, and left to a standing ovation despite getting swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes. On Wednesday night, they were outshot 38-19, generated no offense or cohesion on their three power plays, and so infrequently threatened to score that Penguins goaltender Artūrs Šilovs could have played Solitaire in his crease all night and barely bothered to look up.
In one memorable second-period sequence, defenseman Nick Seeler, with teammate Owen Tippett prone on the ice several feet in front of him, flicked a shot toward Šilovs anyway. The puck plunked Tippett in the head. It was only a matter of time, though, before someone topped it, and goalie Dan Vladař did late in the third period, when a shot by Nick Robertson sailed wide and caromed into the crease, where Vladař kicked it into the net for a short-handed goal.
“There’s no panic, nothing,” Couturier said. “But we’ve got to realize that what happened last year is last year.”
Look, if you want to chalk up what happened Wednesday night to the randomness of hockey and the strangeness inherent in pro sports, you certainly can. Again, there are 83 games left before everything really matters. But at the risk of reading too much into the end of the Flyers’ 2025-26 season and the beginning of their 2026-27 season, it’s worth noting that technically they have lost seven of their last eight games.
They have not played a strong full game in a long time, and they had their head coach sounding like a man without an explanation for a humiliating night. “Some plays we were making, they were disturbing plays,” Tocchet said. “We’ve got to figure this out quickly.” Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” The Flyers now have to prove they agree with the second part.
The Flyers managed just 19 shots on goal compared to the Penguins’ 38.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
ATLANTA — While it may be overly reductive to call baseball the most individual of the team sports, it sure can be the most isolating. That’s true with regard to the physical proximity between teammates on the field of play, and also to the psycho-emotional weight a player must bear when things go awry. In baseball, it is almost always clear where the blame lies.
There was a time in Alec Bohm’s career when he carried more of this baggage than could fit in the overhead bin. Andrew Painter accumulated enough of it in such a short period of time that the Phillies shipped him to the minors without a return ticket. Bryce Harper? He beat a different path to Truist Field and this best-of-three wild-card series. But there he was on Wednesday afternoon, in the seventh inning of a game the Phillies needed to win, making the lonely walk back from the warning track with the slow, confused strides of a man whose misplayed fly ball had just allowed the go-ahead run to score.
It was playoff baseball at its finest, not to mention its most hazardous to a fan’s cardiac health.
It was a showcase: of the razor-thin margins that will determine which of these two teams advances, and of the strengths that once again have the Phillies on the verge of an NLDS berth.
Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper couldn’t catch a ball off the bat of the Braves’ Drake Baldwin in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Mostly, though, Game 2 was a story. First, of failure. Then, of overcoming it.
Whether the story endures is a question that will be decided on Thursday in a decisive Game 3. The winner will move on to face the Dodgers in a best-of-five series. The loser will move on to face the haunting what-ifs of an early offseason.
“I expect them to come out [Thursday] and it to be a similar game,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “Like I said [Tuesday], this is usually what it looks like when these two teams play. So yeah, that’s what’ll happen [Thursday]. We’ll come out and we’ll be ready.”
But if momentum is real, and if adversity is a buoy, the Phillies have to like their chances, whatever the odds say.
“It’s in our DNA,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said. “We’re not going to quit.”
It was Schwarber who set the redemption arc in motion in the eighth. The Phillies were reeling from what had been a disaster of a seventh inning in the field. After leadoff hitter Sean Murphy drew a walk against a tiring Cristopher Sánchez, Bohm unwisely threw to second on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Ha-Seong Kim instead of taking the out at first.
Kyle Schwarber got the Phillies’ comeback started with a solo home run in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Then, two batters later, Harper misjudged a line drive off the bat of Drake Baldwin and could not secure the catch. The play plated Murphy with the go-ahead run and set up a sacrifice fly by Matt Olson that gave the Braves a 3-1 lead. The lead was brief.
Schwarber took care of the first run, belting a 3-2 pitch from Braves lefty Dylan Lee into the right-center field seats to cut the deficit to one run. That set the stage for Harper, who atoned for his fielding miscue by hitting a 1-1 slider from Lee over the wall in right-center. Bohm, too, would get his chance. First, he needed Painter to take advantage of his own.
Entering the series, interim manager Don Mattingly was murky about his plans for Painter, the one-time top prospect whose first stint in the majors lasted just 14 starts, 11 of them Phillies losses. The rookie had rebounded nicely from his midseason demotion, rediscovering his fastball and his confidence while posting a 3.65 ERA and averaging more than a strikeout per inning in 11 starts down the stretch. But Mattingly entered the postseason planning on using Painter out of the bullpen, something the righty had never previously done. When Schwarber and Harper tied the game at 3 in the top of the eighth, the kid’s time had come.
Six pitches into Painter’s outing, there was a runner on first and he had not thrown a strike. Things changed drastically after a meeting on the mound and a brief pep talk from catcher J.T. Realmuto. Michael Harris II took a called strike and then hit Painter’s 2-1 pitch directly to Bohm, who started and finished a 3-6-3 double play. Murphy then popped up the first pitch to Bohm to end the inning. From six pitches, no strikes, to three pitches, three outs.
After a scoreless ninth from Painter, Bohm gave him the only run he’d need to close out the game. With two out in the top of the 10th, the Phillies corner infielder and soon-to-be-free agent took a ball and then a strike and then drilled a 99 mph fastball from Didier Fuentes over the right-field wall.
“Everybody is fighting for every out, every at-bat,” Mattingly said. “It’s not going to stop.”
Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto celebrates with Andrew Painter after their 4-3 victory in 10 innings over the Braves in Game 2 on Wednesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
This was one of those wins that meant more than the final score, more even than a season prolonged for another day. It was a revelation. The Phillies entered this postseason riding a string of three straight playoffs series defined by failure. Nick Castellanos being thrown out on a sacrifice bunt. Orion Kerkering short-circuiting. The no-show against the Mets. Two straight home losses needing a win to reach the World Series. Once upon a time, this Phillies team had a mojo that forced you to believe, regardless of circumstance, that they would overcome.
In Game 2, they overcame, three individual triumphs stitched together into a collective in that peculiar baseball way. The old saw that says baseball is a game of failure is not entirely correct. It is a game of bouncing back from failure. More often than not, the last team standing is the team that bounces back the best.
ATLANTA — Bryce Harper crouched in right field, alone, his glove and hat resting on the grass and who knows what running through his brain.
Come to think of it, what was going on up there?
“I’ll tell you what,” Harper said later Wednesday, “I was thinking about Krew, my son — and what I would say to him in that situation.”
The situation: The go-ahead hit clanged off the top of Harper’s outstretched glove after he misjudged a fly ball in the seventh inning of an elimination game. And now here was Harper — Sports Illustrated cover boy at age 16, face of baseball at 19, perhaps bound to be the Phillies’ G.O.A.T. before he retires, left to process possibly being a goat.
“You make a play like that, and I’m hearing it out there, obviously,” Harper said. “But how quickly can I turn the page and just get past that moment, knowing that I’m still coming up to the plate to hit?”
Indeed, if we’ve learned anything across these last five postseasons, it’s that anything can happen as long as Harper has one more at-bat. And so, three pitches after Kyle Schwarber homered to draw the Phillies to within a run in the eighth inning, Harper blasted a slider into the right-field seats to tie the game.
They won, 4-3 over the rival Braves in Game 2 of the best-of-three wild-card series, and lived to see another day because Alec Bohm banged a 10th-inning homer and rookie Andrew Painter came out of the bullpen for three scoreless innings in his postseason debut.
But Harper was at the center of it all, as he always is, as he has been since he was a 10-year-old hired gun on the travel-ball circuit.
Bryce Harper tied Game 2 of the Phillies’ wildcard series with a solo homer in the eighth inning Wednesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
So, back to that scene in right field, two batters after Harper’s mistake, as the Phillies made the dreaded move of turning to their combusti-bullpen.
Harper thought about Cristopher Sánchez, whom he correctly said “was throwing the crap out of it” for 6⅔ innings. He thought about the 89-mph ball hit by the Braves’ Drake Baldwin — “I thought it was going to be a pop fly, just right at me,” he said — and the potential consequences of a 3-1 deficit against a tough Braves bullpen.
And then, after rookie Alex McFarlane recorded the last out of the inning, Harper made the long jog off the field. Interim manager Don Mattingly, who knows something about big-city baseball stardom, didn’t feel the need to check in with him.
“I never worry about Bryce,” Mattingly said. “He’s been through so much in his life, in his career. I never worry about him handling anything.”
That didn’t stop Sánchez, who slammed his glove in the dugout after coming out of the game but calmed down by the time Harper trudged off the field. The big lefty approached for an impromptu pep talk.
“I don’t really know [why]; it just came out,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “I waited for him on the bench, and I told him he was bound to have a great moment. And he had it.”
The Braves brought in lefty reliever Dylan Lee to face Schwarber and Harper. He didn’t allow a homer to a lefty all season. He faced Schwarber and Harper in the eighth inning of Game 1 and got both of them out.
Schwarber worked the count full before hitting a knee-high slider. Harper jumped on a low-and-in slider that wasn’t low enough.
“I wasn’t not trying to hit a homer,” Harper said. “I can tell you that.”
Bryce Harper misjudged a fly ball that went for a go-ahead double in the seventh inning of Game 2 of the Phillies’ wild-card series Wednesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The Phillies leaped out of the dugout. Sánchez, who was in the trainer’s room, said he “just slammed everything I had close to me.”
Harper’s reaction: Relief? Redemption?
“I think it’s a learning situation, not just for myself but for everybody else as well,” said Harper, 2-for-9 with two RBIs in the two games against the Braves. “Everybody is going to make mistakes at some point, but it’s how you come through in the next situation. It’s not that serious, to tell you the truth. I think people take it very seriously. And don’t get me wrong: I take it serious.
“But I think there’s a mindset, especially for kids nowadays, parents and coaches put so much on kids to have to come through and be great. But for me, it’s how can you learn from each situation that you’re in to come out great in the next one.”
The playoffs tend to bring out Harper’s reflective side. And there is surely a moral to the story of Harper’s Game 2 that goes beyond merely whether the Phillies kept alive their season.
But there are also stakes for Harper in the postseason. He’s nearing the end of his eighth season as the $330 million star of Phillies stars. He has five years left on his contract. He turns 34 in a little more than two weeks.
A work stoppage is looming in two months and may not end for a while. The biological baseball clocks of Harper, Schwarber, Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and the rest of the core of a $320 million roster is tick, tick, ticking.
And with each postseason that ends short of a parade down Broad Street, their legacies remain incomplete.
In addition to his game-tying home run in the eighth inning, Bryce Harper also hit an RBI single in the first.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“That’s the one thing on my mantle that’s not there,” Harper said the other day. “Right?”
Right. So, maybe that was going through his mind, too, as he pondered what would’ve been an unimaginable way for the season to end.
Instead, Harper recovered in the only way he knows. And now, the Phillies will have Nola on regular rest and Wheeler on three days’ rest for the decisive Game 3.
“Just a pick-me-up game for me, obviously,” Harper said. “My teammates picking me up in that situation, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Independence Blue Cross, Philadelphia’s largest Medicare Advantage insurer, agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that the company submitted inaccurate diagnoses for enrollees to increase payments, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said Wednesday.
The IBX settlement, like several others this year, centers on how private Medicare insurers evaluate the health of the individuals in their plans, a process known as risk adjustment. The government gives insurers more money for sicker patients.
“This matter was not about the quality of care our members received. It involved differing views regarding certain documentation and reporting requirements under the Medicare Advantage risk adjustment program,” Independence said in an email. The company did not admit wrongdoing.
Federal officials said that for five years ending in 2020, IBX used nurses to review patient records and look for additional medical conditions that could be submitted to regulators. That generated additional payments for the insurer under Medicare Advantage’s risk adjustment models.
According to the government, the chart reviewers also found diagnoses that were not supported by the patients’ records, but IBX failed to withdraw those diagnoses. Had the company done so, it would have had to return money to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Many major health plans have faced similar government scrutiny regarding Medicare Advantage risk adjustment requirements and practices, reflecting industry-wide challenges in the application of these standards,” Independence said in an email.
IBX’s settlement followed an agreement in May by Aetna, the Philadelphia region’s second-largest Medicare Advantage insurer, to pay $117.7 million for coding violations.
Nationally, two settlements this year topped half a billion dollars. Kaiser Permanente, a California-based insurance company with a large hospital business, agreed to a $556 million settlement in January, and Villages Health System LLC, a Florida provider group, settled for $541.5 million.
The whistleblower, a former IBX employee, will collect $3.8 million of the settlement amount. Government and company officials signed the settlement Sept. 11.
ATLANTA — As Don Mattingly settled into his seat on the golf cart to return to his clubhouse after he’d mismanaged his flawed roster into an eighth-inning collapse, Braves ace Chris Sale strode toward the interview room to discuss his role in the Braves’ 5-3 win in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series.
With his magnificent left hand, Sale doffed his cap and tipped it in Mattingly’s direction. Mattingly’s head was down, understandably. Sale, persistent, took his cap off and tipped it again. Mattingly nodded appreciatively.
After Mattingly’s performance Tuesday, that might be the last time the pair sees each other for a long, long time. Mattingly is the Phillies’ interim manager, and he wants to come back next season. A report last month said Mattingly would have to win the NL pennant to make that happen.
Mattingly used his best reliever, closer Jhoan Duran, in a situation overwhelmingly foreign to Duran. The decision smacked of the odd and desperate moves that cost Rob Thomson the manager’s job 28 games into this season. Mattingly was installed by Phillies president Dave Dombrowski last winter as Thomson’s bench coach to mitigate misjudgments like this. Mattingly was promoted to interim manager in April with the assumption that such misjudgments would not continue.
Yes.
Well.
Sale has pitched against teams Mattingly coached and managed. He respects Mattingly. So do I. Pretty much everybody associated with baseball respects Mattingly, both as a player and a manager. Sale one day will be in the Hall of Fame. It’s an injustice that Mattingly isn’t there already. He served as the face of the most important sports franchise in American history during some of its leanest years. From 1984-94, Mattingly was the soul of the New York Yankees. People have named their children after Donnie Baseball, including their daughters: no, not “Donna,” but, rather, “Mattingly” as a first name.
Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott (left) jogs off the field after the final out as the Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias (center) celebrates their win with Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin (right).Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Austin Riley celebrates his three-run homer in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after catching a line drive off the bat of Atlanta Braves Matt Olson in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott celebrates after he scores in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryan De La Cruz (right) celebrates with Bryson Stott after they both scored on J.T. Realmuto hit in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto knocks in two runs in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott singles in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Derek Hill reaches for a ball of the bat of Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alex McFarlane pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper strikes out in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber singles in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto strikes out to end the fifth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies second baseman Edmundo Sosa celebrates his fifth inning double.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo delivers a pitch against the Atlanta Braves in the fourth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo reacts to the third out in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Ha-Seong Kim tags Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner as he tries to steal second base in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (left) and Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto (center) talks as pitching coach Caleb Cotham makes a visit after the Phillies game up a run to the Atlanta Braves.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves starting pitcher Chris Sale pitches in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber and Derek Hill (right) celebrate after Schwarber scores on an Alec Bohm double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alec Bohm hits a RBI double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper (right) and Trea Turner greet each other before the start of game 1.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The Hit Man is a legend. That doesn’t mean he is infallible. He hit .307 in his 14-year career, but he also struck out 444 times. He struck out again Tuesday.
With a 3-2 lead, Mattingly asked Duran to pitch the seventh and eighth innings. Duran has pitched in the seventh inning just three times in the past four seasons, and zero times in 2026.
Mattingly asked Duran to get him six outs, which requires Duran to pitch, sit, and pitch — an up-down. Duran has done that once this year, on Aug. 29, against the Angels, the second-worst team in baseball. He did it on two days’ rest; he’d had just one day off before Tuesday. That also was 10 appearances ago.
With two outs, Michael Harris II nubbed an infield single. Duran then hit Ozzie Albies with a 3-2 pitch. Duran looked tired.
“After the infield single, that at-bat to Albies was a little uncharacteristic of him, just not being able to find the zone there and the curveball, being that wild with a 3-2 count,” said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “I thought maybe he looked a little tired.”
The first thing that goes when a pitcher is tired? Command.
First, the wild curveball.
Then, disaster.
Austin Riley came to bat. Realmuto set up outside. Duran missed by a foot-and-a-half.
Riley turned Duran’s pitch, a 99.9 mph fastball, into a 104.6 mph missile over the right-center field wall. That was Duran’s 25th pitch, the third-most he’s thrown this season and the most he’s thrown in 15 appearances.
AUSTIN RILEY GO-AHEAD THREE-RUN HOMER OFF JHOAN DURAN!
Mattingly has been dealt a bad hand from a stacked deck. He is plagued with a thin bullpen. He had to use No. 1 starter Zack Wheeler in Game 162 on Sunday because his hitters stunk down the stretch and couldn’t lock up a playoff spot. That meant using Jesús Luzardo on Tuesday, but Luzardo had just come off the injured list, and he was limited to 75 pitches or so: He gave them 77 in five innings of one-run ball.
Mattingly’s plan: Use Duran until his arm fell off.
It failed.
“We talked about it before the game … he’d go the seventh, eighth,” Mattingly said. The Braves’ best hitters were due up in that span, but Mattingly said that was his plan regardless of where the Braves were in the lineup … and, incredibly, beyond.
Mattingly said he would have used Duran for a third inning, too.
Things went south for Phillies closer Jhoan Duran in the eighth, his second inning of work on Tuesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“If the second [inning] went really quick, I would have just checked with him. If not, we would have went to somebody else,” Mattingly said.
He added that, in the ninth, Duran might have combined with another reliever, such as Jonathan Bowlan, who also just came off the IL.
What could Mattingly have done differently?
Mattingly could have left Luzardo in for another inning. Everyone, including Luzardo, was satisfied that, after 21 days off, he lasted five innings and had 77 bullets. But if Duran can be asked to throw three innings, Luzardo, in perhaps his last start of the season, with a garbage bullpen behind him, could have pitched into the sixth.
Mattingly could either have stitched together a seventh inning with rookie Alex McFarlane, who’d already pitched the sixth, and Bowlan, or just given Bowlan the seventh. He was, most likely, going to pitch in the ninth, anyway. He could have leaned on José Alvarado, who is inconsistent but has good numbers against Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson, two batters he would have likely faced.
This might seem like unfair second-guessing, but, well, that’s baseball, and the beauty of the game: Its deliberate nature fosters hindsights.
At any rate, Mattingly won’t face the same backlash that Thomson faced in his four years in the crosshairs and his legacy of woulda-couldas.
It began with lifting Wheeler for Alvarado in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series. It continued with Craig Kimbrel’s bullpen usage in the 2023 NLCS. It mushroomed when Thomson used 40-year-old reliever David Robertson in multiple innings in Game 1 of the 2025 NLDS, a role Robertson had not filled all year, then asked Bryson Stott to bunt over Nick Castellanos in Game 2 the next night.
Jesús Luzardo threw 77 pitches in his five innings, allowing one run.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
So, thanks in part to Thomson’s litany of miscues, but thanks much more to Dombrowski’s failure to bolster the bullpen, Mattingly’s mistakes Tuesday won’t resonate as much.
That won’t make the ice on which Mattingly is skating any thicker.
In April, the day before he fired Thomson, Dombrowski offered the manager’s job to fired Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who declined … for the moment. Mattingly was Dombrowski’s second choice. Dombrowksi has said he would not consider Mattingly as manager for next season until after this one ends.
On Tuesday, Cora got one step closer to wearing Phillies pinstripes.
ATLANTA — Jhoan Duran left the bullpen after the final note of “God Bless America.” It was only the seventh-inning stretch, two innings sooner than the star closer typically goes to work.
Yet nobody was surprised.
Because if the Phillies have a postseason pitching plan, it is to use the fewest pitchers possible to get 27 outs in a game. All hands on deck? Try six arms, maybe seven, even though there are a dozen on the roster.
So, Jesús Luzardo pushed his recently inflamed left shoulder for 77 pitches against the Braves here Tuesday in his first start in 22 days. Fifteen outs down in Game 1 of the best-of-three wild-card series.
And once the Phillies took a one-run lead in the top of the seventh inning, with the top of the Braves’ order coming up, interim manager Don Mattingly called on Duran to get as many of the last nine outs as he could.
There wasn’t much choice.
It ended the way it always seems to end for the Phillies in Game 1s. For the third consecutive postseason, the bullpen coughed up a late lead. This time, Duran threw a clean, 12-pitch seventh and got two outs in the eighth. Then, an infield single, a hit batter, and …
Phillies closer Jhoan Duran pitched more than one inning only once during the season.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“There’s no secret that we’ve had our share of blown leads, not just Game 1 but throughout the postseason,” said J.T. Realmuto, whose two-run triple into the right-field corner put the Phillies ahead 3-2 in the top of the seventh. “Sixth, seventh, eighth inning, it’s something we have to get better at. And we have the guys in here to do it.”
Well, that’s the thing. The Phillies had deeper, better bullpens the last two years. Rob Thomson didn’t use Duran in the seventh inning last year because he had Strahm and David Robertson. In 2024, Hoffman and Strahm were All-Stars.
This year, the bridge to Duran buckled when $22 million setup man Brad Keller tore an elbow ligament in July. Dave Dombrowski, a future Hall of Fame executive with a blind spot for building past bullpens (ask fans in Detroit) didn’t suitably reinforce it at the trade deadline.
And it collapsed almost entirely in the last few weeks due to ineffectiveness (José Alvarado and Orion Kerkering) and injury (Jonathan Bowlan).
Before the game, Mattingly and pitching coach Caleb Cotham agreed to script the pitching accordingly. If they could get to the seventh inning with a lead, they would go to Duran early.
Duran said he was aware of the plan. For weeks, the Phillies have discussed using him for more than three outs in the postseason.
“I feel like stuff like that happens in the postseason all the time,” Trea Turner said. “I was more wondering how long he was going to go.”
Turner has seen this before, notably with the Nationals in 2019. They won a wild card despite a bullpen that had a 5.66 ERA in the regular season. In the playoffs, they leaned primarily on two relievers and used starters Patrick Corbin, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Anibal Sanchez out of the bullpen on side days.
And they won the World Series.
Phillies shortstop Trea Turner played for the 2019 Nationals, who won the World Series despite a poor bullpen.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“We had very few [relievers],” Turner recalled. “Our two main guys were [Sean] Doolittle and [Daniel] Hudson, and we kind of pieced together after that. Corbin picked us up a lot. … You’ve just got to find a way.
“I mean, it’s frustrating. But it’s not over.”
It’s not. But since the creation of the best-of-three miniseries in 2022, the Game 1 winner has won 15 of 16 series. Only the Yankees lived to tell about a series-opening loss, and they were playing at home.
The Phillies will pin their hopes to Cristopher Sánchez, and he did win 18 games with a 2.91 ERA. They went 23-10 in his starts, albeit only 8-6 on the road and 0-2 against the Braves.
But unless Sánchez throws a complete game, Mattingly will face the conundrum of how to get the last three, six, or more outs from less than a handful of trustworthy options.
Zack Wheeler would be on two days’ rest after throwing 97 pitches Sunday in the must-win regular-season finale. Aaron Nola would be on three days’ rest after starting on two days’ rest Saturday night. And the Phillies probably need to hold him back to start a potential Game 3 here Thursday.
Duran threw 27 pitches, his highest total since Aug. 16. Could he pitch again Wednesday in Game 2?
“Maybe yes, maybe not,” he said. “I don’t know. I need to do my catch play first.”
Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly has few relievers he can trust.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Rookie righty Alex McFarlane will be available after only 16 pitches in the sixth inning. But he gave up the go-ahead run on a hard single by Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies’ triple off over center fielder Derek Hill’s outstretched glove at the wall in right-center field.
Mattingly suggested that Bowlan was an option in the ninth inning if Duran had gotten through the eighth. Rookie starter Andrew Painter will sit in the bullpen again, and could easily get a phone call even though he hasn’t pitched in relief.
Consider what Mattingly said before Game 1: “I think you look at it and, is he one of our better guys? That’s just what I’m looking at. And he’s one of our better guys. … It’s hard to go to somebody else that, I don’t want to use names, but somebody else over him that’s not the same caliber.”
With a one-run lead in the seventh inning of another Game 1, Mattingly didn’t have anyone as good as Duran.
ATLANTA — The only thing dead in the Phillies dugout was the stare from the guy who is now their brightest hope. All around him, Cristopher Sánchez’s stunned Phillies teammates gathered their belongings and shuffled toward the clubhouse tunnel in the wake of a come-from-behind 5-3 win by the Braves. But Sánchez remained, his eyes locked on the pitching rubber at Truist Park.
“Just looking out at the mound,” Phillies designated Kyle Schwarber said later, a gleam in his eye.
The Phillies competitive advantage in this best-of-three wild-card Series was always going to be Game 2. That was true before they nearly stole Game 1 with a two-run go-ahead triple by J.T. Realmuto off Didier Fuentes in the seventh inning. It remains true now, even after Austin Riley stole the game back with a three-run home run off Jhoan Duran in the eighth.
Win Game 2 with your ace on the mound. Find a way in Game 3. That was the most likely formula heading into the series. It is the only formula now.
“We knew we had to win two out of three, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Realmuto said. “Losing Game 1 isn’t going to deter us at all.”
The history is daunting, sure. Since MLB expanded its playoff format to include the best-of-three wild-card series, the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the series 21 out of 24 times.
Yet few of those teams had a pitcher like Sánchez starting Game 2. The veteran lefty enters the postseason fresh off a second straight Cy Young-caliber season, with a 2.91 ERA in 207 innings and a career-best strikeout rate of 10.0 batters per nine innings. Sánchez has faced the Braves twice this season, holding them to three runs in 12 innings with 13 strikeouts and four walks. Over the last two seasons, he has posted a 2.19 ERA in four starts against Atlanta.
That Sánchez has never faced Atlanta in the postseason is a testament to his meteoric rise over the last few seasons. In 2022 and 2023, when the Phillies twice knocked off the Braves in the National League Division Series, Sánchez pitched a total of 2⅓ postseason innings, all of them in the 2023 NL Championship Series against the Diamondbacks. By last October, he had become their ace, holding the Dodgers to three runs in 12 innings with 13 strikeouts and three walks in the Phillies’ four-game NLDS loss.
This year, there is nobody they’d rather have on the mound.
Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott (left) jogs off the field after the final out as the Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias (center) celebrates their win with Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin (right).Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Austin Riley celebrates his three-run homer in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after catching a line drive off the bat of Atlanta Braves Matt Olson in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott celebrates after he scores in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryan De La Cruz (right) celebrates with Bryson Stott after they both scored on J.T. Realmuto hit in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto knocks in two runs in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott singles in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Derek Hill reaches for a ball of the bat of Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alex McFarlane pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper strikes out in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber singles in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto strikes out to end the fifth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies second baseman Edmundo Sosa celebrates his fifth inning double.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo delivers a pitch against the Atlanta Braves in the fourth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo reacts to the third out in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Ha-Seong Kim tags Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner as he tries to steal second base in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (left) and Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto (center) talks as pitching coach Caleb Cotham makes a visit after the Phillies game up a run to the Atlanta Braves.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves starting pitcher Chris Sale pitches in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber and Derek Hill (right) celebrate after Schwarber scores on an Alec Bohm double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alec Bohm hits a RBI double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper (right) and Trea Turner greet each other before the start of game 1.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“The playoffs are momentum-based it seems like, and really momentum starts with your starting pitcher,” interim manager Don Mattingly. “It’s just a game at that point.”
Clearly, Game 1 was an opportunity squandered. It could very well prove decisive, especially if Duran’s 27-pitch workload in the seventh and eighth innings impacts his availability or effectiveness moving forward. Both Mattingly and Duran said afterward that they would wait and see about his availability for Game 2. Therein lies the most valid criticism of the manager’s strategy in Game 1. If you are going to risk Duran being unavailable behind Sánchez in Game 2, you’d better make sure you win Game 1.
They could have. That was surely Mattingly’s mindset, even if it would have left him still needing some other pitcher to save the game in the ninth.
The Braves had their guy on the mound, having won five of Chris Sale’s last six starts against the Phillies, all primarily because of him. The Phillies were forced to start Jesús Luzardo rather than Zack Wheeler, who would have been on the mound had they clinched a playoff berth sooner than Game 162. They nearly transcended those circumstances.
Luzardo was magnificent, facing the top of the Braves’ order three times and throwing 77 pitches in five innings despite entering the game having thrown just four pitches since returning from a 20-day stint on the injured list. The Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Alec Bohm. Luzardo gave up a leadoff double to Mauricio Dubón in the bottom of the second, which eventually led to a game-tying run. It was the only run Luzardo allowed.
While the Braves briefly retook the lead on an Ozzie Albies triple off rookie setup man Alex MacFarlane in the sixth, the Phillies answered loudly with Realmuto’s two-run triple to the right field corner in the seventh.
Jesús Luzardo delivered five innings for the Phillies on Tuesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
It sure felt like we’d seen this sort of thing before. For eight innings, all of it was there. The demon lurking in the corners of their minds, memories of postseasons past. Three losses in four games in 2022. Three losses in four games in 2023. Orlando Arcia poking the bear. Realmuto racing around the bases for an inside the park home run in 2022. This was the postseason and it was the Phillies and it was the Braves and thus, all of it felt as if it’d already been written.
And then it didn’t. One swing of the bat was all that it took. It came in a manner that, from the other dugout, felt like an exorcism. Two on, two out, one-run lead, Duran on the mound, the Phillies four outs away from stealing a Game 1 win on Tuesday in which everything seemed to be going right.
“You know, everyone walks away from that game and everyone says what if,” Schwarber said. “The what ifs go away when you leave here. Everyone’s focused on the task at hand tomorrow.”
Temple University Health System saw a $22.7 million operating profit in the year that ended June 30, up slightly from $21.9 million in fiscal 2025, the North Philadelphia nonprofit told bondholders this week.
The result showed solid business operations while the system was “navigating intense professional liability and inflationary headwinds in a competitive Philadelphia healthcare market,” Temple said in an email to The Inquirer commenting on the results.
Here are more details:
Revenue: Temple’s total revenue rose nearly 10%, to $3.62 billion in fiscal 2026 from $3.29 billion the year before. Outpatient surgeries and cancer services were among the significant contributors to revenue growth from patient care, Temple said in its notice to bondholders.
Expenses: Insurance expenses climbed $19.3 million because of “higher professional liability costs related to inflationary legal expenses and the accelerated settlement of claims to mitigate rising awards by local courts,” Temple said.
Notable: Temple reported a 12% decline in cardiology procedures in fiscal 2026, to 4,654 from 5,274 the year before, because an unspecified number of physicians left. “As of late summer, 100% of these cardiology positions have been successfully filled,” Temple said.
The island of St. Thomas and the city of Cornelia, Ga., seem different in almost every conceivable way. One is surrounded by the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea; the other, tucked into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
One has yearlong heat and humidity; the other has four seasons. But the two communities, roughly 1,600 miles apart, share an unlikely similarity. Both played a role in Alex McFarlane’s journey to the Phillies.
McFarlane was born and raised on the eastern side of St. Thomas. It was hardly a baseball hotbed; only 16 of the sport’s 23,804 big leaguers have come from the Virgin Islands. Nevertheless, word of his athleticism — and arm — spread quickly.
There were early signs. As a boy, the future Phillies reliever would spend his days with a milk carton full of tennis balls, fooling around with different grips, and throwing them against the side of his garage.
His mother, Tami Noel, had to get the siding replaced because of the dents imprinted by her hard-throwing son. “He beat the crap out of it,” said McFarlane’s former math teacher, Liz Elger.
In the seventh grade, during a dodge ball game, McFarlane accidentally beaned a classmate in the head. Of course, he was not the only culprit. Plenty of other middle schoolers were slinging red projectiles across the gym.
Phillies rookie reliever Alex McFarlane had a 2.84 ERA in 19 games during the regular season.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
But none were slinging with the force McFarlane was. And the kid who got hit looked “dazed,” according to Elger’s husband, Joey, who taught the future big leaguer P.E. and history.
“It wasn’t like a concussion,” he said, “but we had to go to softer balls.”
When he was 15, one of McFarlane’s coaches in St. Thomas connected him with Team Elite, a travel team out of Georgia. Up until that point, he’d only played recreational baseball; high school baseball didn’t exist at his academy.
Team Elite provided plenty of exposure (he committed to the University of Miami his junior year) but also had its limitations. McFarlane couldn’t experience the ups and downs of a full season. Their program was more about development and garnering scouts’ attention than winning a championship.
High school baseball was where most players learned this side of the game. But it was never an option for McFarlane, until tragedy struck his hometown. In September of 2017, two Category 5 storms, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, hit the Caribbean.
St. Thomas was destroyed. It took over 100 days to fully restore power. The island was crowded with trucks, helicopters and military equipment. The already-limited athletic facilities were being used as staging grounds for FEMA.
Liz Elger moved back to her hometown of Cornelia, Ga., with her young daughters, while her husband helped with relief efforts. McFarlane stayed with his family, making sure they were settled.
Video: Phillies celebrate clinching a fifth-consecutive postseason berth
In 2018, the pitcher decided to take a risk. He was about to embark on his senior year, but would have little access to baseball or physical training on the island, due to disaster recovery efforts.
So, his mom reached out to the Elgers and asked if her son could stay with them. McFarlane moved to northeast Georgia that fall, living with Atlanta Braves fans, while playing for Habersham Central High School.
And this week, McFarlane, a 25-year-old rookie who has emerged as a trusted reliever for the Phillies, will face their favorite team in the National League wild-card series, 80 miles south of the mountain town he once called home.
“A huge credit to them for taking me in, and helping me out,” McFarlane said. “It’s something that I’m forever grateful for.”
Alex McFarlane and the Elger family in the summer of 2025.Liz Elger
A ballplayer who could do it all
The Elgers have worked as international educators for the past 16 years. They’ve taught everywhere from Saipan to Lithuania to Tanzania, where they’re based now.
But before they traversed the globe, Liz and Joey were two Habersham students who loved the Braves. This was especially true for Joey, a bat boy for the team in the 1980s.
He was a baseball broadcaster for Stanford throughout college, and an intern at the Baseball Hall of Fame after graduating, but eventually returned to Habersham with Liz in 2005 to accept their first teaching jobs.
When the couple moved to St. Thomas in 2012 to work at the VI Montessori School & Peter Gruber International Academy, they found a community that was just as tight-knit as Cornelia.
The school’s principal called it a “three-legged stool.” Because the academy was small, with only 400 students from pre-K to 12th grade, it had a strong sense of cohesion. Parents and teachers would often see each other socially.
This is how the couple got to know Noel, a small-business owner on the island.
McFarlane was not the first St. Thomas athlete the Elgers took in. In 2017, Liz was contacted by the mother of two aspiring soccer players, Quinn and Grant Farrell, who asked if they could stay with her in Georgia.
Grant spent his senior year playing for Habersham, and soon secured an athletic scholarship at Division II Emmanuel University, in nearby Franklin Springs, Ga. The high school’s baseball coach, Chris Akridge, took notice.
Alex McFarlane with his high school baseball coach at Habersham Central, Chris Akridge, in Atlanta earlier this month.Chris Akridge
“Chris was kind of teasing us,” Joey said. “‘Do you know any baseball players?’”
As it turns out, they did. By the fall of 2018, McFarlane was at Habersham’s workouts. To Akridge, the timing was almost too good to be true.
The Raiders had only secured one playoff berth in their last 50 years. They’d recorded only one winning season in their last six. All of a sudden, Habersham had a player who could do it all: hit leadoff, roam center field, and start every seven days.
McFarlane led his team in all offensive categories, batting .480 with a .570 on-base percentage, and a 1.270 OPS. He led (or tied) his team in all pitching categories as well, posting a 1.80 ERA with 68 strikeouts and a 1.074 WHIP across 10 starts.
Even as a teenager, he emanated the toughness he’d later show as a Phillie. Akridge remembers one outing, against Appalachee High School, when McFarlane gave up a cheap home run to an eight-hole hitter in the third.
At first, he looked rattled. Then he settled in, and threw a complete game in a comeback victory. The next day, McFarlane approached his coach at school.
“He said, ‘You know, coach, that was awesome,’” Akridge recalled. “‘I’ve never experienced anything like that.’”
Joey and Liz and their daughters, Grady and Niall, attended every game, often FaceTiming Noel so she could see her son pitch. They quickly realized that they were not alone.
Joey Elger grew up a big Braves fan, and even served as a bat boy for the team in the 1980s.Joey Elger
When McFarlane took the mound, scouts flocked to Habersham; usually 20 to 25 of them, leaning against the fence and crowding the stands. They began to visit the Elgers’ home, talking to the prospect at their living room table.
Because Noel was back in St. Thomas, Joey and Liz supervised these visits. This led to some interesting encounters. One afternoon, former Braves infielder Keith Lockhart showed up to their door.
He was scouting for the Chicago Cubs. Liz asked the former big leaguer if he wanted any water, and went to the kitchen to grab a cup. The one she chose happened to be a giveaway from the 2001 NLDS, when Lockhart was on the Braves’ roster.
“It was a plastic cup, and he was on there,” she said, laughing. “It was a picture of their celebration after they won.”
Scouts would often ask McFarlane who his favorite player was growing up. The young pitcher didn’t hesitate, and as a Braves fan, Joey never forgot his answer.
“Chris Sale,” he recalled. “And I remember him mentioning his approach as much as anything. He said that he just had such an even keel out there. Watching him, he never felt like he was out of control.”
Grady Elger (left), Alex McFarlane, and Niall Elger at a Jersey Shore BlueClaws game in 2025.Liz Elger
From Braves fans to Phillies fans
After McFarlane graduated from Habersham in 2019, and attended Miami, the Elgers moved to Lithuania for another teaching assignment.
They still managed to keep track of their favorite pitcher though, sending texts after his outings, and catching the occasional minor league game whenever they were back in the United States.
In the summer of 2025, they drove 10 hours from Georgia to Aberdeen, Md., to watch McFarlane pitch for single-A Jersey Shore. His game was rained out, so they found a Caribbean restaurant nearby and reminisced over dinner.
The family stayed for his game the following night, before flying to Tanzania, where they now live. They have become somewhat accustomed to seeing McFarlane in a baseball uniform, but what he’s done for the Phillies has been surreal to them.
And the Elgers have seen real growth in his demeanor. Joey pointed to the home run McFarlane gave up to the Braves’ Ronald Acuña on Sept. 6 as an example.
“When he started pitching in the Phillies organization, we noticed that the stuff that had just happened [in the game] was gone,” Elger said. “And he really was able to reset himself. I think probably three or four years before, if that Acuña home run had happened, we would have tensed up, ourselves.”
Rookie Alex McFarlane has quickly emerged as a crucial part of the Phillies’ bullpen.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Now, not so much. McFarlane had one of his best outings of the season just over a week later, when he struck out the Mets’ Juan Soto on three fastballs. Elger woke up in East Africa to a slew of text messages from family and friends.
He had to watch the video twice to believe it. So did Akridge, who sent the clip to his entire coaching staff.
“It’s crazy that seven years later, here he is, blowing the ball by Juan Soto,” Akridge said. “It’s amazing.”
The Elger and the Akridge families will be following closely on Tuesday night, from opposite corners of the world, as McFarlane goes up against their favorite team (and his favorite pitcher).
But they won’t waver in their support. Even if it comes at the expense of the Braves.
“We will be rooting for the Phillies with all of our hearts,” Liz said.
Jalen Hurts started slow, rebounded after an odd series of events took him out of the game, and then folded under the weight of an overall terrible performance by the Eagles. Hurts held the ball too long once he was forced to drop to pass in the second half. After two strong outings to open the season, he took a step back.
Hurts was nearly picked off by former Eagle T.J. Edwards on a third-down pass to returning former Eagle Zach Ertz to open the second half. But Edwards made sure to hang on the next time the ball came his way, intercepting Hurts on a late third-quarter fourth down when the quarterback only had eyes for DeVonta Smith.
He had to leave the game for a potential concussion after Bears linebacker D’Marco Jackson nailed him out of bounds in the second quarter. While Hurts was getting checked out in the medical tent, his replacement Andy Dalton tossed an interception in the end zone.
Like the entire Eagles team, Hurts had a rough start. He committed an intentional grounding penalty on the first series and threw short of an open Saquon Barkley, who had all kinds of green in front of him, on the second series. But he bounced back, especially after the cautionary trip to the medical tent. Hurts wisely snuck in for a touchdown with the clock winding down to 1 second just before the break.
Running back: D+
Saquon Barkley had all kinds of space and lanes to burst through on outside zone runs in the first half. He was decisive and rushed for 73 yards on 11 carries. He spun out of a would-be tackle on a 7-yard rush to open the second half, but Barkley was stifled the rest of the way and finished with 82 yards on 15 carries.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley got off to a good start before the Birds abandoned the run due to the score in the second half.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Tank Bigsby fumbled after a short catch in the first quarter, but the Bears failed to convert good field position into points. Will Shipley was often on the field on third downs and caught an 11-yard pass out of the backfield.
Receiver / Tight end: D+
It’s hard to blame this group for the loss, but they didn’t do enough to offset the mistakes of others. Receiver DeVonta Smith led the Eagles with six catches for 65 yards. He made a breathtaking 30-yard grab over Bears corner Jaylon Johnson in the second quarter. He had a 13-yard catch on third down in the second quarter, and he drew a 21-yard pass interference penalty on the next play.
Makai Lemon caught a 19-yard pass at the second level on a crossing route to open the game and finished with three grabs for 29 yards. Dontayvion Wicks pulled in just 2 of 5 passes for 32 yards. He had a 19-yard reception in the third quarter.
With tight end Dallas Goedert out with an MCL knee injury for at least the next two weeks, the Eagles brought back Zach Ertz. He was activated off the practice squad despite having just a week of practice and being less than seven months removed from knee surgery.
Ertz was occasionally the receiving tight end in 11 personnel. His first catch back in midnight green went for nine yards just before the half. Ertz missed a block on a bubble screen to Lemon.
Blocking tight end Johnny Mundt led the way on a Barkley 8-yard run in the second quarter. Elijah Moore dressed for his first game as an Eagle with Hollywood Brown out with an ankle injury. He was the motion man on several plays.
Offensive line: D
The first-half run game will have to be a silver lining. The Eagles finally got the ground game going after two miserable performances. But they struggled to counter the Bears’ second-half adjustments. The pass protection was often sound for Hurts, as it was on Hurts’ 19-yard pass to Wicks. But the offense was often out of whack in the second half.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and Chicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum embrace at the end of the game at Soldier Field on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Chicago, Ill. Chicago won 27-7.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt and Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jonathan Greenard leave after the Chicago Bears game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Soldier Field.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts lies on the ground after getting sacked during the fourth quarter of the Chicago Bears game.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts watches the last two minutes of the game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Chicago won 27-7.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts gets up after getting sacked in the fourth quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts throws long on fourth down in the fourth quarter, pass incomplete at Soldier Field on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Chicago, Ill.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon makes a reception in the fourth quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles fan reacts after a penalty is called in the fourth quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni in the fourth quarter. Chicago won 27-7.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts throws the ball to Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon in the fourth quarter.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles linebacker Jonathan Greenard tackles Chicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum in the fourth quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum almost loses possession of the ball in the fourth quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell tackles Chicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum in the fourth quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards after intercepting a pass in the third quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts after throwing a third-quarter interception.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears wide receiver Kalif Raymond celebrates a touchdown during the third quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards celebrates an interception in the third quarter.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith is wrapped up by Chicago Bears safety Elijah Hicks in the third quarter.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles fans in the third quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell and Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Zack Baun tackle Chicago Bears tight end Colston Loveland in the third quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon was tackled by Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson in the third quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts throws the ball to Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt goes after Chicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum in the third quarter.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears fan reacts to the last-minute “tush push” score by Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts looks up after scoring on the tush push with one second left to go.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears safety Dillon Thieneman celebrates an interception in the second quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell stops Chicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift in the second quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz is defended by Chicago Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson in the second quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley runs by Chicago Bears safety Dillon Thieneman in the second quarter, just short of a touchdown.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell breaks up a pass intended for Chicago Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III in the second quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift gets stopped by Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter (left) and Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (right) in the second quarter.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerIncomplete pass to Chicago Bears wide receiver Rome Odunze in the second quarter, defended by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III scores as the Philadelphia Eagles defense tries to stop him during the first quarter.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell forces Chicago Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III out of bounds in the first quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears wide receiver Luther Burden III celebrates a touchdown during the first quarter.Monica Herndon / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift runs with the ball against Philadelphia Eagles safety Marcus Epps in the first quarter.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerChicago Bears quarterback Case Keenum hands off to Chicago Bears running back D’Andre Swift in the first quarter.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Drew Kendall had some nice run blocks in his second start at center. He had a key block on Bears veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett on Barkley’s 12-yard outside zone run. Kendall did well to climb to the second level on Barkley’s 7-yard tote in the second quarter. But he had a few breakdowns, as well. Cam Jurgens looked stronger in his second career start at left guard. It helps to not have to face Jeffery Simmons. But he had errors, too, and gave up a pressure late in the second quarter.
Tackles Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata were once again the best of the unit. But when Hurts was forced to drop on almost every play as the Eagles trailed, it became too difficult to hold up. On a Barkley 17-yard rush off the right in the second quarter, Johnson had a kick-out block.
Right guard Tyler Steen had a key block on Barkley’s 17-yarder, but a holding penalty brought back a Barkley 19-yard scoot in the first quarter. Markel Bell was the sixth O-lineman on a run play that resulted in a loss.
Defensive line: D
The big storyline coming in was how the Eagles would stop a run attack that stomped all over them a year ago. They did, for the most part, as Bears running backs D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai were held to under a combined 100 yards until late in the fourth quarter. Instead, they got torched through the air by no other than Case Keenum, who hadn’t started at quarterback in nearly three years.
It wasnt a good night for Eagles defensive tackles Jalen Carter (left) and Moro Ojomo.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The D-line was solid in run defense, but they failed to get to Keenum enough and didn’t notch a sack. Jalen Carter has yet to show he’s a $152 million defensive tackle. He has a wrist injury, but he’s seemingly always banged up. Carter’s run tackle for loss in the second quarter helped keep the Bears from converting a turnover into points.
Jordan Davis didn’t record his first run tackle until the second half. Moro Ojomo had a couple pressures, but his neutral zone infraction on fourth down in the fourth quarter was an egregious mistake. Byron Young made a run stop for no gain on the Bears’ first possession.
Jonathan Greenard was active for his first game with the Eagles. He was on a pitch count after missing the first two weeks with a pectoral injury. Greenard still made his presence felt with some pressure off the edge. Jalyx Hunt is still without a sack this season. He’s played well, but can’t seem to finish. Hunt appeared to be out of his run gap on a third-down conversion in the fourth quarter. Nolan Smith Jr. was just as quiet as a pass rusher. Greenard’s presence meant that A.J. Epenesa was inactive for the first time this season.
Linebacker: D
The Eagles just didn’t do enough at the second level. Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell led the Eagles in tackles, but they were often just cleaning up messes or missed tackles. Baun was victimized on a fourth-and-1 play-fake on the Bears’ first drive. He could have done more to bring down Luther Burden on his 8-yard catch when he kept his legs churning and muscled into the end zone later on the possession.
Campbell finished with a joint-team high nine tackles, but he struggled at times to get off blocks. The Eagles had little choice but to let Nakobe Dean walk, but his replacement has been a downgrade so far this season.
Cornerback: D+
Quinyon Mitchell might have been the only Eagles defender who came to play. He deflected a fourth-down pass near the goal line in the second quarter. He later made a tackle for loss on a run play that was strung out. Mitchell broke up a third-down pass in the third quarter.
Riq Woolen had a great first two games, but he can get handsy and it cost him this week. He committed holding and illegal contact penalties in the first half. The second flag, which came on third down, was a little nitpicky. Woolen blitzed several times off the edge in the first half, but Keenum was able to take advantage with one less cornerback in coverage.
Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell was the one defender who could hold his head up high after Monday’s loss.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Cooper DeJean did well not to bite on a fake reverse end around and made a tackle after a short gain in the first quarter. DeJean snuffed out a screen pass for no gain in the second quarter. He appeared to have busted his coverage when Kalif Raymond was wide open over the middle and ran for a 41-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
DeJean bounced back and broke up back-to-back passes on the next series.
Safety: D-
The Eagles safeties had back-to-back poor outings. Marcus Epps was shaky to start, while Andrew Mukuba was mistake-prone at the end. Epps missed two tackles on the Bears’ touchdown drive that opened the game. He missed one in the open field and then another in between the tackle box on a run.
Epps split time with Michael Carter II in nickel personnel. It was unclear if this was always part of the plan or an in-game demotion. Carter looked out of position on tight end Colston Loveland’s catch that was originally ruled a touchdown in the second quarter. But the score was taken off the board and ultimately the Eagles denied the Bears any points.
Mukuba appeared to bite the cheese on a play-fake that resulted in a 25-yard catch in the second quarter. He slipped chasing Raymond on his 41-yard score. Mukuba took a brutal third-down holding penalty in the fourth quarter.
Special teams: C
Kicker Jake Elliott didn’t have much to do with the lack of scoring opportunities. Braden Mann shanked his first punt out of bounds for only 30 yards. He was better on his other tries and averaged 38 net yards on four kicks.
A Kelee Ringo holding penalty brought back a Britain Covey 21-yard punt return.
Coaching: D-
Coach Nick Sirianni is ultimately responsible for the Eagles losing to a Bears team without its top two quarterbacks. He got a dismal effort from his team. Should he have called a timeout to buy time while Hurts was getting looked at for a possible head injury? It’s easy to say in retrospect. But the whole ordeal proved costly for the Eagles.
He had a couple of head-scratching game management moments. The fake Tush Push on a long fourth-and-1 in the third quarter wasn’t fooling anyone. Whether Sirianni should have gone for it or not, his defense forced a punt on the ensuing possession. But Sirianni’s roll of the dice on fourth-and-5 a drive later was confounding in context and Hurts tossed an interception.
Offensive coordinator Sean Mannion called a questionable screen to Smith with 19 seconds left before the half, but Hurts bailed him out. Whatever the reason, the designs and execution on passes behind the line of scrimmage have mostly been disasters. Another bubble screen to Lemon resulted in a loss.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio got schooled by Ben Johnson. The Bears coach was one step ahead of his esteemed counterpart almost the entire game. A year ago, Chicago killed the Eagles on the ground. This time they did it through the air with no less than a third-string 38-year-old quarterback at the helm. Fangio might have had his worst game since coming to Philly. His defense can’t do the simple things like tackle.
