Phillies fall to Athletics in series finale, ending their nine-game winning streak

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Athletics closer Mason Miller had thrown 48 pitches in the first two games of the series against the Phillies.

The 26-year-old with an overpowering fastball was an All-Star in 2024, and had picked up right where he left off with a string of 12 scoreless appearances to start this season.

But Miller had struggled lately as the A’s slide stretched on. On Friday, the Phillies tagged Miller for three earned runs. On Saturday, Max Kepler blasted the game-tying home run off him in the ninth.

But hanging onto 5-4 lead in the ninth inning Sunday, the A’s went back to their closer for a third time to try to end their losing streak at 11 games. This time, Miller got the better of the Phillies, retiring the first two hitters he faced. After Alec Bohm singled, a pinch-running Johan Rojas was caught stealing second to end the game.

“I’d have to look at the tape, but just out of the corner of my eye, my peripheral, I thought maybe he could have gotten a little better jump,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.

The Phillies had been six outs away from sweeping the road trip and extending their winning streak to 10 before the Athletics took the lead against reliever Matt Strahm in the eighth.

The A’s rally started with a walk. Lawrence Butler tripled to drive in one run before Willie MacIver scored him with his first major league hit.

“Obviously the walks, way too many this year, I feel like they all score,” Strahm said. “That pitch to Butler, I want a slider down there, not necessarily in, but I feel like I was down and he got the head to it and found a corner.”

With a depleted bullpen after an 11-inning win the night before, the Phillies needed every out that starter Jesús Luzardo could give them.

But things had looked dicey for Luzardo at first, as Jacob Wilson crushed the first pitch he threw for a leadoff homer. The Athletics scored two more runs in the first off four hits, and Luzardo’s pitch count was already up to 17 by the end of the frame.

The left-hander settled in soon after that, and cruised through the middle innings. He struck out 10 A’s over seven innings.

“I think just the fact that I gave up three in the first and having to grind through knowing that we had used our bullpen up pretty well, I wanted to go out there and give them length,” Luzardo said. “So, obviously, after the first it was kind of frustrating. I knew I had to get it going. Find ways to get quick outs while they were being aggressive. And we made it work all the way through the seventh. So, for me, it was just a big moment.”

Luzardo threw 105 pitches for the second start in a row, but he will have an extra day of rest before his next turn in the rotation due to the Phillies’ off day on Monday. He has reached a triple-digit pitch count in five of his last six starts.

“I’d obviously say thanks to the training staff here. The strength coaches. Just the whole staff in general,” Luzardo said. “They do such a good job of managing workload. I’m finding ways to really recover in between outings. And I think that’s huge. Something that in the past in my career, maybe I didn’t take it seriously, the recovery aspect of it.”

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The Phillies manufactured runs to chip away at the Athletics’ three-run lead. Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Max Kepler drew consecutive walks to lead off the second and load the bases. J.T. Realmuto hit into a double play, but Schwarber came in to score.

Trea Turner, who launched a solo home run in the eighth, had three RBIs. He drove in Brandon Marsh with a base hit in the third and Alec Bohm on a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

“That’s the way it goes,” Thomson said. “I mean, Strahmy, he comes in as one of our top relievers, and the walk’s the thing that killed him, really, which he doesn’t do a lot of. So we have the game right where we want. It just got away from us.”