Nobody had a longer Friday than new Phillies closer Jhoan Duran.
Duran woke up around 3 a.m. in Minneapolis to fly to Philadelphia, he said. Sleeping in his hotel was not an option because of the “energy” of his young son. Then he came to Citizens Bank Park. He shook a lot of hands. He learned a lot of names. He stretched in the outfield. He spoke to the media about his excitement to be with the Phillies. He awaited a first pitch delayed by the opening of Alumni Weekend at the ballpark. He headed to his new bullpen. He watched for eight-plus innings as his new teammates struggled against his old rivals, the Detroit Tigers.
But Duran received a call to action in the form of consecutive Phillies rallies. A three-run outburst tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, and when Orion Kerkering surrendered a leadoff homer in the eighth, Otto Kemp and Bryson Stott picked him up with run-scoring hits. The first rally ended with Bryce Harper getting ejected after a check swing call he was not fond of. The second rally was punctuated by Stott’s go-ahead infield single with two outs in the eighth, but a review was required when Stott was initially called out. At least it was a quick review.
The capacity crowd that had been hot all night grew deafening when the massive scoreboard in left field showed that Stott was safe. Not just because of the go-ahead run crossing the plate, but because the fans knew what would come next. Trea Turner struck out to end the inning, and it was time for the main event.
With his new team ahead, Duran entered the game looking for his first save in a Phillies uniform. And, on a day where everything felt long for the 27-year-old, his first entrance to the Citizens Bank Park mound was an extended, astounding, theatrical spectacle. It lived up to every bit of the hype:
Duran took a deep breath. He had a one-run lead to protect with three outs to get. But then something weird happened.
Exactly 90 seconds after Duran began his windup on the first pitch he threw to the first batter he faced, the game was over. On the longest day he could imagine, Duran recorded a save in a minute and a half, only needing to throw four pitches in order to seal the deal.
Friday’s final score in Philadelphia: Tigers 4, Phillies 5.
All four of Duran’s pitches were listed as splitters. When Duran is on the mound, though, those are “splinkers,” a term coined to emphasize the outrageous combination of velocity and break when he throws it. The splinker had averaged out at 97.5 on the radar gun this season, but the slowest of Duran’s four pitches on Friday came in at 98.4 miles per hour. He averaged 99.0 on the radar gun.
“First pitch was a 98 mile-per-hour split,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said with amazement. “I don’t know if I’ve seen that before.”
In multiple respects, an excruciatingly slow day had become incredibly fast. The crowd roared. Duran could exhale. He satisfied his new biggest fans.
“I still feel incredible,” Duran said after the game. “…I can see they love baseball. They do everything for baseball. I love that.”
Duran said his mentality on the mound was the same as it always is. He could not lose focus over one regular-season game, as grand of an event as it might have been. “It’s not easy,” he said of the quick transition that comes with being traded. Duran admitted that it felt a bit more special for him to be able to come through in his first opportunity with the Phillies. Harper and Ranger Suárez – who submitted seven very strong innings on Friday – were just as happy to see their new closer lock things down.
“May God always bless him with health throughout his whole career,” Suárez said. “Because I think he’s bound to do great things with us here.”
In the weeks, months and years to come, plenty of splinkers are in store. But there will be more than that. Duran knows it. He smiled.
“I didn’t throw my fastball yet.”
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