Orion Kerkering explains what went wrong on awful play that ended Phillies season

Orion Kerkering understands the gravity of his season-ending mistake, but it didn’t make the explanation for it any easier.

With the Phillies’ season hanging in the balance in a tie game in the bottom of the 11th inning Thursday night in Game 4 of the NLDS, Kerkering faced Andy Pages with the bases loaded and two outs.

The righty reliever induced a routine comebacker, but he could not field it cleanly with the ball bouncing off his foot and Kerkering having to retrieve it in front of the mound.

In the scramble, he had time to throw to first base for the inning-ending out but he instead fired the ball wide and completely out of the reach of catcher J.T. Realmuto , allowing the Dodgers to score the winning run in the 2-1 victory that ended the Phillies’ season.

The gut-wrenching mistak