PHILADELPHIA —
Profar, who had already flipped his bat and started his trot to first base, squatted down in disbelief and started walking toward Tichenor, knocking off his helmet and then kicking it. Home-plate umpire Ted Barrett ejected Profar from the game.
“I thought I didn’t go and it should have been a walk,” said Profar, claiming he wasn’t really even swinging, just trying to get out of the way of a backdoor slider. “I didn’t have a really good chance to see it, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t go. Maybe the bat was in front, but I was just getting out of the way. I didn’t go, I didn’t swing.”
He said he wasn’t worried about a possible suspension.
“No chance, man. MLB doesn’t suspend people for that. We play a game, and we play with emotion. We don’t play soft. We play to win and I play with emotion.”
With the runners on first and second and nobody, the Padres would have had momentum on their side and pressure on Dominguez. Instead, the final two hitters, Trent Grisham and Austin Nola, went down on a pop-up. Dominguez ended up throwing 34 pitches in his two innings, his second-highest total of his season, and recorded the Phillies’ first two-inning save in the postseason since Tug McGraw in 1980.
He’s now pitched 6.1 innings this postseason, allowing just two hits with 13 strikeouts and no walks.
For the pivotal Game 4 on Saturday night, both managers turn to their No. 4 starters — Mike Clevinger for the Padres and Bailey Falter for the Phillies, who drew the assignment over Noah Syndergaard. Clevinger struggled in his one postseason start against the Dodgers in the division series, allowing six hits and five runs in 2.2 innings. This after a 6.52 ERA in six starts in September.
He’s been battling a sore knee, but was able to throw a 35-pitch bullpen on Thursday, the first time in a month he’s been able to do that.
“We’ve had our ups and down,” he said after Game 3. “It’s been some good weeks, some bad weeks, some weeks the knee doesn’t want to do it and lately it’s just kind of been pretty bad towards the end. And then finally this past week, it’s been really, really encouraging.”
Still, the Padres didn’t use any of their top relievers in Game 3 — Nick Martinez, Luis Garcia, Robert Suarez and Josh Hader, so Melvin will have a full pen available to him.
“I’m going until Bob comes and tell me I can’t go anymore.” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he’ll have to wait and see if Dominguez is available for Game 4.
The hard-throwing right-hander is coming off Tommy John and the Phillies have used him carefully all season.
“We’ll have to check in on Seranthony. That’s the most pitches he’s thrown all year. We got to the point in the game where we had the lead late and we had to go for it.”
