Phillies survive embarrassing roster mistake in 6-5 win over Brewers

The Phillies promoted Enyel De Los Santos on Tuesday afternoon, adding him to their taxed bullpen a few hours ahead of a 6-5 win over the Brewers. They used seven relievers in the previous two games and De Los Santos — who was once a starting pitcher — is durable enough to pitch multiple innings.

So there he was jogging to the mound in the seventh inning to protect a five-run lead, readying to pitch the type of situation he was brought to Philadelphia for. But De Los Santos walked off the field at Citizens Bank Park without even throwing a warmup pitch.

De Los Santos was not on the lineup card the Phillies submitted before the game, thus making him ineligible to pitch. The umpires checked their cards when they saw the reliever leave the bullpen and then told him to leave.

“We made a roster change and I just didn’t catch it,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Ultimately, it falls on me because I didn’t catch it. I didn’t notice that De Los Santos wasn’t on there. I tell you, I look at them all the time. I look at the cards and I count the people. Starting pitcher is on there twice and you make sure you have 26 people. I missed it today.”

Girardi called on David Hale, who did not retire any of the three batters he faced. The manager then replaced Hale with JoJo Romero, who allowed a two-run homer to Jackie Bradley Jr. as the once-comfortable five-run lead was whittled to just one.

“We made the move and that goes through Major League Baseball,” Girardi said. “But it’s ultimately my fault. I’m livid with myself.”

The Phillies held on, escaping to win back-to-back games for the first time since starting the season with four straight victories. The embarrassing lineup mistake fell short of costing the Phillies a win, but it did stop Girardi from resting his bullpen as the manager had to use Sam Coonrod — who pitched a night earlier — for a five-out save.

“The good thing is he didn’t throw a lot of pitches,” Girardi said as Coonrod threw just 13 pitches on Monday. “He’s thrown two days in a row anyway. I don’t know if it really is going to change what’s going to happen tomorrow, except that De Los Santos will be fresher.”

Brewers manager Craig Counsell said his team had De Los Santos listed on the lineup card they received from the Phillies. The Brewers ran into a similar problem earlier this season when a pitcher was not allowed to pitch after being left off the umpire’s lineup card.

“I honestly think the system needs to change a little bit,” Counsell said. “We actually had the correct card but somehow the umpires didn’t. I’m not sure. It’s all when it gets printed out and what time the umpire’s card got printed out. It just seems like there’s a better system that probably could be in place.”

Coonrod made it interesting in the ninth as he retired Bradley with runners on first and third to end it. But he got the job done as a Phillies reliever recorded a five-out save for the second straight night. It was the first time the Phillies had five-out saves in consecutive games since Ken Ryan and Ricky Bottalico did it in 1996.

“We have to pick up our coaching staff whenever that happens,” Coonrod said as his save covered for the lineup-card error. “It wasn’t a big deal. We just came in and picked each other up.”

The lineup cards are no longer exchanged before the game at home plate as teams submit them electronically. They are automated by the league’s computer program, but it is the team’s responsibility to review the names on the list before submitting them.

The Phillies announced at 5:19 p.m. — less than two hours before first pitch — that De Los Santos had been promoted. He stretched on the field before the game and wore a uniform in the bullpen, but he wasn’t on the card.

Instead, Cristopher Sánchez — the pitcher swapped out for De Los Santos — was.

“I look at it every night. [Bench coach] Rob Thomson looks at it, too,” Girardi said. “We missed it. There’s no excuse, but it’s happened to other teams where the player doesn’t get on the card for whatever reason. It’s just stupid on my part.”

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The four-run seventh inning may have been enough for the Brewers had Andrew McCutchen not homered twice. Six days earlier, McCutchen expressed frustration with his slow start. No one wants to stink, he said. A day earlier, the Phillies showed concern about the 34-year-old’s eyesight after he had trouble on defense.

He had a brutal April, was held out of two straight games on the team’s last road trip, and seemed to be losing hold of an everyday role. So it must have felt rewarding Tuesday when McCutchen — after hitting his second home run — was met by a standing ovation as he ran to left field in the fourth inning.

“Having the results that I had today, a couple homers, it felt good. I wish I was able to get that run in with less than two outs and a guy at third base,” McCutchen said of his strikeout in the fourth with Nick Maton on third. “Still more work to be done, but I look at the positives from today and I take those into the next game and the next game. It’s feeling good, all the work that I’ve put in that it’s starting to translate on the field. Yeah, just got to keep that going.”

McCutchen became the first Phillies player since Jimmy Rollins in 2009 to hit a leadoff homer and then homer again in the same game. Both homers were solo shots and his third-inning blast triggered a five-run inning. Didi Gregorius singled in a run and Brad Miller — who started in right field as Bryce Harper remains sidelined with a sore wrist — hit a three-run blast to the second deck in right.

Miller’s homer gave the Phillies a comfortable lead for De Los Santos to protect in relief of Aaron Nola. But that lead felt dangerously thin when De Los Santos was booted, Hale struggled, and Romero yielded the homer to Bradley.

It made it a one-run game, which has been the margin in 14 of the team’s first 30 games.

“The joke in the bullpen is we’re losing body fat because our heart rate is up,” Coonrod said. “Any time you can win a close game like that it’s a big deal because this is the major leagues, it’s the highest level there is. Winning any game is hard and winning the close one is even harder.”

Odúbel Herrera — who played center field after Roman Quinn required nine stitches to close a cut on his right index finger — tried to leap against the wall to grab Bradley’s homer, but came up short.

And then his foot was stuck in the fence. Unable to free himself, Herrera appealed for help. Matt Joyce trotted over from right field and helped lift Herrera’s cleat from the fence. It was a fitting way to end an embarrassing inning.

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