Learning curve: Phillies closer Jhoan Duran leans on breaking ball to carve up Mets

PHILADELPHIA — Two weeks ago, Jhoan Duran wiped his mouth with his jersey and winced while walking off the playing surface at Citi Field as the New York Mets doused each other with water bottles behind him in celebration of a walk-off win.

Philadelphia’s new star closer had his usual stuff: the high-octane fastball and the sharp splitter/sinker hybrid. But the Mets hit it anyway, tallying four base hits in a row in the bottom of the ninth inning. Duran didn’t record an out in that Aug. 26 Phillies loss, the team’s second in a three-game New York sweep.

On Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park, the entire story was flipped upside down. Behind a dominant run from starter Jesús Luzardo and a comeback effort from the offense, the Phillies completed a four-game sweep of the Mets with a 6-4 victory. Duran entered in the ninth and mowed down New York’s big bats, striking out Juan Soto, Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos to take an 11-game lead in the National League East.

After the concerning outing in New York late last month, Phillies manager Rob Thomson thought one pitch made all the difference for Duran.

“He used his curveball, and I think that’s kind of an equalizer for him,” Thomson said. “I think he needs to use it a little bit. It just keeps them off all the hard stuff.”

Duran, acquired at the trade deadline to fortify the back end of the bullpen in Philadelphia, recorded two saves against the Mets in this series. In his 1-2-3 inning on Thursday, he threw the highest percentage of knuckle curves that he’s thrown since joining the Phillies.

“That maybe helped,” Duran said. “I don’t think about that a lot, because the last time they had a couple of base hits on me because I missed the pitches in the zone. They have the chance to put the ball in play, and they are great hitters. When I bring the opportunity to them, they do an adjustment.”

While Duran was more focused on locating and executing, two keys that he certainly nailed, there’s no doubt that he was leaning on his curveball more heavily. He threw it five times out of 11 pitches, good for 45.5% of the time. The usage was also up to 42.9% on Monday against New York. Entering Thursday, Duran went to his curveball for only 19.4% of his pitches. This increase in breaking balls was all part of the game plan, according to catcher J.T. Realmuto.

“The Mets had been very aggressive on him, and it seemed like they were very aggressive to the fastball/split combo, particularly the split early in the count,” Realmuto said. “So we made a decision to mix in some more curveballs, mix in some more four-seams and not let them just get their swing off that split really early.”

Realmuto said the Phillies hadn’t initially felt like they needed Duran to use his curveball much since his fastball and splitter were overpowering hitters. Duran didn’t even throw a curveball with the team until his third game after the trade. But then the right-hander had a shaky couple of outings in August, including the disaster in New York.

As far as Realmuto was concerned, the Mets didn’t have a tip or a tell about what Duran was about to throw. The Phillies just thought the Mets hunted his splitter and put good swings on it when they first saw him. Duran and the club countered.

After upping the curveball earlier in the series, Duran used it as a weapon in the finale. He started off Soto, the No. 2 batter, with a splitter, threw a curve for a called strike and struck him out swinging with a 101.9 mph fastball. He finished off a five-pitch at-bat against Alonso with a breaker low and away that the Mets slugger couldn’t help but chase. After a curveball and fastball put Vientos in an 0-2 count, Duran got him to whiff on another curve with a half swing to end the game.

“It’s unbelievably impressive to be able to see him mix curveballs in like that, throw them for strikes early in the count and throw them for swing and miss late in the count, and also be able to throw 104 at the top of the zone with good life,” Realmuto said. “Just the ability to pitch and command the ball — throw strikes with that many pitches — there’s not many people in the game who can do what he does.”

This kind of pitch mixing could help the powerful Duran become even more dynamic. Between the Twins and Phillies, he now has a 1.83 ERA in 66 games with 29 saves. The thought of him developing even further is tantalizing, as the team will need him to secure big outs down the stretch and in the postseason. Additionally, having an answer for the Mets could end up being quite useful once again down the line.

“It’s a really good team over there, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if we ran into them down the road somewhere in the playoffs,” Realmuto said. “So having a guy back there like that, where you have so much confidence in the ninth inning to just shut the door and know that he’s going to come in and throw strikes and attack hitters and be able to mix like he does, it’s like we have a little ace up our sleeve. Not a lot of teams have that ninth inning like we have.”