Marcus Hayes: Rob Thomson blew Game 3 for the Phillies when he brought in rookie Orion Kerkering

Marcus Hayes The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHOENIX — Craig Kimbrel took the 2-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series when he gave up a walk-off single, but his boss, Rob Thomson, had lost the game about an hour earlier.

Bryce Harper’s mad dash home on a wild pitch had just given the Phillies the first run of Game 3, so they entered the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday with a 1-0 lead in the game and a 2-0 lead in the NLCS and, as long as they followed their formula, that lead was likely to grow to 3-0.

The formula: Seranthony Domínguez or José Alvarado in the seventh, one of the same two in the eighth, Kimbrel in the ninth, and maybe they fly home Friday soaked in champagne instead of Saturday, perhaps high and dry.

Maybe Rob Thomson wanted to invest in the future.

Maybe he got instructions from the front office.

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Maybe he just felt frisky.

At any rate, Thomson inserted Kerkering, who, a year ago, was pitching in college before the Phillies made him a fifth-round pick.

Kerkering was the Phillies’ minor league pitcher of the year after he rocketed through four levels, from low-A to the majors, in his first full year as a professional, Nuke LaLoosh fashion. Unfortunately, on Thursday, he forgot to wear his garters.

After Ranger Suárez and Jeff Hoffman combined for six scoreless innings, and with the entire bullpen rested from the off day Wednesday, Thomson tapped Kerkering. This would be Kerkering’s eighth major league outing, but only his third of any real importance. In the other two — one in the regular season, one it the playoffs — he entered with at least a two-run lead.

So yes, he’d gotten his feet wet, but yes, this time was different. Kerkering allowed a Tommy Pham single, a run-scoring double by Lourdes Gurriel, and a single by Pavin Smith before Thomson brought the hook.

The move cost Suárez a win as he continued a string of otherworldly starting pitching. In nine games, Phillies starters have a 1.72 ERA with 58 strikeouts and just four walks.

Sure, Kimbrel still could have collapsed with the lead. And maybe Domínguez or Alvarado don’t lock it down in the seventh.

They should have had the chance.

Thursday was the second time this postseason Thomson made a mistake on the mound.

In Game 2 of the NLDS in Atlanta, Thomson sent ace Zack Wheeler back out for the seventh inning when Wheeler clearly was finished after six. Wheeler gave up two runs and left with a 4-3 lead, but the Braves stole momentum and a win.

It was Thomson’s only significant mistake in an otherwise virtuosic postseason performance.

The Phillies rolled past the Marlins and the Braves behind their deadly starting pitching and their historically punishing bats, but, despite 104-degree heat outside Chase Field, the Phillies’ bats stayed as cold as a Pennsylvania autumn. They managed just three hits, two off Diamondbacks rookie starter Brandon Pfaadt (pronounced Fought).

Pfaadt entered the season as the Diamondbacks’ top prospect, but in his 19 games he went 3-9 with a 5.72 ERA. He’d been knocked out of his first playoff start, at Milwaukee, after 2 2/3 innings, seven hits, three runs, and a homer. His birthday was Sunday, so he’d turned 25 since his second playoff start, and was able to celebrate giving up no runs to the Dodgers in 4 1/3 innings. The party continued Thursday: 5 2/3 innings, no runs, nine strikeouts, no walks, against perhaps the best lineup the Phillies have ever rostered.

They scored their only run in the seventh, when Harper led off with a walk issued by lefty Andrew Saalfrank, wound up on third with two out, and scored on a wild pitch by right-handed sidearmer Ryan Thompson. That made it 1-0.

That, according to Thomson, was a big enough cushion for the kid.

Except, or course, it wasn’t.

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