PHOENIX — If a ninth inning's going to be painful, it might as well be quick.
Jeff Hoffman allowed a walk-off homer on the first pitch he threw Friday night to Diamondbacks catcher Adrian Del Castillo, a lefty bat with huge minor-league numbers who made his major-league debut earlier in the week.
The Phillies' 3-2 loss was a fast-paced, competitive pitchers' duel between Zack Wheeler and D-backs right-hander Ryne Nelson, who didn't allow a baserunner until the fifth inning and threw first-pitch strikes to the first 17 hitters he faced.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Nelson entered with a 4.65 ERA and modest strikeout numbers but has been on a roll the last month, along with a D-backs team that has won 13 of 16.
The Phillies are 69-47 with a 7½-game lead over the Mets and an 8½-game lead over the Braves, whose season is slipping away after six straight losses.
The D-backs, meanwhile, appear poised to make another second-half run to the playoffs after toiling in mediocrity most of the first half.
"They have a good group over there, they've been together a while now," Wheeler said. "I've pitched against them a few times in big games and regular season. They've seen me, they know what I've got, I know what they've got. It's always fun when you know each other well and have to really pitch and compete."
Philadelphia Phillies
It speaks to Wheeler's excellence that an outing like this — two runs over six innings — felt somehow below his standard. He dealt with bad luck in the first inning with a run scoring on a jam-job and allowed a solo homer to Joc Pederson with one out in the third.
Pederson is one of the most dangerous matchups in baseball for a right-handed pitcher but Wheeler had dominated him previously, holding him to two hits in 19 at-bats with eight strikeouts.
"First inning, three hits weren't hit very hard," manager Rob Thomson said. "Even the pitch to Pederson wasn't all that bad, he just beat him to the spot. He was struggling to find his split which would have helped him against lefties, but he was effective."
Wheeler added the splitter this season to better combat left-handed hitters. It's been a high-quality pitch most of the year, especially for someone's sixth offering. The Diamondbacks had six lefty bats in Friday's lineup capable of changing a game with one swing in Corbin Carroll, Pederson, Josh Bell, Jake McCarthy, Del Castillo and Alek Thomas, so the split sure would have been helpful.
"I think I threw one not in the dirt tonight," Wheeler said. "It was kinda frustrating but also keep in the back of my head that it's still a new pitch for me so just trying to fix it as I go. The last one I threw was the one I threw that had the best chance tonight. I feel like it's kinda start to start. I went on probably five or six games now where I can count on it and know what it's going to do, but tonight was a little off.
"It was a mixed bag. Didn't feel all the way there but kinda got through it. The first inning killed me a little bit with hits getting through. And then Joc, it was thigh-high but it was in and he did a nice job of hitting that. Not my best."
The Phillies trailed 2-0 to begin the seventh before finally got to Nelson with an opposite-field solo home run from Bryce Harper, who is locking in. He has three multi-hit games in his last six, homered in another and has lined out to the opposite field four times this week, an indication he's right on the ball.
Johan Rojas tied the game in the top of the eighth, ripping a 96 mph, middle-middle A.J. Puk fastball off the wall in left for a two-out RBI double. Kyle Schwarber struck out looking to end the threat.
The game ended on Hoffman's first pitch of the bottom of the ninth and the series is tied with two more games this weekend. On paper, Saturday night should be another strong pitching matchup between Aaron Nola and Zac Gallen. Cristopher Sanchez starts Sunday's series finale as the D-backs welcome back Merrill Kelly, one of their most important players who has made just four starts this season because of a shoulder injury.