Philadelphia Phillies Squander Golden Opportunity With Late Collapse

Coming into the game on Monday, the Philadelphia Phillies had the second-best record in the National League, trailing only their division rival Atlanta Braves who mirrored their hot stretch to maintain the NL East lead.

After starting out slowly each of the past two seasons, it's been a welcome sight to see them come out of April with a winning record.

While the Phillies have shown they don't need to win their division to have success in the playoffs, they still would like to give themselves an opportunity to do so.

They had a real chance to cut into the Braves' lead on Monday.

Philadelphia was set to face the 10-18 Los Angeles Angels while Atlanta went on the road to face the surging Seattle Mariners.

While the Phillies held a 4-2 lead after five innings and the Braves were in a dogfight that saw a no-hitter from both teams carried through the sixth, it looked like a golden opportunity to make up ground.

That presented itself to be true when the Mariners hit a two-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Philadelphia couldn't capitalize.

After leading through the top of the sixth, Christopher Sanchez gave up back-to-back singles before getting pulled in favor of Orion Kerkering. Their young reliever came in and allowed two runs on a fielder's choice and single to center that tied the game.

Then, one inning later, the struggling Seranthony Dominguez was called upon and couldn't keep the game level after two runs scored on a wild pitch and throwing error by catcher Garrett Stubbs.

The Phillies couldn't rally in the ninth inning and their opportunity to take advantage of Seattle winning in dramatic fashion over their rivals was squandered.

In a division race that's so close, these are the chances that a team like Philadelphia has to take, especially when they're trying to dethrone a team like Atlanta who has utterly dominated the NL East for the last decade with six straight titles.