Hector Neris walked off the mound a month ago in what was likely the most humiliating moment of his career. The pitcher was helpless as he yielded home run after home run after home run to the Dodgers in a crushing defeat.
Neris’ back-to-back-to-back homers sent the Phillies into a tailspin. They lost 24 of their next 30 games to become baseball’s worst team. The Phillies had their worst May in 89 years, and a season’s demise can be traced to that night. But it also was the night that Neris found himself.
“The next day, I had to take the positives and the negatives from the day before and make better from it,” Neris said this week in Miami.