With the Phillies trailing — by a 3-2 margin, no less — and running out of outs, Bryce Harper walked to the plate against Padres reliever Robert Suárez and a sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park roared.
Hmm, where had we seen this before?
This time, the bedlam would have to wait, if only for a couple of batters. Instead of parking a homer in the left-field seats against Suarez, Harper laced a single to right field, the first of three consecutive singles to fuel a ninth-inning rally in a walk-off 4-3 victory Tuesday night before 43,021 delirious paying customers.
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Harper dashed to third base on Alec Bohm’s single to center field, then scored the tying run on Bryson Stott’s base hit to left. And for the final flourish, Nick Castellanos dunked a ground rule double in front of sliding Padres right fielder David Peralta — his fourth hit of the game — to chase home the winning run.
OK, so it wasn’t as meaningful as Harper’s go-ahead two-run home run against Suárez that clinched the pennant in 2022. But it did snap the Phillies’ two-series skid and set them up for a potential sweep with major-league ERA leader Ranger Suárez (1.77) on the mound for a Wednesday matinee.
The comeback followed a solid bounce back start from Aaron Nola, who gave up three runs in six innings, and typically stellar relief work from Orion Kerkering, Matt Strahm, and Jeff Hoffman.
And it began with another homer from Kyle Schwarber, whose blast off the facing of the second deck in right field in the eighth inning forced the Padres to turn to their closer before the ninth even began. Schwarber banged two homers in Monday night’s series opener, continuing his torment of Padres manager Mike Schildt.
“Uncle,” Shildt told reporters Monday night. “Seriously, uncle. This dude, going back to my days when he was in Chicago — I don’t know Kyle well and I hear nothing but great things, and he’s a really, really talented guy — but he does not have to hit a home run in every game that I manage. It’s just … uncle. He’s a real talent.”
Nola came out throwing as hard as he has all season, with a fastball that averaged 93 mph through four innings and nearly touched 95. And his signature curveball was nasty. He got five strikeouts with it, including a dirt-diver to Jackson Merrill to end the second inning.
The Padres didn’t get their first hit — a clean single to center field from Donovan Solano — until there was one out in the fifth inning. Nola set down the first 13 batters — and on only 53 pitches.
But the Phillies gave Nola only a 1-0 lead on Brandon Marsh’s one-out single in the fourth inning. They had multiple opportunities to stretch the margin against Padres starter Michael King but stranded two runners in the second inning and one in the third. They left the bases loaded in the fourth, when Trea Turner grounded into a force out.
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In the fifth inning, the Phillies staged a two-out rally, with struggling Bryson Stott working a six-pitch walk and Castellanos singling to right field against King. But the Padres brought in lefty Yuki Matsui to neutralize lefty-hitting Marsh, who struck out to end the threat.
So, there was Nola, teetering on a one-run tightrope when he issued his only walk to lead off the sixth inning. And there was Pache, leaping at the center-field wall and coming within a few feet of keeping Luis Campusano’s two-run shot out of the shrubbery beyond the 401-foot sign.
The Padres added another run against Nola, for good measure, on Tyler Wade’s single and a two-out RBI single from Jurickson Profar.
