The Phillies seemingly find new ways to win every night, but they rarely find themselves down in the ninth. Nevertheless, on Saturday night against the Washington Nationals, that was where they were. Pinch hitter Kody Clemens stepped up to the plate with two outs, to face Kyle Finnegan, who entered the game with 13 saves out of 14 attempts.
Clemens took one pitch, and crushed a four-seam fastball 413 feet to center field to tie the game, 3-3. The Phillies and Nationals went into extra innings, and reliever Gregory Soto — a pitcher who has struggled with command and control at times — threw a 1-2-3 inning in the 10th with the ghost runner on second base.
Finnegan intentionally walked Schwarber for J.T. Realmuto, and Realmuto flied out to move ghost runner Johan Rojas to third base. Bryce Harper hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Rojas and walk it off for a 4-3 win. The Phillies are undefeated in their last 14 series.
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This one didn’t come easy. Prior to Saturday’s game, MacKenzie Gore had not allowed one home run to a left-handed hitter this year. That changed when Bryson Stott stepped up to the plate in the seventh inning. With one out and no one on, Stott pulled a high four-seam fastball to the right center field stands.
It was his fifth home run of the season, and an important one for the Phillies. Stott’s solo shot tied the game, 2-2, and up to that point, the Phillies had done little damage against Gore. Their first hit against the Nationals starter came in the fourth inning. They managed just three hits against him through 6 ⅓ innings, scoring two runs and collecting three walks.
But as this team showed the night before, they don’t need to score a ton of runs to come out victorious. And on Saturday, they did just enough to garner a 4-3 win — and a series win — over the Nationals.
They wouldn’t have been in a position to win if it weren’t for Cristopher Sánchez, who gave manager Rob Thomson an efficient seven innings of work. Sánchez allowed some hard contact but was able to minimize the damage, permitting just two earned runs on eight hits, and, notably, no walks. It was the first game this season where Sanchez hasn’t allowed a free pass.
The left-handed pitcher threw seven strikeouts. He finished his outing at 92 pitches, of which 69 were strikes. He saw his velocity tick up, averaging 95.4 mph on his sinker, a 1.4 mph increase from his yearly average.
Matt Strahm entered for the eighth and extended his scoreless streak to 18.2 consecutive innings, allowing one hit with one strikeout. Orion Kerkering pitched the ninth, and struggled a bit with his command, allowing a single, a hit by pitch, and an RBI single to give the Nationals a 3-2 lead. But Clemens, Harper, and Soto made that a moot point.
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