The Phillies squandered Zack Wheeler’s strong work but avoided a deflating loss with a thrilling ninth-inning rally Tuesday night.
Bryson Stott hustled home to score on a Kyle Finnegan wild pitch and lift the Phillies to an ultra-dramatic, walk-off 7-6 win over the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park.
Wheeler went 6 2/3 innings and allowed five hits and two runs in the first contest of a three-game series vs. Washington.
Trea Turner led off against MacKenzie Gore with an opposite-field single. After Bryce Harper flew out to the right-field warning track, Kyle Schwarber extended his on-base streak to a career-best 35 games in slugging fashion. Schwarber nailed a 96 mph fastball over the left-center wall to put the Phils up 2-0.
Wheeler threw an auspicious, 10-pitch first inning and a solid second.
The Nationals nearly broke through in the third. They loaded the bases with two outs and Wheeler’s command appeared shaky, but he got Keibert Ruiz to whiff on a 3-2 cutter. Across his last three starts, Wheeler’s tallied 29 strikeouts and three walks.
Wheeler kept a shutout intact until Luis Garcia Jr. opened the sixth inning by drilling a home run. He walked off with two outs in the seventh following a Jacob Young double. Matt Strahm couldn’t strand the inherited runner, giving up a two-bagger to CJ Abrams.
Jose Alvarado was an escape artist in the eighth.
He wriggled free from bases-loaded, no-out trouble with sinkers that hovered around 100 mph and high-quality cutters. Josh Bell, Dylan Crews and Alex Call all struck out swinging, which fueled a fist-pumping, chest-thumping Alvarado celebration.
Orion Kerkering couldn’t earn the save. The Phillies’ defense did not help his cause.
Johan Rojas misplayed a James Wood RBI double and Turner committed a costly error, throwing wide to Harper at first base. The Nats got the tying run to second with two outs and Nathaniel Lowe cracked a two-strike, go-ahead homer into the right-field seats.
The Phillies kicked off the bottom of the ninth against Finnegan with an Alec Bohm single and a Stott walk. Max Kepler’s deep fly out to center moved Bohm to third base.
Stott stole second base with Rojas up and the Phillies’ center fielder just about drove in Bohm. He flew out to right field and Crews’ throw home was off target. That set the stage for the walk-off action.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson didn’t have lefties Stott and Kepler in the lineup for the series opener against a southpaw. Edmundo Sosa played second base and hit seventh. Weston Wilson manned left field and hit eighth. As a pair, Wilson and Sosa went 0 for 5.
Rojas provided pop from the nine-hole, hammering a third-inning home run. The 421-foot dinger was Rojas’ first of the season and the sixth of his career.
Outside of the Phillies’ two early long balls, Gore fared well. Over his six innings, Turner was the one Phillie to record a non-homer hit vs. Gore.
Turner had a stellar night in leadoff duty, notching a four-hit game (and watching Stott sprint home in the ninth). His batting average has leaped from .245 to .290 in two games. Turner’s last knock was a double to right that brought in Rojas as the first of two Phillies insurance runs in the eighth.
Thomson laid out the team’s rotation plans pregame — Cristopher Sanchez on Wednesday, Taijuan Walker on Thursday, TBD for the weekend.
His dugout media session also included an update on Brandon Marsh, who was pulled from his fourth rehab game Sunday at Triple-A Lehigh Valley because of a right hamstring camp.
According to Thomson, Marsh worked out Tuesday and was seeing the doctor pregame. If he’s cleared, the Phillies will send Marsh on another rehab assignment. Thomson sounded confident he would be back on the field soon.
“He said he feels fine,” Thomson said. “It’s just a cramp. We’re just being cautious.”
