4 nuggets from the most thrilling Phillies win of the year
Game one of a scheduled day-night doubleheader between the Padres and Phillies had everything: An acrobatic play from a youthful contributor, a colossal miscue from a $300 million player, another trademark Phillies comeback and a nearly disastrous collision between two fielders to end the game.
It was a quintessential Phillies win. There was nothing normal about it.
Thanks to a game-tying home run and a go-ahead single from their enigmatic leadoff man Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies picked up their 18th comeback win of the season in a 6-4 win.
It was an eventful afternoon full of unusual events that made for arguably the most enjoyable Phillies game of the season.
Here are a few “nuggets” from the Phillies’ 6-4 win over San Diego.
Harper ties his fastest sprint speed to first this season.
There were two dramatic pinch hit pops in Saturday’s game. With the scheduled batter Drew Ellis nowhere to be found for a few moments, Bryson Stott raced out of the dugout to his signature walk-up tune “A-O-K” to a standing ovation. With a righty in, Rob Thomson played the “matchup,” but the reality is we’re getting to a point where you can throw out the numbers with Stott. He came into the game with an .802 OPS against lefties and a .743 OPS against righties.
Stott ended up scoring in both of his at-bats. He even beat out a throw to third from Fernando Tatis Jr., who looks like a perennial Gold Glove winner in right field.
Two innings later, the Phillies were down to one-and-a-half bench players with the tying and go-ahead runs on base. The batter, defensive whiz kid Johan Rojas, was either bunting or taking a seat. Thomson made the right call and summoned Bryce Harper to hit knowing that he’d need to put his backup catcher in left field the next inning.
The crowd of 43,712 rose to their feet as Moby’s “Flower” played. Harper batting in the eighth brought back memories of that magical night on October 23. All 43,712 of those in attendance have a ring with Harper’s name on it thanks to an impossible swing.
All the Phillies needed from Harper was a ball in play. He beat an inside sinker against a lefty with a wacky arm angle into the ground. He did enough to tie the game, but he hustled like crazy to earn an infield hit. Per the Phillies, Harper’s 4.27 home-to-first sprint speed is tied for the fastest he has recorded all season. It was only his fifth plate appearance as a pinch hitter as a Phillie.
The bloody pants game?
Reliever wins are more of a right place, right time stat, but Matt Strahm earned the heck out of his sixth victory of the season.
Strahm, a card-collecting fanatic, will happily get a Manny Machado 300th career home run commemorative card knowing the end result of the game. After allowing a double to Xander Bogaerts following Machado’s milestone home run, Strahm beared down and collected the next three outs to strand the runner in scoring position.
With one out and Bogaerts on third, Rob Thomson and a trainer walked out to the mound. The last thing the Phillies need is to lose another backend reliever with Seranthony Domínguez and José Alvarado on the shelf.
Strahm, according to Thomson, banged his knee off the mound on his last follow through so hard that his pants were a faint red. Call it the bloody pants game?
He’s unavailable for game two by virtue of pitching in game one, but give credit to Strahm for striking out the next two batters with blood coming from his knee.
Whose fault is it?
Apparently, there’s a debate to be had on which Phillies middle infielder cost Ranger Suárez three runs in the bottom of the second.
This would have been the leading story if not for the Schwarber-led comeback, so it’s important to highlight this. With two outs, Padres third baseman Matthew Batten grounded to shortstop. Trea Turner had to play it on a run. He thought he had time to make a slick flip to second, but the decision caught second baseman Edmundo Sosa off guard and the ball fell in and out of his glove.
Four pitches later, the Padres made Turner, who turned down a more lucrative contract offer from San Diego in the offseason, pay with a three-run shot from Trent Grisham.
After the game, Turner admitted that he should have just made the simple play and try to get the out at first.
“If I had it back, watching the replay, I think I had a little bit more time at first,” Turner told the Phillies radio booth after the game.
His manager had a different view.
“I don’t think he had a play, in my mind,” Thomson said. “He was already beyond second base. That’s why [Turner] went behind his back. Sosa assumed that he wasn’t going to toss it to him because he was already beyond the base.”
Maybe that’s just Thomson’s way of trying not to single out a player in public, but that ball has to go to first.
Turner did have a nice day at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two singles, two stolen bases and an RBI.
An ode to Jackie Mayo
As Suárez brilliantly put it, this all shouldn’t be a surprise.
Rojas’ meal ticket to the big leagues is his elite glove in center field. There’s no doubt he needs some seasoning on the offensive side, but if he were a lineup regular in the big leagues today, he would probably be a top-three defender in the sport based off of metrics such as defensive runs saved and outs above average.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I’m not surprised,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “I spent some time in Reading. I saw him do that pretty much every single game.”
For now, we all get to enjoy flashes of the Johan Rojas show. Just two batters into his big league career, Rojas recorded his first major league outfield assist on a fantastic grab near the wall. Per Elias Sports Bureau, he is the first Phillie to record an outfield assist in his MLB debut since Jackie Mayo on Sept. 19, 1948.
“The excitement from the fans was amazing,” Rojas said. “It was a really special moment.”
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