Categories: 2024 Postgame Recaps

Pitching, defensive highlight set stage for Cristian Pache’s walk-off as Phillies beat Rockies

Aaron Nola was spectacular against the Rockies on Monday. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire)

Final: Phillies 2, Rockies 1

The Phillies are not hitting like they should be, so for a night — even against one of the worst teams in baseball, the 4-12 Colorado Rockies — they had to pull out all the stops in every other facet of the game to come out on top.

They did. Aaron Nola was brilliant, allowing one run over 7 1/3 innings, José Alvarado stranded his runner on two pitches, and Seranthony Domínguez left a zombie runner on second to set the stage for Cristian Pache to walk it off in the bottom of the 10th.

But to get to the 10th required the top highlight of the day from the Phillies’ pitching staff, and it came on a wild pitch. With the go-ahead run racing home after a sweeper kicked off J.T. Realmuto’s glove in the top of the ninth, Jeff Hoffman made a supremely athletic sliding grab-and-tag, all in one motion, to preserve the tie.

There’s a lot to dissect here — the play itself, Kyle Freeland (the pinch-running pitcher) appearing to get badly injured, Hoffman maybe blocking the plate, whether it was the right call in the first place. It gave the Phillies an opportunity to win a game they couldn’t afford to lose, as much as that statement can apply in mid-April, and Cristian Pache made sure they didn’t.

Highlights

Trea Turner and Bryce Harper created a two-out rally in the third, with the former doubling and latter singling him home to give the Phillies a lead.
Michael Toglia represented the only blemish on Nola’s line, homering with one out in the fifth to tie the game.

Notes

Harper hit his RBI single 107.8 mph, then flew out to center at 104.5 mph later on. But he just got under that ball on what could’ve been a homer if Harper was his usual self, and he lifted a lazy pop-up to shallow right on a 3-1 pitch in the eighth before slamming his bat on the ground in frustration.
Seranthony Domínguez threw a perfect 10th inning to strand the zombie runner on second and give the Phillies a prime opportunity to win it.

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