Bryson Stott began racing as soon as the ball left his bat.
With two runners on base in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Phillies trailing by a run, Stott hooked a slider from Mets reliever Edwin Díaz into the right-field corner. He sprinted around the bases, sliding into third with a go-ahead triple.
Stott pumped his arms. He pounded his chest. He sent Citizens Bank Park into a frenzy in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
“After I got to third, I kind of settled down for a second,” said Stott, who finally took a breather once New York removed Díaz following the three-base hit. “Just tried to keep myself calm so I didn’t do anything dumb on third.”
On his 27th birthday, Stott delivered a huge moment in a back-and-forth matchup full of them. His triple gave the Phillies a temporary late lead before Nick Castellanos, who tied the game in the sixth inning with a home run, hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to seal a 7-6 Philadelphia win on Sunday evening.
After dropping Game 1, the Phillies will head to New York for Game 3 on Tuesday with the best-of-five series tied at a game apiece. Not a bad way for Stott to celebrate.
“Especially on his birthday, that’s big for him,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said with a smile. “… He worked counts and didn’t chase hardly at all. And then he comes through with a great at-bat on the triple and the line drive down the line. I was really happy with him.”
The second baseman struggled at the plate this regular season, taking a big step back from his productive 2023 campaign. He batted .245/.315/.356 in 148 games with 11 home runs, 19 doubles and two triples. His second-half on-base percentage dipped to .298 as he continued to deal with offensive difficulties.
Still, Thomson slid Stott up to the fifth spot in the batting order after removing scuffling third baseman Alec Bohm from the lineup for Game 2. He expressed faith in the left-handed hitter’s ability to handle the bat in key spots in the middle of the order.
Stott proved his manager correct and rewarded the decision with a 2-for-5 performance at the plate. His two-run triple put the Phillies on top in the eighth inning. He scored a run on a chopper to third base by J.T. Realmuto and made a leaping play on a line drive to second base in the third inning. Stott made an impact on the crucial win in variety of ways.
“When Stott’s going, that’s a huge part for us,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said. “He brings a dynamic to the basepaths. He’s a great baserunner too. And then he’s a guy who can drive in runs.”
Schwarber knows the season totals for Stott weren’t the greatest, but he saw the way the infielder worked throughout the year. He was glad to see Stott provide a pivotal hit and expected him to come through.
“He was a guy who just kept going and was able to put together a really good year,” Schwarber said. “He came up in a big spot, and I don’t think any of us were shocked at the result.”
Despite a down year overall, Stott has found success against Díaz, New York’s flamethrower out of the bullpen. In three regular-season plate appearances against the right-hander in 2024, he went 2-for-2 with a walk. He launched a ninth-inning home run off Díaz in a May game at Citi Field, then hit a pinch-hit, game-tying single against him at Citizens Bank Park three days later.
The result was no different on Sunday as Stott faced him in a critical postseason at-bat, driving home two runners to bring the Phillies ahead, 5-4. Díaz’s triple-digit fastball had some extra run to it, Stott said, so he had to be ready for the velocity. Sitting on a fastball in a 3-2 count, it would’ve been hard to adjust to a slider below the zone.
Luckily for Stott, Díaz left a breaking ball up and over the middle of the plate. Stott reacted and served it into right field to come through against one of baseball’s top closers once again.
“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Stott said. “Like I said, he’s one of the best in the game, and you know you have to be giving your best at-bat or he’s going to win.”
The Phillies could use this level of play from Stott for the rest of their postseason. At his best, Stott is a patient, contact-first hitter that can make a pitcher battle through an at-bat, a refreshing contrast to most of the Phillies’ chase-happy lineup.
Philadelphia’s offensive approach looked dismal through the first 14 innings of this series before the bats came alive in the sixth inning of Game 2 on back-to-back homers by Bryce Harper and Castellanos. The Phillies lineup surged for the rest of the evening. Stott was in the thick of that turnaround.
He’s been through this playoff experience before and has the chance to build upon his strong start to the postseason. Philadelphia simply has a much better chance to win when Stott plays to his capabilities, and a poor regular season can certainly be made up for in October.
The opportunity will be waiting as the Phillies continue what’s been a dramatic series, in part thanks to Stott, in New York.
“This is shaping up to be a classic battle,” Thomson said.
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