Just hours after the Sixers won an incredible overtime playoff game against the Knicks Tuesday night, the Phillies scored three ninth-inning runs in a 7-5 victory over the Angels.
The baseball game in California was almost as dramatic as the basketball game in New York. With one out in the top of the ninth, Nick Castellanos tied the score with a solo home run off of Angels closer Carlos Estevez. After a Bryson Stott double, Johan Rojas hit his first home run of the season, a two-run blast to give the Phillies the lead. Jeff Hoffman pitched the bottom of the ninth for the save.
“Huge, man, just to be able to come through,” Castellanos said about his HR after the game. “Because I feel like there’s so many spots so far this season where I haven’t.” Castellanos collected three hits on the night.
Rojas, meanwhile, is now batting .241 after starting the season with just one hit in his first 22 at-bats. As recently as April 16, the young outfielder was batting .167.
“If you go back to the first couple weeks, I’m ecstatic with where [Rojas] is at based on that,” said Rob Thomson.
For a bit, the game looked eerily similar to the Phillies’ Monday loss to the Angels. One night after the Phils went up 3-0 in the first inning, a three-run Kyle Schwarber home run put them up 3-0 in the second inning. And, for the second consecutive night, the lead vanished.
Despite a strong start from Spencer Turnbull (5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K), the Phillies trailed the Angels 5-3 after seven innings. Trea Turner mangled a double-play ball that could have ended the sixth, and the Angels took advantage by scoring four runs immediately after.
But in this game, the Phillies punched back. In the eighth inning, Turner singled and stole a base. An Alec Bohm base hit brought Turner home, made it a 5-4 game, and set the stage for the ninth-inning heroics.
The RBI was Bohm’s 30th of the season, second-most in the majors. The Phillies third baseman is also second in the majors among qualified hitters in batting average (.366) and OPS (1.036).
The win was the Phils’ 20th of the season. They are the first team in Major League Baseball to reach the 20-win milestone in 2024 and the first Phillies squad in franchise history to win 20 games before May. (The season starts a bit earlier nowadays, but 20 Ws in March/April is remarkable any way you slice it.)
Most importantly, at 20-11, the Fightins are just half a game behind the Atlanta Braves (19-9) in the National League East. It’s the closest the Phillies have been to first place since the fifth game of the 2022 season. In 2023, the Phils were a full game out of first after Opening Day, eight games behind in the division by May 6, and finished the season 14 games out.
One gets the feeling that the Phillies’ sights are set a little higher than a wild card spot this year.
“We’re just jelling and we’re playing good baseball,” said Castellanos. “We’re just a really good baseball team.”
