The 2024 Phils are a versatile team. On some nights, their starting pitcher completely shuts down the opposing lineup. On others, their offense lights up the scoreboard with crooked numbers. And, sometimes, they don’t play particularly well but still find a way to win.
Put Monday’s extra-inning Phillies W over the Mets in that last category. 5-4 was the final score in New York, after the Fightins entered the ninth inning down 4-2.
Starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez struggled, allowing seven hits and walking three in 5.2 innings. But he battled every Mets hitter and limited the damage. In the third inning, with the bases loaded and no outs, Sanchez walked home a run. Then he struck out the next three Mets on nine pitches.
“He got into trouble, long innings the second and third, and he just settled in and kept pitching,” said Thomson about Sanchez after the game. “That’s the growth in this guy. He’s really something.”
Sanchez’s efforts kept the game close while the Phillies’ bats struggled early. A lineup missing Trea Turner (on the IL with a hamstring injury), Kyle Schwarber (expected to return on Sunday after battling a back issue), and J.T. Realmuto (day-to-day with a knee concern) went one for eleven with runners in scoring position.
The lone hit with RISP came when Garrett Stubbs drove in a run with a second-inning bunt single. The Phillies didn’t score again until the seventh, when Johan Rojas grounded into a fielder’s choice to plate Edmundo Sosa. Like Sanchez, the offense didn’t have its best night.
Bryson Stott, however, stepped up and blasted a home run off of Mets closer Edwin Diaz to start the ninth. That made it a 4-3 game. After a Kody Clemens pinch-hit single and a Brandon Marsh walk, a vocal contingent of Phillies fans at Citi Field started buzzing.
Two quick outs failed to even advance the runners, but then Whit Merrifield walked after definitely not swinging at this pitch (heh heh heh):
With the bases loaded and two outs, on an 0-2 count, Diaz hit Alec Bohm with a pitch and the game was tied. Orion Kerkering pitched a clean bottom of the ninth against the Mets’ 3-4-5 hitters, and the Phillies gave fans free baseball for the second consecutive game.
Unlike Sunday’s extra-inning loss to the Marlins, in this one the Phillies scored their ghost runner in the top of the tenth. Stott brought that run home as well, on a sacrifice fly. The young infielder is hitting .462 (12 for 26) in his last eight games, raising his season slash line from .226/.308/.366 (.674 OPS) to .277/.371/.454 (.825 OPS).
“That dude’s a stud,” said Marsh about Stott. “It was only a matter of time for him to start clicking and no better time than now.”
Jose Alvarado pitched a clean bottom of the tenth for his eighth save, and the Phillies improved to 29-13. That record keeps them right on track with some of the hottest starts in franchise history.
“We just keep winning games in different ways, getting contributions from all kinds of people,” said Thomson. “That’s who they are. They keep fighting. They’re resilient.”
They are resilient, indeed. They’re also in first place.
An Atlanta Braves win over the Chicago Cubs Monday kept Atlanta two games behind the Phillies in the National League East.
On Tuesday, Aaron Nola (4-2, 3.67 ERA) will face Mets RHP Jose Butto (1-2, 3.00 ERA). It’s a 1:10 p.m. start. Jamie, Renee, and Tyler will bring you postgame coverage on the PHLY Phillies show as the game wraps up, and I’ll hop on for a bit to (hopefully) discuss another Phillies victory.
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