First, Andrew Painter had a highly successful debut.
Now, Justin Crawford has himself a walkoff hit, giving the Phillies a much needed victory at home, evening their record at 3-3.
One would have thought it was going to be a lot easier the way the game started. Trea Turner walked, stole a base and scored on a Kyle Schwarber double.
However, the second inning saw Cristopher Sanchez struggle with his command a bit and the Nationals continue their series trend of barely getting the ball out of the infield to scrape across a run and tie the game at one. The Phillies had a chance to untie it in their half of the second, loading the bases for Trea Turner, but a line drive to center field and the threat was over.
The chance would find Turner again in the fourth when he had two in scoring position and two out, but a meek fly ball and the feeling of “here we go again” started washing over everyone watching it. The game stayed that way until the sixth when the Nationals pushed a run across with two outs to take a 2-1 lead. In the seventh, Washington added on when Brad Keller, on in relief for another day, got two outs and induced a groundball for a potential third out, only to be overturned by replay. Two batters later…
Sigh…
However, the fight to gain ground started in the seventh. J.T. Realmuto finally got on the board with a home run to cut the lead to three.
In the eighth, Bryce Harper decided to have a pulse by homering and narrowing the lead yet again.
The ninth is when the real fireworks began. Turner and Schwarber got one with one out, Harper flied out with two outs and Alec Bohm was walked to load the bases. Edmundo Sosa, brought in as a substitute earlier in the game, delivered with an RBI to tie the game at five.
It stayed this way into extra innings with Jhoan Duran on the mound to preserve the tie ballgame. He got the first out, then was aided by a sparkling defensive play by Sosa to keep the game tied.
With the chance to win it in the tenth, Realmuto singled ghost runner Brandon Marsh to third, meaning Justin Crawford had a chance to make his first stamp on the team. He delivered in a big way.
Good for the kid.
The team heads to Colorado to begin a three game series on Friday.
