The Philadelphia Phillies nearly had their eight-game winning streak broken on Sunday versus the St. Louis Cardinals, trailing 4-0 going into the bottom of the ninth.
With Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien and his 33 saves on the mound, the chances of a ninth consecutive victory looked grim. But somebody in that Phillies dugout must have followed Crash Davis’ advice to “never f*** with a winning streak.”
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Kyle Schwarber’s 2-run homer off O’Brien with two outs rocketed the Phillies to a 6-4 walk-off win, their ninth consecutive victory. But the Phillies had to make a significant climb before Schwarber’s blast into Citizens Bank Park’s center field trees.
Bryce Harper led off the ninth with a double. But O’Brien recovered to get Luis Arraez and Brandon Marsh to fly out to left field. Again, the Phillies getting that winning streak to nine looked unlikely.
Then J.T. Realmuto followed up with a single. O’Brien walked Justin Crawford to load the bases on five pitches, four of which were far out of the strike zone. Edmundo Sosa reached low to pull an 83 mph into left field, clearing the bases and pulling the Phillies to within 4-3.
Up next was Bryan De La Cruz, who fell behind on a zero-ball, two-strike count. Down to his final strike, De La Cruz fouled off a high sinker. Then he laid off two pitches outside of the zone. O’Brien then threw another sweeper low, but over the plate. And that pitch was pulled into left field past a diving JJ Wetherholt to drive in Sosa for the game-tying run.
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By the time Schwarber came to the plate, O’Brien had thrown 33 pitches and was likely close to gassed out. But once again, O’Brien got ahead with a zero-ball, two-strike count. Schwarber stayed alive by fouling off a 97 mph inside sinker. After missing with a sweeper, the Cardinals closer then left a 98 mph sinker out over the plate.
Phillies fans loved Kyle Schwarber’s 2-run walk-off homer to beat the Cardinals. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
(AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)
Schwarber sent the pitch the other way at 108.5 mph, landing 459 feet away in straight-away center field. Twice down to their final strike, the Phillies won their ninth straight game, extending their longest run of consecutive wins this season.
The walk-off homer was also the first from a Phillies batter in three years, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. That had been the longest span between walk-off home runs in MLB. Every other team had hit at least two walk-off homers during the past three years. Four teams had hit at least 10 of them.
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The last Philadelphia hitter to win a game on the team’s final at-bat was also Schwarber, taking Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Caleb Ferguson deep for a 5-4 win on June 9, 2023. That blast came with two outs, as well.
At 73-58, the Phillies could cut their second-place deficit in the NL East to two games, pending the Atlanta Braves’ Sunday night matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Philadephia also has a relatively comfortable hold on the National League’s second wild-card playoff spot, 4.5 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks with 31 games remaining on its regular-season schedule. That place will stay comfortable if the Phillies keep winning games like this.
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