Phillies keep rallying late, stealing wins and showing he can be a skill originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
The ability to steal wins and continually come back late in games doesn’t seem like a trait that should easily translate from one year to the next, but the Phillies are putting it to the test.
They did it again on Saturday night, recovering from three separate deficits on a run to beat Nacional 4-3 in stoppage time. Bryce Harper put away the Phillies with a one-inning sacrifice bunt after Kody Clemens crushed a game-tying solo homer to right center, with the team down to their final two hits.
It didn’t matter that the Phillies had just two hits in six innings, or that when Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore walked out in the seventh, the game’s seven most hit balls all belonged to Washington.
Not much seems to matter to this team.
“No matter what position we’re in, how low we are, how high we are or anything like that, we throw 27 strikeouts for a reason,” Harper said. “And I think that’s good for a full season. Whenever you’re in moments like this or you have opportunities like this, it just builds your team to be that much better at the end of the year, in the postseason, because you’ve been in those moments. , you’ve had these opportunities throughout the year and you’ve kind of capitalized on that as you’ve moved forward as a team.
“Every team is different and I think we have a really good group here.”
Really good might be an understatement. The Phillies are 33-14. No National League team since the 1998 Braves has performed better through the first 47 games of a season.
The Phillies are undefeated in 14 consecutive series. The only two that lost were the first two.
Clemens hasn’t been active long this season, but he’s made a serious impact when called upon. In his first two starts, he went 4-for-8 with a double, triple, home run and seven RBI. On Monday in New York, he scored in the ninth inning off Mets slugger Edwin Diaz to score the tying run.
It will be difficult to remove him from the roster if everyone is healthy when Trea Turner eventually returns from a hamstring strain.
“I think he does a phenomenal job, even when he’s not pitching or starting the game, locking down the game later against tough pitchers,” Harper said. “You saw it tonight. … He’s got big league hitting, more and more every day.”
Clemens is still using Harper’s bat, just as he did two weeks ago during a four-RBI night against the Blue Jays.
“I’ll give him whatever he wants,” Harper joked after Saturday’s win.
The sound of Clemens’ bat after his hit against Nats closer Kyle Finnegan said it was going, but Clemens himself thought he hit it too low to get it out. Then he saw it land on the seats and looked back at an erupting dugout.
“Every night, I feel like it’s someone else,” he said. “It’s amazing. I feel like we all showed up here and expected to win the game before it even started. It’s an amazing atmosphere to be around. … It’s all happening.”
A huge, sometimes overlooked, factor in the Phillies’ ability to snatch victory from defeat this season has been their frequent minimization of the damage. Nick Senzel’s leadoff double off Cristopher Sanchez in the top of the fourth was the Nationals’ sixth hit of the game with 13 hits. But Sanchez generated two leadoff double plays, stranded a runner in scoring position with no one out in the fourth and retired the last seven batters he faced, four by strikeout.
A better opponent than the Nationals could have opened the game, but in reality, there are many more teams in Washington’s tier than above it. There are five National League clubs over .500. Five. The Phillies will spend many more nights this season playing inferior teams than they will facing teams as deep or talented as them.
“Sanchez was fantastic, hit 98 (mph) and stayed in control,” coach Rob Thomson said. “The change was very good. The growth of this guy, mentally and emotionally, just fighting for innings.
“Our starters are finding a way to break up the chaos and just come out of innings, get a ground ball, turn a double play. They have the ability to slow the game down.”
Sanchez hit 98.3 on the radar gun and his fastball velocity is up about 1.5 mph over his season average, which will make any pitcher better, but especially one with a good changeup. He has a 3.31 ERA in nine starts and has allowed just one home run in 49 innings.
Asked about bending but not breaking on Saturday night, Sanchez said he wants to emulate what he sees from Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola.
“Great pitchers do that and I try to mirror that in Wheels and Nola,” he said. “Even if you get hit sometimes, it doesn’t stop you, and it doesn’t stop them. I’m trying to see that in myself, too.”
Music is usually still playing in the Phillies clubhouse 20 to 30 minutes after the game ends, but the playlist ended earlier than usual on Saturday. Maybe they’re tired of hearing the same victory songs every night.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Sanchez said of going to the stadium every day. “This is incredible.”
The Phillies have their sixth sweep of the season on Sunday afternoon behind Nola, who had four hits on Tuesday in New York.
