After losing Tuesday night’s game in epic fashion, the Phillies looked poised to drop another heartbreaker to the Marlins on Wednesday. Kyle Gibson had by far his best outing of the season, but despite his heroic efforts the Phils still found themselves facing a 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the ninth. The most underrated player on the team, Garrett Stubbs, came up huge with a walk-off home run.
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The Phillies offense went silent today after scoring nine runs in a losing effort last night. Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm each collected a pair of hits, but other than that there wasn’t much to write home about.
On the other side of the ball, Kyle Gibson saved a beleaguered Phillies bullpen by throwing 8.0 strong innings of one-run ball. He surrendered seven hits and no walks, while striking out six Marlins. Connor Brogdon kept the Phillies in it with a perfect top of the ninth in which he struck out two. In sharp contrast to last night’s disaster, the Phillies’ pitching was superb this afternoon.
Didi Gregorius struck out swinging to begin the bottom of the ninth. Alec Bohm gave fans hope with a one-our double, and J.T. Realmuto walked to put the winning run on base. Pinch-hitter Yairo Muñoz struck out next, bringing the Phillies down to their last chance.
With two outs, backup catcher Garrett Stubbs strode to the plate. Stubbs has been outstanding all year, as he entered today’s action with a .968 OPS across 39 plate appearances. As he’s done before, the 29-year-old came through for the Phillies when they needed it the most. He worked a 2-2 count against Marlins’ closer Tanner Scott, and then crushed a hanging slider into the right field seats to send the fans home happy.
The Phillies have been pulling rabbits out of their hats seemingly every day during this recent stretch of success, and the walk-off from Stubbs is yet another epic moment.