PHILADELPHIA — doPhillies starter Zach Eflin watched along on the clubhouse TV as Alec Bohm stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the tenth inning. His team was trailing the Dodgers 3-2, with two outs, a runner on second, and the game on the line. Since the eighth inning, Eflin had been using his ears to get a sense of what was about to transpire. The broadcast was about 15-20 seconds behind, but if he heard cheering, he knew that something was about to happen. He just didn’t know what.
Bohm took five pitches. On the sixth pitch, he hit a ball softly to Dodgers second baseman Max Muncy. It seemed like a routine play, but then, Eflin heard the cheers. Muncy fumbled the ball. Roman Quinn — who is one of the fastest baserunners in baseball and perhaps the only person who could have scored in this scenario — began chugging towards home plate. Muncy tried to throw it home, but to no avail. Quinn was safe, and the Phillies won, 4-3, on a walkoff error.
It was an imperfect ending to an imperfect homestand. After Eflin tossed one of the best starts of his career, holding the Dodgers to four hits, two earned runs, two walks, two home runs and striking out a career-high 12 batters, the Phillies bats remained quiet until the sixth inning, when eight-hole hitter Garrett Stubbs hit his first career home run. In the bottom of the seventh, Kyle Schwarber had a chance to give his team the lead and struck out with a runner on first and one out.
