PHILADELPHIA -- A big reason — perhaps the biggest reason — why the Phillies are within reach of meaningful baseball in October is because of their depth. Unsung heroes have stepped up in the unlikeliest of moments, and it’s happened all season long. Rookie shortstop Bryson Stott, five-foot-ten backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, and 25-year-old bench player Nick Maton have all recorded game-winning hits. The list goes on.
So, it was fitting that on Wednesday night, when the Phillies desperately needed to snap a five-game losing streak, it was the unsung heroes who helped them win a must-win game, 4-3. The Phillies’ bats were largely quiet until the bottom of the eighth inning, when J.T. Realmuto got them on the board with a solo home run, a half inning after Seranthony Dominguez allowed a three-run home run to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The Phillies day care took it from there.
With two outs and Jean Segura waiting on first base, Dalton Guthrie, who was playing in just the seventh big league game of his career, scorched a line drive single to right field to score Segura, and cut the Phillies’ deficit from 3-1 to 3-2.
In the next at-bat, Matt Vierling, who was only in the game because center fielder Brandon Marsh was unavailable to play, singled to put runners on first and third, and Kyle Schwarber drove home Guthrie to tie the game at 3-3.
Bryce Harper, Realmuto and Alec Bohm went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth, and Andrew Bellatti took the tenth inning. The 30-year-old journeyman reliever, who was signed on a minor league deal in November, faced the heart of the Blue Jays lineup. It wasn’t pretty — Bellatti walked two batters to load the bases — but Teoscar Hernandez hit a liner straight to Jean Segura for an unassisted double play that ended the inning.
After Blue Jays reliever Adam Cimber allowed a hit by pitch and a walk to load the bases, Vierling got the walk-off hit, a single to right field, to win the ballgame. Vierling went 5-for-5 on Wednesday night.
Wheeler shines in return from IL
Zack Wheeler looked like vintage Zack Wheeler on Wednesday night, not the Zack Wheeler we’ve seen this season. He looked like the Zack Wheeler we saw last season, the pitcher who struck out 247 batters over 213.1 innings pitched and placed second in NL Cy Young Award voting.
Over four innings, he allowed just two hits with three strikeouts. He threw 16 pitches that clocked in at 98 mph or harder, and threw his hardest pitch of the season — a 99 mph four-seam fastball — in the second inning. He worked quickly and economically, throwing 58 pitches, 38 of them strikes.
It was an encouraging outing, but not a surprising one. Wheeler told us this was coming. When he was placed on the injured list in late August, he said was just starting to feel like his old self, thanks to two slight adjustments he’d made with the Phillies’ pitching coaches. And on Wednesday, after five missed starts, he looked like he hadn’t miss a beat.
Amid a 1-5 streak and with more than a few injuries to contend with, Wheeler’s outing provided the Phillies with a piece of good news that they desperately needed. He’ll pitch two more outings and is now lined up to start Game 1 in a wild card series, should the Phillies make it there.
The Brewers are two and a half games behind the Phillies in the wild card standings. The Phillies could break their postseason drought just as a byproduct of Milwaukee’s struggles, but Wheeler’s outing should make them more optimistic that meaningful baseball in October is within reach.
Syndergaard’s outing should give them optimism, too. The right-handed pitcher, who was making his first appearance out of the bullpen since May 31, 2016, gave the Phillies two stress-free innings, allowing just three hits with two strikeouts, against a lineup that had clubbed eighteen runs the night before. It was his best (albeit his shortest) outing in weeks.
Another rough outing from Seranthony Dominguez
Just as Wheeler is starting to look more like himself, Dominguez is starting to look a totally different pitcher. After giving up a season-high five earned runs in his last outing, on Sept. 16, Domínguez allowed a three-run home run to Guerrero Jr. on Wednesday night. He was credited with two earned runs, because of a throwing error by Bryson Stott that allowed Whit Merrifield to advance from first base to third base.
From there, Domínguez induced a groundout and walked two more batters. Like his outing on Sept. 16, he was unable to finish the inning.
