Phillies come from behind, beat Rays in 10 innings to secure sweep
Johan Rojas flipped off his helmet halfway between first and second base, signaling he wasn’t going to slow down and round second to head to third. The pinch-runner beat the eventual throw to third base, sliding in safely, putting the tying run 90 feet away with no outs.
Rojas was pinch-running for Kyle Schwarber, who looped a leadoff single into right field in the top of the ninth inning on Thursday night with the Phillies down 5-4. Rojas dashed his way from first to third after a pickoff attempt from Rays closer Pete Fairbanks got by first baseman Junior Caminero. He eventually scored on a groundout by Max Kepler, hit softly enough and to a spot of the infield that allowed Rojas to break for home on contact.
The comeback efforts didn’t start in the ninth, nor did they conclude there. The Phillies eventually beat the Rays 7-6 in 10 innings in Tampa, securing their second sweep of the season.
Rob Thomson’s lineup was limited to two hits in the first seven innings of Thursday’s series finale. Their bats woke up in the eighth, down 5-1, with a one-out single by J.T. Realmuto against right-handed reliever Edwin Uceta. Three batters later, the comeback kicked off as Bryson Stott hammered an inside fastball from Uceta 409 feet for a three-run homer.
One batter later, Trea Turner just missed a home run on a deep fly ball to left field that came down right at the top of the wall, bouncing off Christopher Morel’s glove and staying in play. Turner pulled into second for a double. He stayed there after a review upheld the on-field call of a two-bagger.
Turner was stranded at second after a Bryce Harper groundout, but made a key play a half inning later and delivered an important single in the extra frame.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth and Travis Jankowski leading off second base, Turner made a sliding play in shallow left field to stop a ground ball by José Caballero from getting into the outfield that could’ve allowed Jankowski to score to make it a 6-4 game. Instead, Jankowski could only advance to third on the play. He got stranded there after Jordan Romano struck out Kameron Misner to end the inning, keeping it a 5-4 game, allowing the Phillies to tie it in the ninth with just a run.
Turner came through again in the 10th, this time at the plate. After Brandon Marsh gave the Phillies a 6-5 lead with a double, Turner drove him home two batters later on a single to center field, giving his club a 7-5 lead. Turner’s RBI was important. The Rays plated a run in the bottom of the 10th before Matt Strahm stranded a pair of runners to close out the game by striking out Caballero.
Turner continues to stay hot at the plate, finishing the series against the Rays 6-for-15 with a double, home run and three RBIs. He’s hitting .354 with an .837 OPS over his last 15 games.