Phillies lose in walk-off fashion for second time in three days
Every time the Phillies scored Friday night in Pittsburgh, the Pirates answered immediately. The Phillies took three separate leads through the first four innings; each vanished a half inning later. But the Pirates never took the lead. They only tied the Phillies. Eventually, the pattern had to give. And it did.
With Jordan Romano on the mound in the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates finally took their first lead of the night, securing a win. The Phillies’ 5-4 loss was their third straight; it was their second walk-off defeat in three days. Rob Thomson’s club was walked-off by the Blue Jays on Wednesday in Toronto. Romano was on the mound then, too.
Trea Turner, who ended his night 3-for-5, scored the game’s first run in the top of the first on a Nick Castellanos groundout. It was the first run of the night for the Phillies shortstop, who scored again on an Alec Bohm single in the top of the third. Turner helped his team take the lead again in the top of the fourth — this time 4-2 — by driving in a pair of runs on a two-out single to center field with the bases loaded. All three of the Phillies’ run-scoring plays were answered by the Pirates.
Bryan Reynolds tied the game with a single in the bottom of the first. He tied it again with a solo home run in the bottom of the third. Henry Davis smacked a game-tying two-run home run a half inning after Turner’s two-run single.
The score sat 4-4 until the bottom of the ninth. A pair of back-to-back bloop singles and a bunt by Isiah Kiner-Falefa that didn’t roll foul loaded the bases for the Pirates against Romano. The right-hander struck out Oneil Cruz looking for the first out of the inning. But the task was too tall. Nick Gonzales drove a ball to deep left field one batter later. It was caught by Max Kepler, but it was too deep to make a play at the plate. Adam Frazier scored from third, ending the ballgame.
With the loss, the Phillies are now 3-7 over their last 10 games and 37-26 on the season.