The Phillies just keep coming back.
After overcoming a three-run deficit with four in the sixth inning, they responded to Brad Hand's blown save with two more runs in the ninth to walk the Reds off, 7-6, Tuesday night on a Nick Maton single.
Bryson Stott nearly won the game himself with a pinch-hit blast off the top of the wall in right-center. Inches away from going out for a game-winning homer, it was instead a game-tying double. Stott advanced to third on an airmailed throw back into the infield.
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The rookie shortstop has developed a knack for these clutch, late hits. He already has a walk-off three-run homer to beat the Angels and an eighth-inning three-run homer that brought the Phillies back against the Braves. Now this.
"I just think he's a confident guy and he's a good player," manager Rob Thomson said. "He has a slow heartbeat. He continues to come through. All those guys -- Matt Vierling, Stott, Maton, every one of them came through tonight, all of those young guys."
Maton came off the bench and delivered the game-ending blow moments after Stott's hit with a line-drive single to right.
It all came against Reds closer Alexis Diaz (Edwin’s brother), who had been basically unhittable in August with 8⅔ scoreless innings and 16 strikeouts entering the night.
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"He's awesome," Stott said of Maton. "We actually hit in the cage for probably 20 seconds before the ninth inning started. I told him he needs to hurry up because I was up first. I think he ran to the bathroom to get the nervous pee out.
"He's awesome, always ready to hit. Just to see him come through for us there was awesome."
Throw in Alec Bohm's RBI single that started the scoring for the Phils and Vierling's insurance home run in the seventh inning and it was another big night for the young, homegrown position players.
"With the hitters that are in this lineup, you're never out of it," Stott said. "We all believe in each other and if you don't do it, you know you've got another great guy behind you who's capable of doing it as well. Never try to do too much and just kind of pass the baton around to everybody."
The walk-off win was the Phillies' fifth of the season. It improved them to 68-55 as they continue to occupy the National League's second wild-card spot. The Phils are on a 90-win pace with 39 games left in the regular season.
They’re also 30-20 since Bryce Harper’s thumb was broken in San Diego. Harper, by the way, homered twice for Lehigh Valley in his first rehab game Tuesday night, news that was not lost on Thomson or Harper's Phillies teammates.
Tuesday was a tale of two different games. Neither team scored through five innings as lefties Ranger Suarez and Nick Lodolo were tough. The Reds scored three times on Suarez in the sixth and the Phillies responded with four off of Lodolo in the bottom half. They added a run the next inning on Vierling's homer, and Jose Alvarado narrowly avoided a blown save in the eighth inning by allowing a run, then striking out three in a row with runners on second and third.
Hand blew the save with two outs in the ninth -- the runs were unearned because of a throwing error by shortstop Edmundo Sosa -- but the Phillies still had some more offense left in the tank.
"Roller coaster of a game," Maton said.
The four-game series against Cincinnati continues Wednesday night when lefty Cristopher Sanchez will be recalled from Triple A for a spot start. Sanchez last started on July 5 against the Nationals and tossed five scoreless innings. The Phillies are turning to him Wednesday in order to give their five rotation members an extra day before their next start.
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