Some wins you can see coming. This wasn’t one of them.
The Phillies trailed by four runs with six outs to go Thursday night at Steinbrenner Field. But somewhere between Bryson Stott’s bat and Pete Fairbanks’ errant pickoff throw, the script flipped. And when the dust settled, the Phillies had walked off the Rays, 7-6, in 10 innings—completing a comeback that felt both improbable and inevitable all at once.
Brandon Marsh and Trea Turner played hero in the 10th. With Weston Wilson standing on second as a pinch-runner for Nick Castellanos, Marsh ripped a double into the left-center gap off Manuel Rodríguez, giving the Phillies their first lead of the night. Two batters later, Turner lined a single to center to bring Marsh home—and as it turned out, they’d need that insurance.
Matt Strahm made things interesting in the bottom half, giving up a run and putting the tying run on second. But he locked down his second save, stranding the runner with a groundout that sealed the Phillies’ ninth win in their last 11 games.
This one had plenty of twists.
It started with Junior Caminero launching a solo homer in the first. It continued with Yandy Díaz’s three-run blast in the seventh that made it 5-1 Rays and had the few fans in Tampa Bay’s temporary home dreaming of an easy one.
But then Stott happened.
With two aboard in the eighth, he launched a three-run homer off Edwin Uceta to make it 5-4. That set up the ninth, where chaos reigned.
Kyle Schwarber led off with a single to extend his on-base streak to 43 games—a streak that’s now the longest active in baseball. Manager Rob Thomson then sent in Johan Rojas to pinch-run, and that’s when Fairbanks threw one away. His pickoff attempt sailed over first base, sending Rojas all the way to third. Max Kepler followed with a grounder that scored Rojas and tied the game.
Suddenly, a night that looked lost was wide open.
And in the 10th, Marsh and Turner made sure it stayed that way.
Meanwhile, the Rays dropped their seventh straight at Steinbrenner Field, their temporary home this season—a home that’s been anything but friendly.
The Phillies, meanwhile, just keep rolling with a stop on Cleveland set for the weekend.
