Phils Mount Late Rally, Down AL Leading Orioles

If you haven’t heard already, Bryce Harper is a damn good ballplayer and so are his boys. Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm in particular, the three combined for five of the team’s eight hits and scored all four of their runs.

Harper said this about the club’s resilience postgame, “we fight hard, it can be anyone on any given night”.

If any given night is what we got then, the Phillies must’ve just had the luck of the draw tonight. After going 5-5 in their last ten games and on the verge of yet another losing streak, the team pulled out one of their most improbable and well-timed statement wins of the year.

Before the ninth inning, a Johan Rojas RBI single and Bryce Harper homer were all the Phillies had to gloat over. The team combined for only four hits to that point, and just one emerging from the top-six spots in the lineup, or in more simplistic terms; the guys who should be hitting.

After Trea Turner struck out once again to start the inning, Bryce Harper lit the spark that fueled the Phillies revival; knocking in a mere single. Not long after, however, a Bryson Stott double to the right-field corner sent Harper home to score. Then a JT Realmuto infield single that would have most likely been a traditional five-three ground out 99/100 times, failed to escape the recently subbed in Jorge Mateo’s glove in time, allowing Realmuto to reach first just in time. Finally, Third Baseman Alec Bohm completed the comeback as he swatted a ball through the left field gap sending Bryson Stott streaking home as The Bank erupted.

The win for the Phillies couldn’t have come at a better time, after a disheartening loss the night before and on the ides of the MLB Trade Deadline, it seems like the club could’ve gotten real lucky just in the nick of time.

One Nick who wasn’t so fortunate was Phils Rightfielder, Nick Castellanos. Despite making an immaculate play out in the field and quite possibly saving a crucial Baltimore run, the All-Star once again struggled to get it going at the plate. In his past 15 games, Castellanos is batting .136 with a .363 OPS, since the Calender turned to July he hasn’t been much better, hitting just .198 with a .608 OPS. Nick has been just one product of the Phillies veteran’s struggles through the month of July.

Though not all that out of character, Kyle Schwarber is swatting just .153 with a .246 OBP and only four home runs during the month. Trea Turner, a guy whose struggles have taken a brunt of the hits, holds one of the worst batting lines on the squad; .245/.297/.384. While the supposed best offensive Catcher in Baseball, JT Realmuto is having a career season and not in a good way. The former All-Star and Silver Slugger is mashing just .222 in his last 30 games with 37 Ks.

Despite all this, the club has prevailed–Now sitting tied for the second Wildcard spot with both San Fransisco and Arizona. While the division race looks a bit less promising now as the Phillies still sit 11.5 games behind first-place Atlanta. Nonetheless, the club will have an opportunity to start up a win streak again tomorrow as they face the O’s one last time for a 6:05 pm ET start. You can catch the game on NBCSP and listen on 94.1 WIP.