Rays do have fins. I checked.
Entering tonight’s affair, the Phillies had two streaks going: their inability to finish off would-be sweeps, and Kyle Schwarber’s on-base streak. At the end of the night, one streak stood, and the other had fallen.
Bryson Stott started the proceedings with a standup leadoff double, then scored with a pair of productive flyouts. But the Rays quickly tired it up with a Junior Caminero solo shot to the opposite field; while they may not enjoy the benefits of having a proper home field, they do enjoy the benefits of their temporary home’s short porch. They then took the lead in the bottom 3rd on a sacrifice fly.
The Philadelphia bats then largely fell silent; the next three innings saw not a single hit for the good guys, stifled by Ryan Pepiot. Fortunately, Jesús Luzardo kept the Phillies in it by ensuring that the Tampa Bay bats were equally meek through 5. Luzardo came out again for the 6th, bolstered by a quick 6-pitch 5th inning. He soon put two runners on and was pulled for Carlos Hernández, who struck both batters faced out.
The Rays made their own pitching change to start the 7th, subbing in Garrett Cleavinger for Pepiot, and he proved no easier for the Fightins to crack. Tanner Banks took to the mound for the Phillies in the bottom 7th; somewhere in the crowd an E-A-G-L-E-S chant was started. José Caballero hit a chopper to short that pulled Trea Turner too far to make a play viable, then Taylor Walls bunted to put two on. At that point, the short porch came into play again: Yandy Díaz homered over it, opposite-field, to open up a 5-1 lead. for the Tampa Bays.
With time growing short, the Phillies attempted to make the most of their final 6 outs. Realmuto singled just past the glove of a diving Caballero. But Caballero made up for it when he slid to grab an Alec Bohm grounder, tossing it to second to put Realmuto out. Brandon Marsh singled to left, and the Phillies had runners on first and second. That brought up Bryson Stott. If Stott had hit a cheapie over the short porch, it would’ve felt satisfyingly symmetrical, proving that what’s good for the Tampa Bay goose is good for the Philadelphia gander. Sadly, he got too much on it and sent it so far over the fence that the shortness didn’t matter. Oh well. 5-4 Phillies. Immediately afterward, Trea Turner sent one the opposite way, seeming to all the world like the tying homer. To all the world save for Christopher Morel’s glove, that is: he leapt, knocked it down, and made it merely a two-out double. He was then stranded by a groundout to end the inning.
Jordan Romano was tasked with keeping Tampa’s tenuous lead tenuous. He allowed a leadoff single to Travis Jankowski, who then promptly stole second. A pair of outs kept Jankowski where he was, but another hit put runners on the corners, and another steal put both in scoring position. But Romano did not break, making Kameron Meisner swing and miss to end the inning.
Thus, the Phillies made their final stand in the Rays’ home away from home down by one. Tampa Bay reliever Pete Fairbanks intended to make it an unsuccessful one. Schwarber singled to right to start off the inning (extending his on-base streak). Johan Rojas was called in to serve as pinch-runner, which proved useful when a pickoff attempt flew right past Caminero at first. The rapidly-moving Rojas soon found himself at third. Nick Castellanos worked a free pass to put runners on the corners. Max Kepler barely made contact with the ball, not even enough to get the ball to the infield dirt. But it was enough to score Rojas, tying the game.
José Alvarado was assigned the bottom of the 9th, Walls led off with a single, but was quickly erased with a strikeout-caught stealing twin killing. The game continued into extras.
And those extra innings got off to a quick start, as Marsh doubled to right and scored ghost runner Edmundo Sosa. Marsh then scored himself thanks to a sacrifice bunt and a single from Turner.
The Phillies took their 7-5 lead into the bottom of the 10th, with Matt Strahm on the mound. Strahm quickly induced two outs, but a pair of hits made it a one-score game. Caballero came back to the plate, looking to be the hero. He went down swinging instead.
The Phillies are 22-15. They begin a series in Cleveland tomorrow at 7:10.