Unfortunately, after a successful bunt moved Kennedy to third, neither Kyle Schwarber nor Trea Turner were able to get him home.
That failure simply set up a dramatic ninth inning. Facing Mets’ closer Edwin Diaz, Nick Castellanos singled to right and then stole second to put himself into scoring position. J.T. Realmuto was next up, and given his strong career numbers against Diaz, it seemed like the Mets might walk him with a base open. But they opted to let J.T. hit, and hit is what J.T. did.
The win gave the Phillies a nine-game lead over the Mets in the division (The Braves are 8.5 games back pending the results of their game today). Even though they’ll face each other four times next week, with only thirteen games left, the math is not in the Mets’ favor.
But the Phillies can’t rest on their laurels. Even though a division title seems probable, they’ll be heading to Milwaukee tomorrow for a three-game series that may very well determine which team gets one of the National League’s two playoff byes.
Sunday’s game against the Mets started out as an ultra-efficient pitchers’ duel between David Peterson and Cristopher Sanchez. It ended with a walk off hit by J.T. Realmuto. And in between, there was strong relief pitching and yet another big moment from one of the less heralded members of the Phillies’ roster. It all added up to a 2-1 win that dropped the Phillies’ magic number down to 6.
Cristopher Sanchez has pitched exceptionally well at home all season, and Sunday was no exception. Through the first seven innings, Sanchez tore through the Mets’ lineup, striking out seven batters and not allowing a runner to advance past first base.
The only problem was, Mets’ starter Peterson was doing even better. The Phillies recorded just two hits through the first seven innings, and they almost seemed to be competing as to who could make the quickest out.
Sanchez faltered in the eighth. He gave up a leadoff home run to Tyrone Taylor to start the inning, and after Harrison Bader’s subsequent single, Sanchez’s day was over. But the bullpen made sure that would be the only run the Mets would get on the day. Orion Kerkering finished off the eighth, and in somewhat interesting usage, Jose Ruiz pitched a clean ninth.
It looked like the Phillies might waste that excellent pitching, but in the eighth, as has been the case quite frequently of late, it was the non-marquee players who got the job done. Weston Wilson led off with a double, and Buddy Kennedy drove him home with a double of his own.
Phillies catcher JT Realmuto had the winning RBI single in the teams second walk-off victory in this series vs the Mets.
USA TODAY
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