Phillies walk off Nationals in 10th inning, maintain best record in MLB

Kody Clemens was in an unenviable position in the ninth inning of the Phillies’ 4-3, 10-inning win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Clemens stepped to the plate with two outs to face Kyle Finnegan, a reliever who had recorded 13 of 14 save opportunities. The Phillies were losing, 3-2. Clemens was their last chance, but he had prepared for this moment.

Before he had entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning, Clemens had gone to the indoor hitting cages, and worked on getting his front foot down early, to help his timing. He had even inched closer to the pitching machine, to train his eyes for the higher velocity he was bound to see.

“[The point is] to make it feel like it’s 110 mph,” said Clemens, who singled in the seventh off Dylan Floro, then stayed in the game to play second base. “So, then when you get called, you’re ready for those fastballs that those late relievers are going to be throwing.”

Finnegan entered in the ninth to try to protect the one-run lead and promptly retired Bryson Stott and Nick Castellanos on groundouts. Clemens stepped to the play, took a splitter in the dirt, then pounced on the 98 mph heater he had been preparing for. He sent it 413 feet, over the center-field fence, to send the game into extra innings.

Reliever Gregory Soto — a pitcher who has often struggled with command and control this season — pitched the 10th for the Phillies and needed just 11 pitches to retire three straight Nationals hitters and strand the ghost runner on second base.

Bryce Harper took care of the rest. In the bottom of the 10th, with runners on first and third and one out, the Phillies first baseman hit a sacrifice fly to center field to easily score Johan Rojas for the walk-off win. The Phillies are 33-14, and undefeated in their last 14 series.

This team seemingly finds new ways to win every night, but they rarely find themselves down in the ninth. On May 19 of last season, they had been trailing after eight innings in 23 games. This year, that number has dropped to 15.

They are much more efficient. They score early, and when you pair that with dominant pitching, there aren’t many opportunities for comebacks. But on Saturday, they showed that they can still rally when they need to.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Matt Strahm has gone almost 18 innings without allowing a run. Just don’t ask him to talk about it.

The Phillies came back not once, not twice, but three times. It did not come easily. Nationals eft-hander MacKenzie Gore did a solid job of keeping them off balance. The Phillies’ first hit came in the fourth inning. They managed just three hits against Gore through 6⅓ innings, scoring two runs and collecting three walks.

Entering Saturday’s game, he had not allowed a home run to a left-handed hitter this year. But Stott — who is now batting .391 over his 15 games — changed that. In the seventh inning, Stott pulled a high four-seam fastball to the right-center field stands, to tie the game at 2-2. It was his fifth home run of the season.

It was not an offensive shellacking on Saturday, but it didn’t need to be, mainly because of Cristopher Sánchez, who gave the Phillies seven efficient innings. He allowed some hard contact but was able to minimize the damage, permitting just two earned runs on eight hits, and, notably, no walks. It was the first game this season in which Sánchez hadn’t allowed a free pass.

The left-hander had eight strikeouts. He finished his outing at 92 pitches, of which 69 were strikes. He saw his velocity tick up, averaging 95.4 mph on his sinker, a 1.4 mph increase from his yearly average.

“Sánchez was fantastic,” said manager Rob Thomson. “He touched 98 mph, he held his command. Changeup was really good. The growth of this guy — mentally and emotionally — just fighting out of innings. ... There were two or three innings where he had a lot of traffic [on the bases], and he just kept pitching.”

This is something Sánchez has worked on.

» READ MORE: For 20 years, the Phillie Phanatic has doubled as a children’s author, and nothing gives him a bigger thrill

“There are things you can’t control, like walks,” Sánchez said. “I’ve been trying to remain calm, pitch after pitch.”

Matt Strahm entered for the eighth and extended his scoreless streak to 18⅔ innings, allowing one hit with one strikeout. Orion Kerkering pitched the ninth, and struggled a bit with his command, allowing a single, a hit batsman, and an RBI single by Jesse Winker to give the Nationals a 3-2 lead.

But Clemens, Harper, and Soto made that a moot point.

“It’s amazing,” Clemens said. “I mean, I feel like we all show up here and we’re expected to win the game, even before it starts. It’s an awesome atmosphere to be around.”