Phillies’ bats get hot late to complete a sweep of the Rays

TAMPA, Fla. — When Bryson Stott stepped up against Tampa Bay Rays reliever Edwin Uceta in the eighth inning Thursday, his teammates knew he was about to do something big.

The Phillies were trailing Tampa Bay, 5-1, with the likelihood of a sweep steadily shrinking. But there was a sense among the team that Stott was about to change the game.

Brandon Marsh called it, from where he was standing on first base. Nearby, Phillies first base coach Paco Figueroa called it, too. And José Alvarado called it from the bullpen in left field.

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Stott was expecting a changeup from Uceta, since it’s his best pitch. But instead, the right-hander threw Stott four straight fastballs, and on the fourth, Stott saw one he could hit. He sent it 409 feet to right field, a three-run shot that brought the Phillies’ offense back to life for what was ultimately a 7-6 extra-innings win.

“That dude’s a gangster,” said Marsh, who drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th.

The Phillies had just two hits in the first seven innings, but upped their total by seven by the end of the game. After Stott’s homer brought the Phillies within one, Trea Turner missed going back-to-back by just a few feet, but settled for a double when the ball glanced off left fielder Christopher Morel’s glove.

The Phillies tied things up in the ninth when Kyle Schwarber singled — extending his on-base streak to 43 games — and a pinch-running Johan Rojas came around to score two batters later.

When Marsh led off the 10th, Stott had a prediction of his own.

“He told me that he was going to bunt,” Stott said. “And I said, ‘No, you’re not. I went to college on the West Coast. I’ll bunt once you hit a double.’”

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That’s exactly what happened. Marsh laced an opposite-field double to score the ghost-runner, and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from Stott. Turner drove Marsh home with a single to center for a crucial insurance run.

“I love the fight in the club,” manager Rob Thomson said. “We’ve had four series where we’ve won the first two games in the series and been finished off. Finally got to finish it off today.”

Tampa put the winning run aboard twice. In the ninth, Taylor Walls singled off Alvarado, but a perfect throw from J.T. Realmuto caught him stealing second. Matt Strahm allowed a pair of two-out singles in the 10th, but responded with a strikeout to earn the save.

“I don’t even know where the pitch ended, to be honest. I saw him swing, didn’t hear a bat, and knew the game was over,” Strahm said.

Stott’s three-run homer answered the Rays’ own three-run shot in the previous inning. Two softly-hit singles — a bloop and a bunt — had come back to bite reliever Tanner Banks in the seventh when Yandy Díaz sent his changeup over the short porch in right field.

Before that, Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo kept the Phillies in the game by holding the Rays to two runs despite not feeling his sharpest.

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He allowed his second homer of the year — his first since his Phillies debut — on a four-seam to Junior Caminero in the first inning. Luzardo had trouble putting away hitters. Both walks he allowed came on full counts.

“Obviously a big game for the boys, but just a frustrating outing for me,” Luzardo said. “Just feel like getting too deep into counts, wasting a lot of pitches, not being efficient enough.”

Luzardo leaned on his sweeper, turning to it 38% of the time. He allowed six hits over 5⅓ innings before Carlos Hernández took over with two inherited runners. Hernández ended the frame with back-to-back strikeouts, touching 98 mph with his heater.

The Phillies caught three runners stealing, including Walls in the ninth. Realmuto fired a strike to second to nab Curtis Mead in the second, and Luzardo picked off Morel in the third.

Jordan Romano pitched a scoreless eighth, though he allowed two hits and was helped out by some acrobatic fielding from Bohm, who jumped up to rob a hit from Danny Jansen.

“That took all of us tonight,” Marsh said. “Almost everyone was in the game at one point. So that was a huge, huge win for us, especially the last game of the series here.”