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Phillies pull off dramatic win over Nats, win on walk-off wild pitch originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies squandered Zack Wheeler’s strong work but avoided a deflating loss with a thrilling ninth-inning rally Tuesday night.

Bryson Stott hustled home to score on a Kyle Finnegan wild pitch and lift the Phillies to an ultra-dramatic, walk-off 7-6 win over the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. 

Wheeler went 6 2/3 innings and allowed five hits and two runs in the first contest of a three-game series vs. Washington. 

Trea Turner led off against MacKenzie Gore with an opposite-field single. After Bryce Harper flew out to the right-field warning track, Kyle Schwarber extended his on-base streak to a career-best 35 games in slugging fashion. Schwarber nailed a 96 mph fastball over the left-center wall to put the Phils up 2-0. 

Wheeler threw an auspicious, 10-pitch first inning and a solid second. 

The Nationals nearly broke through in the third. They loaded the bases with two outs and Wheeler’s command appeared shaky, but he got Keibert Ruiz to whiff on a 3-2 cutter. Across his last three starts, Wheeler’s tallied 29 strikeouts and three walks. 

Wheeler kept a shutout intact until Luis Garcia Jr. opened the sixth inning by drilling a home run. He walked off with two outs in the seventh following a Jacob Young double. Matt Strahm couldn’t strand the inherited runner, giving up a two-bagger to CJ Abrams. 

Jose Alvarado was an escape artist in the eighth.

He wriggled free from bases-loaded, no-out trouble with sinkers that hovered around 100 mph and high-quality cutters. Josh Bell, Dylan Crews and Alex Call all struck out swinging, which fueled a fist-pumping, chest-thumping Alvarado celebration.

Orion Kerkering couldn’t earn the save. The Phillies’ defense did not help his cause. 

Johan Rojas misplayed a James Wood RBI double and Turner committed a costly error, throwing wide to Harper at first base. The Nats got the tying run to second with two outs and Nathaniel Lowe cracked a two-strike, go-ahead homer into the right-field seats.

The Phillies kicked off the bottom of the ninth against Finneganwith an Alec Bohm single and a Stott walk. Max Kepler’s deep fly out to center moved Bohm to third base.

Stott stole second base with Rojas up and the Phillies’ center fielder just about drove in Bohm. He flew out to right field and Crews’ throw home was off target. That set the stage for the walk-off action.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson didn’t have lefties Stott and Kepler in the lineup for the series opener against a southpaw. Edmundo Sosa played second base and hit seventh. Weston Wilson manned left field and hit eighth. As a pair, Wilson and Sosa went 0 for 5.

Rojas provided pop from the nine-hole, hammering a third-inning home run. The 421-foot dinger was Rojas’ first of the season and the sixth of his career. 

Outside of the Phillies’ two early long balls, Gore fared well. Over his six innings, Turner was the one Phillie to record a non-homer hit vs. Gore.

Turner had a stellar night in leadoff duty, notching a four-hit game (and watching Stott sprint home in the ninth). His batting average has leaped from .245 to .290 in two games. Turner’s last knock was a double to right that brought in Rojas as the first of two Phillies insurance runs in the eighth.

The latest on Marsh 

Thomson laid out the team’s rotation plans pregame — Cristopher Sanchez on Wednesday, Taijuan Walker on Thursday, TBD for the weekend.

His dugout media session also included an update on Brandon Marsh, who was pulled from his fourth rehab game Sunday at Triple-A Lehigh Valley because of a right hamstring camp. 

According to Thomson, Marsh worked out Tuesday and was seeing the doctor pregame. If he’s cleared, the Phillies will send Marsh on another rehab assignment. Thomson sounded confident he would be back on the field soon.

“He said he feels fine,” Thomson said. “It’s just a cramp. We’re just being cautious.”

What we learned as Giants' comeback attempt falls short in tough loss to Padres originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN DIEGO — On a Tuesday night in April, the Padres drew 47,345 fans to Petco Park, the second-largest crowd in the ballpark’s history. It certainly helped that they gave out Tony Gwynn bobbleheads, but still, this has become the norm in San Diego, where they already have 15 sellouts this season. 

It was a huge crowd, and for most of the night, a very happy one.

The Giants fell behind early and their latest comeback attempt fell short. In their first game of the year against an NL West opponent, they lost 7-4 and learned a valuable lesson. The comebacks won’t be as easy against the San Diego bullpen. 

The Padres scored three runs on Logan Webb in the first and two more in the fourth, but as they always do, the Giants crawled back. They got within a run in the top of the sixth on LaMonte Wade Jr.‘s double, turning it into a battle of the two best bullpens in baseball, but the Padres extended their lead to three in the seventh when Xander Bogaerts snuck a two-run homer over the short wall in left. The homer was Bogaerts’ first of the year, and the two runs were the first two allowed by Randy Rodriguez this season.

Adrian Morejon struck out a pair in a clean seventh and Jason Adam did the same in the eighth. Robert Suarez came on in the ninth and had a 1-2-3 inning for his 11th save in 11 chances.

Here are the takeaways from a loss that drops the Giants to 19-11 this season:

Not His Favorite Opponent 

Webb’s 150th career start was also his 15th appearance against the Padres, and the last few have been a little rough. In his three starts before Tuesday, he allowed 27 hits over 17 innings, and that theme continued. Webb gave up nine hits, including four two-out singles in the three-run first inning. 

With the five earned runs on his line, Webb’s ERA on the season jumped from 1.98 to 2.83. He at least had a partner in Nick Pivetta, who went from 1.20 to 1.78 after getting knocked out in the sixth. 

The five earned were a season-high for Webb, but there was some bad luck involved. Only one of the nine Padres hits against Webb had an exit velocity of more than 100 mph and four were under 80 mph, including a softly-hit double. 

Breakout Game? 

Willy Adames was taking much better swings on the homestand, giving some additional hope to a coaching staff that has never been all that worried. Adames has always been a slow starter, but it looks like he’s coming around. 

In his first career NL West matchup, Adames opened the scoring for the Giants by hitting a high homer that just cleared the wall in the deepest part of the yard.

Adames then led off the sixth with a double that ignited a three-run inning. The double had the highest exit velocity (107.2 mph) of all of Adames’ hits this season and the homer was second (105 mph). Four of his five hardest-hit balls this season have come in the past four games. 

Breakout Game, Part II? 

Wade entered the night with an incredibly low batting average on balls in play (.135), a sign that he has dealt with a lot of poor luck early on. That’s never been more clear than in the last game of the homestand, when he just missed hitting a grand slam and then a two-run double. On Tuesday, one of his liners finally found a gap.

With two outs and two strikes in the top of the sixth, Wade reached out and hit a slider down the line, bringing Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos around to get the Giants within a run.

Wade had driven in just eight runs over his previous 25 games.

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There's no question the vibes are high right now for the Mets, who own the best record in baseball at 20-9 and who are coming off a 19-run offensive explosion on Monday.

The only thing that could derail this team's excitement is injuries, which unfortunately have happened as manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters before Tuesday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks that left-handed reliever A.J. Minter is dealing with a "pretty significant" lat injury and that surgery is still on the table.

Nevertheless, the show must go on and New York now has its eyes set on Arizona, which just ended a four-game losing streak with a win against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.

Finding Nimmo

Before Mendoza spoke, the Mets' lineup was revealed and there was a pretty big surprise when Brandon Nimmo's name was nowhere to be found. Sure, the Diamondbacks have LHP Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound today, but considering Nimmo's huge game against the Washington Nationals on Monday, it seemed like a no-brainer to keep him in the lineup.

So why the rest?

"I’m not resting Brandon," Mendoza said with a bit of a laugh when asked about his decision to leave Nimmo out of the lineup. "Especially after that game last night. He’s just sick today. He’s in rough shape right now.

"We’ve got a lot of guys dealing with this flu, whatever you wanna call it, and fever, pretty weak. So [Nimmo's] getting an IV right now and hopefully he’s a player for us at some point today, but we gotta give him a couple of hours. As of right now, he’s pretty rough."

Asked if Nimmo was dealing with this sickness during his two-home run, nine-RBI game less than 24 hours ago, the skipper said, "It's been going on, but I think last night and this morning that’s when it got him pretty good."

In Nimmo's place, Jose Azocar is in left field and batting ninth while Starling Marte is the DH, batting cleanup.

What about Wednesday?

As of right now, the Mets have not announced a starter for the middle game of this three-game set with the D-backs.

However, Mendoza stated that LHP Brandon Waddell, pitching for Triple-A Syracuse this season, will be with the team on Wednesday and will have some sort of impact on the game.

The manager wouldn't say whether Waddell would get the start or come in after an opener (like Justin Hagenman did on April 16 against the Minnesota Twins), but that "he will play a part of that game tomorrow."

"Whether he’s gonna start, we got to get through today’s game and see whether we want to go with an opener or he starts the game," Mendoza said.

Having last pitched in the majors in 2021 and owning a 5.68 ERA across 11 appearances (no starts), Waddell has pitched well for Syracuse. In five starts, the lefty has a 1.54 ERA.

Battered bullpen

With the unfortunate news of Minter, New York's bullpen is going to have to step up without its setup man. And despite still pitching to a 3.07 ERA, third-best in the NL, some Mets' relievers have already begun to level off after an incredible start to the season.

"It’s a big blow, I’m not gonna lie," Mendoza said about Minter's injury. "Not only because of his ability to throw high-leverage, but his ability to get lefties and righties [out]. It’s a big blow for sure, but guys will step up, guys will continue to get opportunities and we gotta keep going."

One of those relievers that will likely get more opportunities is Max Kranick.

Before quickly impressing the team during spring training, Kranick hadn't pitched in the majors since 2022 when he underwent Tommy John surgery. In his first taste back in the big leagues since, the right-hander has continued to look good with a 2.55 ERA in 17.2 innings.

What's been most impressive about Kranick has been his flexibility and willingness to pitch in any situation. Each new challenge he's faced, he's handled with aplomb.

"I think regardless of this injury with A.J., [Kranick's] been super valuable," Mendoza said, singing the 27-year-old's praises. "He’s been huge for us. Especially with some of the ways we’ve been using him, when you probably have to call his name because a pitcher went down – that happened back-to-back outings. And he comes in and he continues to get the job done.

"We feel good about a guy like Kranick getting righties and lefties [out], we feel good with some of the other righties that we’ve got in the bullpen and their abilities to get left-handed hitters out and people will continue to get some opportunities and Kranick is one of them."

It wasn't all bad news on Tuesday either, as the Mets officially signed Brooks Raley. While the lefty begins the season on the IL, he's already begun throwing bullpen sessions as he continues his rehab from Tommy John surgery and figures to be an option in the bullpen down the line.

"He’s gonna go down to Florida and continue to throw his bullpens so hopefully in the next couple of weeks he starts facing batters and then we’ll go from there," Mendoza said. "But he’s already throwing bullpens so that’s a good sign."

Between 2023 and 2024, Raley pitched to a 2.48 ERA in 74 games for the Mets.

Connor Rogers and Joe DeMayo drop a new episode of The Mets Pod presented by Tri-State Cadillac, as the Mets reach 20 wins after bouncing back in a huge way from their ugly loss to the Nationals on Sunday.

The guys recap New York's Monday afternoon rout of the Nationals, headlined by Brandon Nimmo tying the single-game franchise RBI record. They also discussed Edwin Diaz's inconsistency and how to balance the return of Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez.

Later, the guys bring back “Tales from the Pitching Lab” to break down what adjustments have helped Tylor Megill, and then go Down on the Farm to check in on Marco Vargas after his promotion to Brooklyn.

Finally, The Scoreboard sees a flip and the Mailbag gets opened to feature questions about a future GM under David Stearns, a former Met that would have benefited from the pitching lab, and the gameplan once Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas return.

Be sure to subscribe to The Mets Pod at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.