Goose bumps: Phillies 13, Red Sox 6

The Phillies were in trouble. Trailing by two runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, it felt like the team was headed towards a frustrating loss at the hands of the last place Red Sox.

That’s when Phil Gosselin got involved.

Thanks to their super sub, the Phillies’ offense finally came to life, and the team powered its way to a 13-6 win.

Things didn’t look good for the Phillies early on. Despite striking out eight batters, starting pitcher Zach Eflin didn’t have his best stuff. He was touched for four runs in four innings, which meant that not only did he put the team in a hole, he also left five innings for the Phillies’ shaky bullpen.

At the same time, the Phillies’ offense was having trouble getting much going against Red Sox starter Zack Godley. Godley has struggled this season, but he held the Phillies to just one run in four innings.

In the fifth inning, the Phillies got one run back thanks to a very unlikely source: A home run by Rhys Hoskins.

However, the bullpen gave that run right back in the bottom of the inning. The following inning, the Phillies had a runner on base with two outs. Scott Kingery was due up, but manager Joe Girardi decided to send Gosselin to the plate in his place. Gosselin made his manager look smart.

Sparked by Gosselin’s big hit, the next seven batters would reach base, with the biggest blow provided by Bryce Harper.

Not satisfied with just one RBI on the evening, Gosselin added another the following inning when he hit a solo home run. Jay Bruce capped off the scoring with a three-run home run that brought the Phillies’ tally to 13. That kind of run support was more than enough to cover for Eflin’s off night, and the usual shenanigans of the bullpen (Two runs in five innings).

It probably isn’t realistic to expect a 13 run output every night. But if he continues to play as well as he has, we should expect to see much more of Gosselin in the future.