They did what now? Phillies 6, Diamondbacks 5

When they lose the first two games of a series, the Phillies have this awful habit of playing poorly in the third. So, after losing two straight to the Diamondbacks and then falling into a 5-0 hole, it sure didn’t seem like the Phillies were going to be heading home victorious on Wednesday afternoon. But thanks to a long overdue clutch moment by Trea Turner and a game-winning hit by Alec Bohm, the Phillies somehow defeated the Diamondbacks 6-5.

You can’t have a comeback win if you don’t fall behind, and falling behind early is something the Phillies have become proficient at. Ranger Suarez has been shaky (okay, he’s been bad) since coming off the Injured List, and his bad day started early when the first two Arizona hitters reached base. One of them came around to score, and the Phillies faced a 1-0 deficit before their first at bat.

Ranger’s day got worse in the third when he gave up a two-run double to Emmanuel Rivera and a two-run home run to Evan Longoria. (Before you check, yes, it is 2023.)

To his credit, Suarez rebounded to retire the final seven batters he faced, so maybe that’s something to build on?

Faced with another early deficit, the Phillies leaned into their tendency to swing early and often. Someone needs to tell these guys that you can’t hit a five-run home run, especially if you swing at pitches that are nowhere near the strike zone.

The Phillies finally strung together some hits in the sixth inning, and consecutive RBI singles by Brandon Marsh and Alec Bohm cut the lead to 5-3. It would be nice if someone actually hit a home run in such a spot because it’s really hard to get four singles in an inning. But hey, runs!

The Diamondbacks had plenty of chances to put this game out of reach, but the Phillies’ bullpen did an excellent job of stranding runners. Andrew Vasquez escaped a bases loaded jam in the sixth, and Connor Brogdon did the same in the seventh.

The game remained 5-3 in the ninth, and with two outs, Trea Turner came to the plate, and it felt like the only question was how many pitches it would take him to strike out. In his previous at bat, Turner struck out, swinging at pitches that bore no resemblance to strikes, and made people say some very unpleasant things about him.

And then, baseball happened.

The game took an interesting turn in the top of the 10th when the umpires managed to get both teams angry with their (lack of) handling of the pitch clock. Nobody - especially the umps - seemed to have any idea what was going on.

When the carnage ended, Craig Kimbrel had pitched a scoreless frame and the Phillies would have the winning run on second base to start the bottom of the inning. Diamondbacks reliever Jose Ruiz intentionally walked Kyle Schwarber to set up a double play, but it didn’t matter since his control was way off. A wild pitch set up another walk, and the Phillies had the bases loaded and nobody out.

Once again, I shouldn’t have been convinced that they were going to botch this opportunity, but thankfully, a Phillies hitter proved me wrong for the second time. Alec Bohm lofted a ball to right field that scored the winning run, giving the Phillies the improbable victory.

Maybe a comeback win is just the thing to get the Phillies going. It would be great if this proved to be the spark they needed, and they’ll play good, winning baseball from now on. Because with a slew of division games ahead of them, the Phillies can’t afford to play as poorly as they did for the first five innings if they don’t want to end up buried in the standings.