The Phillies opened a crucial day by winning their suspended game against the Marlins, 4-2, in 10 innings.
JT Realmuto hit a two-run homerun on Marlins reliever Yimi Garcia. There was a runner in third with an out, so the game was going to end there whether or not the ball went over the wall.
“I didn’t care anyway,” Realmuto said after celebrating with his teammates. “I knew I won the game, which is why the first pump went out immediately.”
Saturday’s game was interrupted early in the 10th when Jose Alvarado scored 1-1 over Jon Berti with a runner on second base. There was a torrential downpour in South Philly and after the second late rain of the night, the game was suspended and resumed Sunday afternoon before the team series final.
Alvarado got back on track by taking out Berti on strikes and delivering a 1-2-3 inning to put the Phils in position to retire.
“He’s awesome. When he fills the strike zone he’s pretty much untouchable,” Realmuto said.
The fourth and final game of the weekend between the Phillies and the Marlins pits Zack Wheeler against southpaw Braxton Garrett, who pitched all 19 innings of the big leagues. Wheeler has allowed a earned run in his last 14 innings against the Marlins and has recorded double-digit strikeouts in three of his last five starts against them.
The Phillies are 0-3-2 in their last five series against the Marlins and 1-6-2 in their last nine. With a victory in Game 2 on Sunday, they will break this long slippage.
The Phils woke up on Sunday with the ability to end the day one, two, three or four games out of first place in the NL East. The best-case scenario of two wins against the Marlins and a loss for the Mets to the Pirates could have the Phils as close to the top of the division as they have been since May 19.
Beyond that, the Mets are vulnerable right now. On their first weekend back from the All-Star break, they put Jacob deGrom on the injured list with forearm tightness and lost Francisco Lindor for weeks with oblique strain.
The Mets have lost four of their last five games to the Pirates, who are 20 games under .500. They blew up ninth inning leads in two of the last three, and on Saturday they allowed nine runs in the final two innings of a game they led by six in the eighth.
The trade deadline is less than two weeks away and the Phillies won’t sell. They’ve been playing well enough lately to put themselves in a position to catch up with the Mets, who have spent 69 of 90 days this season atop the NL East. The Phils knew July was important in convincing the front office that the purchase made more sense and they responded by winning three straight series and going 9-4.
The Phils were three out of Saturday night’s game with no problem when Ranger Suarez lost a two-point lead and a monsoon followed. After around 50 minutes, the match was suspended and resumed before the series final on Sunday afternoon. It was the first suspended game at Citizens Bank Park since Game 5 of the 2008 World Series.
“The reason we were playing today is on offense, it’s not against Ranger,” Realmuto said. “We should have spread it out, created more distance.”
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