Phillies steal one from the Rockies with a six-run ninth-inning rally, and a great game from Garrett Stubbs

DENVER — Garrett Stubbs knows his role. He has “Day Games” stitched into his glove. He had made only 10 starts at catcher before Saturday night, which makes sense, given how much J.T. Realmuto plays. But despite that, Stubbs has found ways to stay ready.

He works with hitting coach Kevin Long daily and encourages Long to try to make batting practice “as difficult as possible” so he can simulate a real at-bat. Stubbs studies Realmuto behind the plate, and the pitchers he catches, so he can learn their tendencies. It’s not something that always shows up in Stubbs’ starts, but it showed up on Saturday night, in an 8-4 win over the Rockies.

The Phillies backup catcher went 2-for-4 with an RBI. His first hit, in the fifth, was a single to left field. Once he was on first base, Stubbs showed off his baserunning skills. He reached second base on a Johan Rojas groundout, and stole third during Kyle Schwarber’s at-bat.

It proved to be a consequential steal. When Schwarber hit a sacrifice fly a few moments later, Stubbs was able to score and cut the Phillies’ deficit from 3-1 to 3-2. Later in the game, amid a six-run ninth-inning rally, he drove in the winning run. Brandon Marsh walked, and Edmundo Sosa hit a triple to score him from first base.

Stubbs drove home Sosa with an RBI single to right field. It gave the Phillies a 4-3 lead — which they quickly added on to. Rockies reliever Justin Lawrence made some mistakes, and the Phillies capitalized on them. After Stubbs’ hit, Kody Clemens grounded into a double play, but Schwarber doubled, and Bryson Stott walked to keep the inning alive.

The Rockies brought in reliever John Curtiss to face Bryce Harper, who promptly hit a three-run home run to left field. Alec Bohm doubled and Nick Castellanos hit an RBI single — which he tried to stretch into a double, unsuccessfully — to give his team a comfortable 8-3 lead.

Phillies reliever Spencer Turnbull entered in the ninth, and recorded back-to-back strikeouts, but allowed a single to Hunter Goodman and an RBI double to Charlie Blackmon. He finished the game with a strikeout of Ezequiel Tovar.

It was Stubbs, though, who received the majority of the praise from his teammates and his manager after the game.

“He was awesome,” starter Aaron Nola said of Stubbs. “Great throw down to get [Goodman] out at second in the second inning — one of the more perfect throws I’ve ever seen. Big hit right there in the ninth too.”

“Stubby had a great night,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Two hits, steals third, makes a great play in front of the plate. Throws a guy out. Catches a great night. It was a really great night for him.”

There were other ways in which Stubbs contributed. He called a good game for Nola, who struggled in the first few frames, but became more efficient as the game went on. He played good defense, too.

Seranthony Domínguez pitched the seventh inning. He hadn’t thrown in five days, and it was a higher leverage spot than he was used to of late. The outing did not begin the way Domínguez would’ve liked. Brenton Doyle singled, stole second base, and then, amid Domínguez’s at-bat against Jacob Stallings, Doyle stole third.

But Domínguez and Stubbs both remained calm. Domínguez struck out Stallings on a four-seam fastball that just nabbed the corner of the zone, and induced a soft groundout to Goodman that dribbled down the third-base line. Stubbs grabbed the ball, took a look at Doyle, and gunned it to first base to record the second out. Charlie Blackmon grounded out to end the inning.

“If I pick up the ball and just throw it straight to first, and I don’t ever look at the runner on third, he’s got an opportunity to take off right away,” Stubbs said. “So, I just made sure that I got the ball, and my internal clock was telling me I had time to check him. Saw that he made a move right towards the bag, threw as hard as I could to first, and yeah. It was a tough play, but it helped us out.”

After that seventh inning, the Phillies were still trailing the Rockies, 3-2, but keeping the game at just one run was big. It was another uncharacteristically light night for the lineup, which was held to just two runs through eight innings on Saturday. But thanks to a ninth-inning rally, strong pitching, and a savvy backup catcher, they got the job done.

“The opportunities [to play] are slim, for sure,” Stubbs said. “It makes hitting tough. It’s all about rhythm out there. I work with K-Long every single day to make sure I’m prepared for moments like that. So, it was fun to be able to come up in an opportunity like that and then obviously even better to be able to come through for the boys.”