A ninth-inning rally fuels a 3-2 Phillies win over the Reds and revives a packed Citizens Bank Park

On Saturday night, in the bottom of the ninth inning, Brandon Marsh felt something he hadn’t felt since last November. Nick Castellanos took a seven-pitch walk to lead things off and nodded toward the dugout. The crowd erupted. All of a sudden, the ground began to shake. Marsh knew a comeback was coming.

He knew it because he had lived it. There were times last season, particularly last postseason when it seemed like the crowd was willing the Phillies to win. Saturday was one of those times. After a lifeless eight innings, during which the Phillies struck out 15 times and scored no runs, they heard the crowd erupt, they felt the ground shake, and they got to work.

Alec Bohm stepped up to the plate for the next at-bat. Reds reliever Alexis Dias threw a wild pitch, and Castellanos took off for second base. He was safe. Bohm hit a single down the middle to move Castellanos to third.

Once on third, Castellanos decided to have a little fun with Diaz. Reds third baseman Spencer Steer was shifted way over, and Diaz already had one disengagement (under MLB’s new rules, the limit for disengagements is two). So, Castellanos jogged down the line. He skipped down the line. He clapped at Diaz. He waved at him. He wagged his hips a little bit.

And, as a right-handed pitcher, Diaz had to watch all of it. He tried to run at Castellanos, but it was of no use.

“At one point I was like, ‘I’m pretty close to home,’” Castellanos said. “I was just doing anything I could to get the pitcher to focus on me instead of the hitter. If they’re going to give me all of that room, why not?

“Yeah, I waved at him,” he added. “Just a friendly hello.”

It worked. Diaz was obviously rattled. Marsh pinch-hit for Josh Harrison in the next at-bat. He singled to score Castellanos, who, with such a big lead, didn’t have to run too far.

The Reds replaced Diaz with reliever Ian Gibault, but at that point, it felt like a win was inevitable. Infielder Edmundo Sosa hit a sacrifice fly to score Bohm, which tied the game at 2-2. Marsh stole second base, and Stott worked a seven-pitch at-bat, which culminated in a ground ball single to right field to score Marsh. The Phillies had three hits and no runs through their first eight innings and knocked in three runs in the ninth to walk it off. Phillies win, 3-2.

“It kind of felt like October again,” Stott said.

Reds starter Nick Lodolo was a tough one to hit on Saturday. He struck out a career-high 12 batters. Five Phillies struck out twice and in all, managed just three hits and two walks off of him.

Ironically, it was Cristian Pache, who entered the game hitless and with a career .155 batting average, who knocked in one of those three hits. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Pache hit a sharp line drive to left field. It was the third hardest hit of the day, coming off his bat at 108.2 mph. Unfortunately for the Phillies, it came after a double play, and Kyle Schwarber struck out to end the inning.

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That was a promising sign for Pache, but it didn’t absolve him of a costly baserunning error he made earlier in the game. In the bottom of the third inning, with Stott on first base and one out, Pache hit a sacrifice bunt to move Stott to second. He reached first on a throwing error by Lodolo.

After a Trea Turner strikeout, a passed ball moved Stott to third and Pache to second. In the next at-bat, Schwarber hit a grounder to third base, and Pache took off for third, reaching base just before Stott did. Pache was initially called safe, but upon review, was called out. If he had waited at second, and allowed Stott to score first, the run would have counted, and the game would have been tied at 1-1. Instead, it remained 1-0.

“He was really good,” Thomson said of Lodolo. “He was driving the ball in on our right-handed hitters. Fastball up, fastball in. Really good slider. You’ve got to give him credit.”

The Reds’ lineup isn’t formidable, per se, but the Phillies’ walk-off ending wouldn’t have been possible without the pitching staff keeping this game within reach. Starter Bailey Falter gave his team five innings of four-hit ball allowing one solo home run to account for his one earned run. The next three relievers — Andrew Bellatti, Connor Brogdon and Seranthony Dominguez allowed no earned runs over three innings pitched. Andrew Vasquez allowed an earned run and a walk in the top of the ninth.

Castellanos had his second multi-walk game of the season thus far. He walked twice on Saturday, once against Lodolo, and once against Diaz. He has six walks through eight games in 2023.