Rhys Hoskins’ heroics in the seventh and 10th lift Phillies to an extra-innings win over Pirates

PITTSBURGH — After the Phillies narrowly took a 4-2 extra innings win over the Pirates, on a night when their offense largely was dormant, J.T. Realmuto walked into the clubhouse and yelled: “Good teams — playoff teams — figure out how to win that game.” They weren’t facing the toughest opponent in the 40-win Pittsburgh Pirates, but for much of the game, it seemed the Phillies were destined for a loss. But thanks to strong pitching and a 4-for-4 night from Rhys Hoskins that ended in a go-ahead, 10th inning two-run home run, the Phillies pulled it off.

Starter Bailey Falter gave the Phillies one of the best starts of his young career, but the Phillies’ offense put up only eight hits and two runs through nine innings on Friday night. The game stayed 2-2, thanks to scoreless performances in the eighth and ninth inning from José Alvarado and Seranthony Domínguez, and went into extra innings, when their offense heated up.

With Garrett Stubbs as the automatic runner on second base, Hoskins crushed a two-run home run 410 feet to center field to give the Phillies a 4-2 lead. Alec Bohm followed that up with a single, and Nick Castellanos added a single of his own to send Bohm to third base with one out. Matt Vierling grounded into a double play, but reliever Connor Brogdon held down the lead with a 1-2-3 10th inning. He needed just eight pitches to get through it, and seven of them were strikes.

“It’s a big win, it’s a big win,” said Hoskins. “I think especially after yesterday, we were looking to run off that momentum a little bit, and I think they kind of snatched it back a little bit in the ninth. [Starting pitcher José] Quintana was good. Mixed his speeds well, mixed his pitches well. Kept us off balance. But I think kind of like we’ve had all year, we just don’t quit. There’s definitely fight in this group. And I think there’s a little extra confidence in the dugout because we know how well the guys in the bullpen are throwing the ball. That if we can keep it close, they’re going to keep it close. If we can take the lead, we’ve got a chance to win the game.”

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Interim manager Rob Thomson had some kind words for Falter before Friday’s game, words that proved to be prescient.

“We’ve had a couple of pretty good starts (from Falter),” Thomson said. “The one in Seattle, and there was another one earlier in the season. If he comes out and he hits his spots with his fastballs and mixes his pitches and throws strikes and gets ahead, stays ahead, he’s an effective guy.”

Falter was coming off of a few bumpy starts; in his last outing on July 24, he gave up four earned runs against the Chicago Cubs in five innings. But he seemed to clean things up considerably against the Pirates.

Falter went six innings, allowing five hits (one home run), two earned runs and one walk with eight strikeouts. Like Thomson said, he was hitting his spots and was efficient with his pitches. By the time he exited the game, he was at 80 pitches and 56 strikes. His velocity was up slightly, which played well with his extension.

Falter’s six innings and eight strikeouts were career highs for him. He said after the game that knowing the Phillies are shopping for a starter at the trade deadline provided an extra bit of motivation. When asked whether he took the mound on Friday to show the Phillies front office what he was capable, Falter said “100%.”

“That’s exactly what I was throwing for,” he said. “I’m not worried about the whole trade deadline. Whatever happens, happens. I’m just trying to control what I can control. I just want to be a Phillie, that’s all it is.”

After clobbering 15 hits and eight runs the night before, the Phillies bats largely were silenced Friday night. They only tallied four hits, two walks, and were held scoreless by Quintana, who is, ironically, a pitcher who could be a target for the Phillies ahead of the Aug. 2 trade deadline.

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After his start on Friday, Quintana has a scoreless streak of 12⅔ innings pitched, and a 3.23 ERA over his last seven games, so the Phillies’ struggles against him were understandable. They had better luck against the Pirates bullpen, which has the third-worst ERA in baseball (4.62). After Quintana exited the game in the sixth inning, Kyle Schwarber drove in an a run in the seventh, launching a hard-hit RBI single that looked like it was destined to land in the right-field bleachers. In the next at-bat, Hoskins drove in another run with an RBI single of his own to tie it at 2-2.

Nick Castellanos hit his 300th double in the top of the eighth inning. Alec Bohm extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games, with a line-drive single to left field in the top of the sixth inning.