Phillies Rally in Ninth Inning to Send Padres to Latest Defeat

PHILADELPHIA—Nick Castellanos hit a bloop ground-rule double down the right-field line to cap a sequence of four consecutive ninth-inning hits as the Philadelphia Phillies rallied from a two-run deficit for a 4–3 win over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.

Kyle Schwarber hit an eighth-inning solo home run for the Phillies, who can finish off a season- series sweep over San Diego on Wednesday. The Padres have now lost five consecutive games.

Jeff Hoffman (3–0) got the win for Philadelphia, while San Diego’s Robert Suarez (4–1) blew his first save in 19 opportunities this season.

Luis Campusano had a two-run homer off Aaron Nola to kick-start the Padres’ sixth inning that gave them a 3–1 lead.

Schwarber’s solo homer with two outs in the eighth cut the deficit to 3–2. Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm singled to lead off the ninth. Bryson Stott followed with an opposite-field single that tied the game 3–3. Castellanos sent a ball down the line that eluded Fernando Tatis Jr., sneaking just inside the chalk before bouncing into the stands.

Nola retired the first 13 hitters and had faced the minimum number of hitters through five innings after a strikeout-caught stealing double play ended the fifth. But after Nola issued a leadoff walk to David Peralta to start the sixth, Campusano lofted a fastball to deep center field that just got over the outstretched glove of Cristian Pache to give San Diego a 2–1 lead.

Trainer’s Room

Phillies: J.T. Realmuto met the media for the first time since having meniscus surgery on his right knee June 12 and reaffirmed the original timeline of an expected four-week absence that the club provided last week on the veteran catcher.

“I had this exact same procedure done in 2019 after the season and I was able to recover from that pretty quickly,” Realmuto said. “I would imagine around that four-week mark should be around that timing.”

Realmuto, who is hitting .261 with seven homers and 20 RBIs in 51 games, said the original injury occurred when he slipped rounding the bases on a triple with wet field conditions on May 4 against San Francisco. After he tried to play through the pain, Realmuto and Phillies officials decided to have the cleanout procedure following the team’s trip to London two weeks ago.

Up Next

Philadelphia is set to send left-hander Ranger Suárez (10–1, 1.77 earned-run average) against San Diego righty Matt Waldron (4–6, 3.66) in Wednesday’s series finale.

By Kevin Cooney