Edmundo Sosa ignites Phillies’ eighth-inning rally in 6-3 win over the Athletics

In his ninth game on the job as the Phillies’ third base coach, Anthony Contreras didn’t hesitate to wave in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning Wednesday night.

And Bryce Harper wouldn’t have stopped anyway.

Just in case, though, Edmundo Sosa windmilled his arm as he ran to first base. He had just waged a seven-pitch duel and bounced a single up the middle. Now, as Harper crossed home plate, Sosa flexed, and the Sons of Don Mattingly finally led in an eventual 6-3 victory over the Athletics.

“I just wanted to put the ball in play, and that’s what I did,” Sosa said through a team interpreter after fouling off four two-strike pitches. “That’s my mindset. It’s just, try to stay calm, and luckily results are showing on the field.”

» READ MORE: Over? History shows it’s not over for the Phillies’ season. Here’s what it took for others to turn it around.

Key word: Luckily. Because, yes, you better believe luck has something to do with all this.

The Phillies are 8-1 since Rob Thomson got fired amid a 9-19 start and Mattingly took over as interim manager. They’re undoubtedly playing better. (Could they have played any worse?) Specifically, the starting pitchers have a 1.93 ERA after posting a worst-in-the-majors 5.80 mark under Thomson.

But after 28 games in which it felt like every bloop and bleeder went against them, the Phillies have benefited from a few breaks, including the throwing error by the Athletics’ Jeff McNeil that helped turn a potential force at second base into a four-run inning.

Instead of a runner on first with one out, the Phillies were set up at first and second. Adolis García singled to load the bases. A’s reliever Jack Perkins got ahead in the count, 0-and-2, against Sosa, a free-swinger who got a piece of a sweeper, a fastball, and two more sweepers. Two of the pitches were high, but Sosa let it fly anyway.

At last, Sosa got an elevated fastball and shot it back through the middle.

“What a huge at bat for us,” said Brandon Marsh, who started against a lefty and collected three hits. “Fouling off a bunch of pitches, a lot of pitchers’ pitches, and getting the knock. Yeah, we just rallied around each other tonight.”

Funny, isn’t it, how that happens?

The comeback came against Perkins, a righty, but the Phillies won for the first time in 11 games when facing a non-opener lefty starter. They trailed when Jeffrey Springs left the game in the sixth inning but not before pulling within 3-2 on a homer from García, one of the right-handed hitters who has struggled so much against lefties.

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“Some things that were happening early, it seemed like every time we made a mistake, [opponents] capitalized on it,” Mattingly said. “Now, we’re getting a break here and there, and we’re capitalizing. We want to ride this wave as long as possible, still knowing that there’s storms out there coming at some point.”

Said Marsh: “This team’s too good to do what we were doing for that long. We have a lot of dudes that a lot of people look up to on this team and across the whole league. They carry us and we follow them, and it was just a matter of time until we started clicking.”

Those dudes are mostly in the starting rotation. And in his first start at home since Aug. 2 of last season, Zack Wheeler did his part despite leaving with a 3-2 deficit.

Making his third start since coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome, Wheeler got an ovation from 36,474 paying customers as he warmed up to Alice In Chains’ “Rooster.”

“I’ve been looking forward to that,” Wheeler said. “Just getting back out there and just feeling that, you know? It’s nice to be back out there and kind of take it all in.”

Wheeler also moved closer to his presurgery fastball velocity, sitting at 94-95 mph and peaking at 96.5.

“This was the best I think I’ve seen him,” Mattingly said. “He’s been good every time now. I don’t want to make it sound like he hasn’t been good. But for me, just watching from the side, you felt like there was a little more finish to his stuff.”

Ever the perfectionist, Wheeler said he “felt a little off, honestly.” He gave up a third-inning run on a check-swing bloop single with two out and a nifty slide into home plate by Lawrence Butler. The Athletics scored on a two-out single in the fifth and on Tyler Soderstrom’s leadoff homer in the sixth.

“There’s a couple [pitches] that I could take back and tonight would have looked a little different for me,” Wheeler said. “But all that matters is we won.”

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Say the same for the offense. Even after getting eight hits against Springs, the Phillies are batting .171 (39-for-228) and slugging .276 against non-opener lefty starters.

Mattingly convened a meeting early in the day with his coaches and team officials from various departments to review areas in which the Phillies can get better. Surely, hitting left-handed starters was surely on the agenda.

“No,” Mattingly said. “It wasn’t one of the things that we talked about today.”

Maybe next time.

Meanwhile, the Phillies keep winning.

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Despite playing only two seasons for the Phillies, Aaron Rowand left his mark. Literally. Twenty years ago Monday, Rowand smashed into the center-field fence and broke bones in his face to make a catch. And if that didn’t instantly boost his popularity with the fan base, his answer four days later to a question about why he would sacrifice his body certainly did. Rowand joins Phillies Extra to reminisce about “The Catch,” his role in helping to change the culture around the Phillies, and a lot more. Watch here.

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