Phillies beat Braves, 7-4, on Scott Kingery’s two-strike, walk-off home run

The Phillies, come Tuesday, will have completed half of their schedule, and the calendar will flip to September. There are just four weeks left in this truncated 60-game season, and if there was ever a time for the Phillies to go on a run, it is now.

So excuse Rhys Hoskins for leaping Friday night over the dugout rail after Scott Kingery’s line drive touched the seats in left field in the 11th inning for a 7-4 walk-off win over the Braves. There’s a reason why the air horns from outside Citizens Bank Park seemed to pierce a bit louder. Even the celebration – Andrew McCutchen breakdancing in the dirt near home plate, and Kingery finishing his home-run trot with a jig – was fitting.

The Phillies, if they are to overcome a trying start to the season and reach the playoffs, need to pick up wins like Friday night. They blew a lead, leaned on their bullpen to keep them alive, and rallied in extra innings to beat the division leaders. It was the team’s fourth straight a win – perhaps the start of a run – and they soaked it in. September begins Tuesday, but this could be the start of the team’s push to October.

“It’s a big win for us, especially at the beginning of the series,” Kingery said. “Hopefully we can build some momentum off it.”

The Phillies are a game below .500 and three games out of first place with 33 games to play. They are just one game out of second place, which is an automatic playoff berth in the expanded postseason format.

They will not play Atlanta again after this weekend, so the three-game series at Citizens Bank Park is their final chance to pick up ground by their own doing on the two-time defending National League East champions.

Zack Wheeler pitched strong, but could not finish the sixth inning after Hoskins failed to corral an errant throw by Jean Segura. He allowed just one earned run, struck out three, walked one, and allowed six hits. He has a 2.58 ERA through his first six starts and has allowed just two homers in his first 38⅓ innings. Wheeler induced two double plays and recorded 11 of his 17 outs via groundouts.

The righthander left with a two-run lead, but that was erased in the seventh when Adam Morgan allowed back-to-back homers. The Phillies bullpen struck again.

But the unit with the highest ERA in baseball did not break. Tommy Hunter, Hector Neris, Brandon Workman, Heath Hembree, and Blake Parker combined for 15 outs. Each reliever threw a scoreless inning as they waited for the lineup to win the game.

Yes, the bullpen blew the lead. But they also kept the game tied, pushed it to extra innings, and gave the offense a chance. The Phillies bullpen has allowed four earned runs in its last 15 innings. For the Phillies to go on a run, they’ll need the bullpen to pitch the way it has this week.

“In tough situations, too, and this is a tough [Braves] lineup to navigate through,” Girardi said of the bullpen. “I thought we pitched extremely well. The bullpen pitched extremely well. Wheeler pitched extremely well. ...The guys all did a really good job.”

McCutchen hit a two-run homer in the third, and Segura hit a two-run homer in the fourth, but the Phillies had just two hits – both singles – until the 10th inning. The offense went dormant. They loaded the bases in the 10th but could not score. Surely, that would be their best chance.

But Parker retired the Braves in order in the 11th. The second out of the inning came on a close play at second as catcher J.T. Realmuto caught Ender Inciarte trying to steal. The play was close, but the ruling on the field was upheld by a review. The Phillies caught a break.

“It was close,” said Kingery, who placed the tag on Inciarte. “I didn’t think it would be overturned when he initially got called out. That’s what I was thinking before they made the call.”

After blowing their chance in the 10th, the Phillies were one strike away from missing it again in the 11th. Kingery fell behind Mark Melancon, 0-2 on a pair of cutters that touched the bottom of the strike zone. Kingery, who came off the bench in the 10th as a pinch-runner, entered the at-bat batting just .121 with one extra-base hit this season. He had 16 strikeouts in 71 plate appearances, and No. 17 was a strike away.

But this cutter sailed high, and Kingery did not miss. Perhaps it was the swing Kingery needs to get his season going. Girardi has said repeatedly this week that Kingery was working good at-bats and getting good swings. He was just not getting results. Finally, he did.

“That’s the great thing about this game,” Girardi said. “You always have a chance the next day to write the script. He came up huge. The tag play is not an easy play. and then an 0-2 homer off Melancon, who has been tough for a long, long time. Just a great night for him, and hopefully he takes off.”

It might be the result Kingery needed to put himself on track. But it was definitely the result the Phillies needed to keep their run going. And it was enough to celebrate.

“I’m sure it would have been a lot of fun with fans, and if we were able to actually get mobbed,” Kingery said. “But it was still pretty awesome and still pretty special.”