Against his former team, Edmundo Sosa’s blast powers the Phillies to victory: ‘That was a bomb’

Edmundo Sosa stepped up to the plate in the second inning on Friday night with a runner on third and two outs. He was facing his former team, the St. Louis Cardinals, who had traded him to the Phillies at the deadline nearly two years ago.

Sosa was a different player back then. He was hitting .189/.244/.270 over 122 at-bats when the Phillies acquired him. He quickly jelled with the coaching staff in Philadelphia — hitting .315/.345/.593 for the rest of 2022 — but has reached a new level lately.

Sosa — who has been starting at shortstop as Trea Turner recovers from a left hamstring strain — entered Friday’s game atop the National League in fWAR since May 4, with 1.3. He has hit .307/.378/.591 over 30 games this season with four home runs.

The transformation from a part-time to everyday player isn’t always easy, but Sosa has adapted to it seamlessly. A big part of this is his prep work, but also a mindset change, thanks some help from a Hall of Fame teammate in St. Louis. In the first half of Sosa’s 2022 season, Albert Pujols preached the importance of maintaining the same routine — whether he was starting or not.

» READ MORE: ‘Of course I had it circled’: Rhys Hoskins returns from injured list in time for Phillies homecoming

Sosa used to get angry about his limited opportunities. Not anymore.

“Now, I understand my position and what my role is on the team,” he said a few weeks ago. “And I don’t get angry anymore. I just go to the gym, I go to the trainer’s room, I go to the cages, and I work.”

He showed the full scope of that transformation on Friday, in a 4-2 win over St. Louis. Sosa took the first pitch he saw — a slider in the middle of the zone — over the center-field fence. Starter Aaron Nola didn’t see it, but he could hear it.

“It sounded really good,” he said.

Manager Rob Thomson didn’t see it clearly, either. But like Nola, he quickly knew it was out of the park.

“That was, I mean… a bomb,” Thomson said. “I was telling Kevin, we couldn’t really see early in the game where the balls were going, and [when] I saw the way he came out of the box, it was a no doubter. I was looking in left field, waiting for it to come down, and it went into Ashburn Alley. That was a big hit. He’s just playing outstanding.”

At 439 feet, Sosa’s home run was the longest and hardest hit home run of his career, and a consequential one. The Phillies only scored four runs on seven hits on Friday; two of those runs came from Sosa’s shot. Brandon Marsh got the Phillies on the board with a second-inning RBI groundout and Johan Rojas supplied another run with an RBI single in the seventh inning.

The significance of the moment was not lost on Sosa.

“This was the team that signed me,” Sosa said after the game. “[The Cardinals] put their confidence in me when I was only 16 years old. They brought me from Panama to the United States. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity they gave me.

“I’ve evolved a lot. I keep working, and keep learning, and I’m enjoying it. It’s always nice to see teammates and coaches, clubhouse attendees. They are all part of the evolution that I’ve had.”

The pitching did enough to keep the Phillies in the game. Aaron Nola had an outing a few weeks ago that was remarkably similar to his start Friday night. Coincidentally, it was against the Cardinals. On April 10, he allowed only three hits — two of them home runs — over six innings with three walks and three strikeouts.

This time, he allowed three hits — two of them home runs — over 6⅓ innings with two walks and six strikeouts. It was a good night for him, overall. Nola did a good job of keeping hard contact to a minimum, with just five hard hits (contact that registered at 95 mph or higher) on the 96 pitches he threw.

“Nola was really good,” Thomson said. “Two tough pitches… the home run to [Brandon] Crawford just kind of leaped back out over the plate. And then the hanging breaking ball to [Nolan] Arenado. Other than that, he was really, really good.”

Matt Strahm entered in relief of Nola in the seventh, and continued his run of dominance, with a strikeout in two-thirds of an inning. Strahm’s scoreless inning streak was snapped Tuesday night, but he still has another streak going — 22⅔ innings without allowing an earned run.

José Alvarado pitched a 1-2-3 eighth capped by a diving stop by Bryson Stott that robbed Alec Burleson of a base hit. Jeff Hoffman earned the save, striking out two in a hitless ninth.

The Phillies’ victory on Friday night was their 40th of the season. It marked the third time in franchise history that they’ve reached 40 wins in fewer than 60 games.