Kyle Schwarber’s sacrifice fly gives Phillies 7-6 win over Padres in 12 innings

When Jeff Hoffman walked off the mound after pitching two scoreless extra inning-frames in the Phillies’ 7-6 win on Sunday night, someone was waiting for him in the dugout. It was Bryce Harper. Harper gave Hoffman a hug.

“He was pumped,” Hoffman said. “He said, ‘That was a huge moment. You just gave us a chance to win.’”

In Hoffman’s mind, it felt fitting. It’s possible that the 30-year-old wouldn’t be on the 26-man roster without Harper. The Phillies signed Hoffman to a minor league contract in March. He was assigned to triple A Lehigh Valley, and a few weeks later, he was summoned to Citizens Bank Park so Harper could face some live pitching.

The Phillies liked what they saw. So did Harper. He’d faced Hoffman once before, in 2016, when Hoffman was making his second big league start and didn’t have good command of his pitches. His stuff wasn’t as crisp. But seven years later, Harper saw a different pitcher — and he told Hoffman as much.

The Phillies called him up 13 days later. Since then, Hoffman has pitched to a 2.59 ERA. He’s allowed just one earned run over his last nine innings. To say that his emergence is improbable would be an understatement. Hoffman was drafted ninth overall by the Blue Jays in the 2014 MLB draft. But over time, he became a journeyman, bouncing from one organization to another, without sustained success in the big leagues.

He has found it recently with the Phillies. The pitching staff encouraged Hoffman to trust his stuff and attack the zone. He’s seen his strikeout rate rise to a career-high 35.2% as a result. His 8.8% walk rate is the second-lowest of his career.

But nothing encapsulated his success with this team more than his outing on Sunday. Hoffman had some help — notably, a leaping grab by Trea Turner to rob Gary Sanchez of the go-ahead hit with a runner on third in the 11th — but looked dominant. He allowed no hits, no runs, no walks with one strikeout, all while managing the ghost runner in extra innings.

It was not the spot that Hoffman typically finds himself in. But he lived up to the moment.

“We usually — we have been using him in down games, in the middle of the game, things like that,” said manager Rob Thomson. “But he really stepped up today. He showed us something.”

In the 12th inning, Johan Rojas hit a sacrifice bunt to move ghost runner Edmundo Sosa to third base, and Kyle Schwarber hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Sosa and win the game. Schwarber was dumped with a cooler of ice water afterwards, but Hoffman was the unsung hero.

“We talk about it in the dugout all the time — somebody is on second base with no outs, it’s really hard not to let them score,” said starter Zack Wheeler. “Especially when you get to third with one out. It’s really tough. You’ve got to make your pitches, you’ve got to be on your game, and he was on it for two innings right there. That was really big. He’s been great for us.”

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The last time Josh Hader had the opportunity to face Harper was in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. With his team trailing 3-2, Harper stepped up to the plate. Padres manager Bob Melvin decided to stick with reliever Robert Suarez, and Harper hit a go-ahead home run that will go down as one of the most iconic moments in Phillies’ history.

Hader finally had his chance to face Harper in the 10th inning on Sunday afternoon and Harper made the most of it. With two outs, he hit a line drive single to center field to score ghost runner Rojas and tie the game, 6-6. Unlike Game 5 of the NLCS, though, it wasn’t enough to give the Phillies the win. Stott flied out to end the inning and send it to the 11th.

“It was a really good pitch and a really good hitter,” Wheeler said. “Harper got the best of him that round. It’s what you expect out of Harp. He is the guy for that moment. He stepped up. That’s what you expect out of your big guy. That’s why we love him.”

It had been a while since the Phillies last blew a save. The last time it happened was over a month ago, on June 14, when Seranthony Domínguez gave up three earned runs to the Diamondbacks in 2/3 of an inning. And even then, the Phillies got the win on the strength of their bullpen. Gregory Soto, Craig Kimbrel and José Alvarado allowed just one hit over the next two 1/3 innings that day.

They haven’t had this kind of bullpen depth in a while. Depending on your evaluation, the Phillies have three or four relievers who could be closers on other teams. It’s why they were able to weather the injuries of Alvarado and Domínguez at different points earlier in the season. But weathering the absences of Alvarado and Domínguez at the same time has proven to be challenging.

The Phillies have a 6.92 bullpen ERA since July 9, the day Alvarado was placed on the injured list with left elbow inflammation for the second time this season. It isn’t a big sample size — only 13 innings because of the All-Star break — but it is notable, nonetheless. That fallibility was on display on Sunday. After managing just one hit through their first four innings, the Phillies climbed back. Bryson Stott hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, and the Phillies put up four runs in the sixth.

They could have done more. With the bases loaded and one out, Darick Hall struck out and Rojas, facing the Padres for the second time that inning, struck out, again, thanks in part to an erroneous strike three call by home plate umpire Brock Ballou. But by the end of the inning, the Phillies had a 5-3 lead, which should have been enough for a win.

Instead, Soto allowed a double and two walks to load the bases with two outs for Fernando Tatis Jr. Tatis hit a two-RBI single to tie the game, 5-5. It was Soto’s first blown save of the season.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Johan Rojas and the ‘unbelievable’ catch and throw to kickstart his major league career

Neither team scored in the bottom half of the eighth, or the ninth, sending the game into extra innings. Ballou — who was making poor calls on both ends — hurt the Phillies again with a few erroneous calls in Hall’s at-bat. Instead of drawing a walk, Hall was called out on strikes.

The game went into extra innings. With the extra runner on second, Matt Strahm allowed one run in the 10th. Hoffman entered in relief of Strahm in the 11th.

It was not Wheeler’s best day — and certainly not the type of performance that fans have come to expect from him — but he did his job. Wheeler pitched seven innings, allowing five hits, three runs (all earned), and no walks with seven strikeouts and two home runs.

The pitches that did leave the park didn’t seem to be misplaced. Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim hit a home run off Wheeler in the first inning, off of a slider that was below the strike zone. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts hit a home run in the fourth off a curveball that, like the pitch to Kim, was low.

“I felt alright,” Wheeler said of his outing. “I mean, I made some good pitches. They hit a couple of balls out that — I don’t know. (The sweeper) was a decent pitch; I guess it was middle, but it was down beneath the zone. The only thing it could have been was more out, I guess. Sometimes you’ve just got to give the guys credit. The balls were flying out this weekend. So something might be up with that.”

Despite all of that, the Padres were barreling the ball. Of the five hits Wheeler allowed, four came off the bat at 95 mph or harder, according to Baseball Savant.