Phillies reverse September curse in tight 3-2 win against Marlins

Bryce Harper was on second base with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game when the Miami Marlins made a fateful decision: They walked J.T. Realmuto to pitch to Jean Segura. It was a sound baseball move, setting up a double play. But Segura, who had seven career walk-off hits before he stepped to the plate, took it personally.

“It’s been like that for the last two years,” Segura said. “They keep walking people in front of me. It made me angry.”

Segura decided to reward the Marlins by lining a single to right that scored Harper to give the Phillies a 3-2 win Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park that snapped a three-game losing streak. Segura flipped his bat in the air before the ball touched the grass. He pumped his fist as he ran, and when he arrived to first base, Segura slammed his helmet, turned to the Marlins dugout, and yelled an expletive.

“You walk people to pitch to me? I’ll take it,” he said.

The Phillies are on a quest to prove that they can win in September, unlike in the last four seasons. They got off to an uninspired start with losses Sept. 2, 3 and 4 in San Francisco, but the players insist that this team is different. On Tuesday, they put meaning behind those words.

This was not a shutdown win, by any means. Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo held the Phillies to just four hits and two runs in seven innings. The Marlins tied it up, 2-2, in the eighth, when Brad Hand hit pinch hitter Charles Leblanc with a pitch and he eventually scored on Brian Anderson’s sacrifice fly off Connor Brogdon. The Phillies relief corps, in general, looked taxed; David Robertson, who is one of their more dominant arms, struggled to get through his outing in the ninth inning, allowing two walks and a single. Robertson was coming off a 41-pitch outing on Sunday, and would not have been in the game had injured Corey Knebel or Seranthony Domínguez been available.

Nevertheless, the Phillies did just enough to gut out a win. In the sixth inning, they challenged a close call at home plate that was overturned when it was ruled that Marlins catcher Nick Fortes illegally blocked the plate when Edmundo Sosa tried to score on Alec Bohm’s fly ball. In the top of the ninth, Phillies catcher Realmuto gifted Robertson an out when he threw out Luke Williams trying to steal second..

In the bottom of the ninth, Harper hit a fly ball that should have been caught, but left fielder Anderson slipped on the wet grass and couldn’t quite catch it from flat on his back, and Harper beat the throw to second for a double. Segura took care of the rest from there.

“It’s pretty motivating for Jean Segura [to get intentionally walked],” said interim manager Rob Thomson. “He takes it a little bit personally. And he came through, in a big way.”

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Aaron Nola entered his start on Tuesday night with a chance to change the narrative. His last start was one of the worst of his eight-year career. After throwing an 11-strikeout shutout Aug. 25 against the Reds, he only pitched four innings on Aug. 30 in Arizona, allowing eight earned runs on 10 hits. Some wondered whether September Nola was coming early.

But he promptly silenced both his doubters and the Marlins lineup on Tuesday. He allowed only four hits and one run, with two walks. Most importantly, he gave the Phillies length. Nola was the first Phillies’ starter to go six innings or more since Bailey Falter went 6⅔ innings on Aug. 31.

“[It was] great,” Nola said. “That was one of the worst I’ve ever had, in Arizona. So, my main focus was to get the leadoff guy out, fill up the zone and try to get early outs. The guys played great behind me. Big hits late in the game. J.T. played a great game.”

Initially, it looked like Nola was headed toward another four-inning outing. In the fourth, he allowed a double, an RBI single, got a forceout, then another single to put runners on first and second with one out. But he was able to deftly work his way out of it, inducing a pop out and an line out to end the inning.

In the seventh, Nola threw his 10th strikeout of the game. It was Nola’s 200th strikeout of the season, marking the fourth 200-strikeout season of his career. He is one of only four big league pitchers to reach 200 strikeouts this season (Gerrit Cole, Corbin Burnes, and Carlos Rodon are the other three).

Coming off of a road trip in the which they went 1-5, the Phillies were due for something to go their way. In the sixth inning, the baseball gods smiled on them. Sosa doubled to lead off the inning, and then advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Rhys Hoskins walked to put a runner on first, and Bohm hit a fly to left field. Sosa tried to score and was initially called out. But the Phillies challenged the call, and upon closer examination, the umpires realized Fortes’ foot was out in front of the plate before the throw from left field was made.

The play was a violation of the home plate collision rule. The call was overturned and the Phillies got a 2-1 lead.

It was a good day for Sosa, who made his first start since Aug. 31. He went 2-for-2 and hit his first home run of the season — a solo shot to left field that traveled 405 feet in the third inning. As if that weren’t enough, Sosa made a nice grab at shortstop, with runners on first on second and two outs, to rob Marlins center fielder JJ Bleday of a hit, and the Marlins of a run.