An eighth-inning surge from the Phillies fuels a road win against the Rockies

DENVER — It’s not often that you see a pitchers duel at Coors Field, but that’s what happened through the first six innings of an eventual 6-3 Phillies win against the Rockies on Friday night.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth when C.J. Cron hit a sac fly off Taijuan Walker to drive home Charlie Blackmon. Walker was at just 67 pitches through six innings; Rockies starter Austin Gomber was at 57.

Then came the seventh. After managing just one hit off Gomber — a double from J.T. Realmuto in the fifth that he unsuccessfully tried to extend into a triple — the Phillies were able to break out. With one out, Alec Bohm hit a 433-foot solo home run to left-center field to tie the game at 1. Bryce Harper followed with a hard-hit single up the middle, Nick Castellanos reached on a fielder’s choice, and Kyle Schwarber drove in two with a 430-foot blast that landed in the trees beyond the center-field fence.

“I thought he was good,” Harper said of Gomber. “When you come into Colorado, you just never know, curveball, slider, how they’re going to move. So, I thought his stuff was pretty good tonight. I think as a whole we tried to jump on him early and that probably wasn’t the best idea. But then later in the inning, we battled the best we could and Bohmer hits the homer and got it going and Schwarber — it kind of snowballed from there.”

Garrett Stubbs, who pinch-hit for the injured Realmuto, followed and smacked a line-drive double to right. That was enough to knock out Gomber, who had retired the first 14 Phillies before Realmuto’s double.

The Rockies tied things up at 3 after Walker exited the game, when Ezequiel Tovar hit an RBI single off Matt Strahm, and Blackmon hit a sacrifice fly to center, which scored Randal Grichuk, but Tovar was out trying to take second on the throw. The run counted as Grichuk scored before the tag on Tovar.

In the top of the eighth, with two outs and down 0-2 in the count, Trea Turner got it to 2-2 and lined a sinker the opposite way to right for a double. Bohm followed with a walk after an excellent at-bat, and Harper drove them both home with a double, the 104.4 mph rocket hitting high off the fence in right. Harper promptly stole third and scored easily as Rockies catcher Elias Diaz’s throw sailed into left field.

When he returned to the dugout, one of his coaches joked that they were getting nervous with how aggressive Harper, who underwent Tommy John surgery in November, was playing. But Harper said he can’t play any other way.

“I love to go up there with first and second, two outs, in a big leverage spot,” Harper said. “I love those situations. Being able to face a guy like [Justin] Lawrence and have that opportunity, I love that. Then I got to second base and what I thought to myself was, ‘He’s probably not thinking about me right now.’ Just trying to get an out. So I tried to take that bag, ball goes into left field, and gets us an extra run.

“I don’t want to play [tentative]. And this might sound bad right now, but if it [stinks], it [stinks]. That’s kind of my feeling. I felt that way with my thumb, I felt that way with my knee. I’ve always had that — I don’t want try to get over the hump. I want to get through it. So, I believe in my surgeon. I believe in my training staff. I’m not going to be reckless, of course, but I don’t want to go out there and be hesitant. Because when you’re hesitant, and playing that way, that’s when you kind of get hurt. I just try go out there and play the game I know how, and pick my spots of course.

“I want to go out there and be Bryce.”

Seranthony Domínguez held the Rockies to one hit in the eighth inning, and Craig Kimbrel struck out the side while allowing a hit in the ninth for his 398th career save and fourth of the season.

Overshadowed by the sudden offensive outburst was another strong outing from Walker. After giving the Phillies six innings of three-hit, one-run ball on Sunday against the Red Sox, he held the Rockies to seven hits, three runs (two earned), and no walks.

He threw only 73 pitches, 53 of them strikes.

Last Sunday, Walker tried to keep it simple, leaning mostly on his splitter and his sinker to keep the Red Sox off balance. On Friday, he switched it up, primarily leaning on his splitter and his cutter.

“[The cutter] felt really good in the bullpen,” Walker said. “And it was working really well for us, so we just kept throwing it.

“I’ve pitched [in Coors Field] quite a few times and I know my splitter plays really well here, because no one knows what it’s going to do. It could cut, go down, arm-side, so it kind of plays to my advantage. The goal with it was just to keep it down and let it do whatever it wants.”

In the bottom of the fifth, with a runner on first and two outs, Tovar hit a fly ball to right. The outfield at Coors Field is spacious, so Castellanos had to hustle, but he made a sliding grab, just barely nabbing the ball at the top of his glove. It was just the latest in a series of highlight-reel plays Castellanos has made this season.

Realmuto was hurt on his double but remained behind the plate for another inning. He was finally swapped out in the seventh when Stubbs pinch-hit for him.

“I jammed it into the bag and then the bag popped up and landed on my finger, and kind of bent it backwards,” Realmuto said. “So I don’t know if the sprain came from when I jammed it in or when it landed on my finger. It happened so fast, I don’t even know.”

Thomson said after the game that X-rays on Realmuto’s pinky finger were negative and that the swelling had already gone down. Realmuto said his finger felt stiffer as the game went on, which is why he left. The original plan was for him to take Wednesday off, but he will take off on Saturday instead.