Jeff Hoffman blocks the plate, Cristian Pache hits walk-off single to lift Phillies over Rockies in extras

Like a linebacker at the goal line, Jeff Hoffman lowered his right shoulder — his pitching shoulder — and blocked home plate.

That’s what it took for the punchless Phillies to win Monday night.

In the ninth inning of a tie game against the struggling Rockies, Hoffman skipped a slider in the dirt that got away from catcher J.T. Realmuto. The reliever charged to the plate, where he caught the ball at the same time pinch-running Colorado pitcher Kyle Freeland slid feet-first.

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After a thunderous collision that left Freeland holding his right (non-pitching) arm and a long replay review, the call on the field stood. Out. The Phillies were out of the inning. Barely.

“I wish baseball was more of a contact sport,” Hoffman said later.

Cue the laughter, but only because the Phillies eked out a 2-1 victory. It took a 10th inning and the auto-runner on second base, but Cristian Pache punched a two-out single through the drawn-in infield to score Bryson Stott and cap another frustrating night for an offense that hasn’t clicked through nearly three weeks of the season.

Pache’s hit also prevented the Phillies from wasting another stellar start. This time, Aaron Nola twirled a 7⅓-inning, 99-pitch gem, allowing little more than Michael Toglia’s solo homer in the fifth inning.

The Phillies have scored only 60 runs, the second-fewest in the National League, and have a minus-12 run differential. Yet somehow — chalk it up largely to a starting rotation that has a 2.95 ERA — they poked their heads back above the .500 mark, at 9-8.

And it’s actually their best 17-game start since 2019.

“We’re finding ways to win,” manager Rob Thomson said. “We’re getting great pitching, and hopefully that keeps going. And then once our offense gets going, we’re going to be just fine.”

Back to that momentarily. First, about that play at the plate.

Hoffman was dealing with a cut on his thumb that messed with his grip. The ball bounced, and Realmuto retrieved it behind the plate and flipped to Hoffman, who put down his shoulder and slapped the tag.

“Option quarterback,” Thomson said of Realmuto’s flip. “All-state.”

And what about Hoffman? Surely, the 6-foot-5, 235-pound righty must have played football in high school.

“Not in high school,” he said. “Before high school I played.”

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Give credit, then, to some youth football coach in Latham, N.Y., near Albany, for teaching Hoffman the proper goal-line stand technique.

The Rockies had only backup catcher Jacob Stallings on the bench (Kris Bryant was injured; Jake Cave and Brendan Rodgers were sick), so they used Freeland as a pinch runner for lead-footed catcher Elias Díaz. Hoffman reached out to Freeland, his former teammate with the Rockies, who said he wasn’t injured.

But was he actually safe?

“I wasn’t sure at first,” Thomson said, “because it was a pile of dust.”

Said Hoffman: “We both got there like the same time. Everybody’s seen the replay. The call on the field was out, so we had that going for us. It looked bang-bang. It was crazy for two pitchers to be involved in that play.”

It seemed the elixir to the Phillies’ slow-starting offense would be the 4-13 Rockies — specifically against righty Cal Quantrill, who dragged a 7.20 ERA to the mound after giving up 12 runs in his last three starts.

But Quantrill held the Phillies to four hits in six innings. He allowed one run on Trea Turner’s double inside the third-base bag and down the left-field line — the Phillies’ only extra-base hit — leading to a two-out RBI worm-burner up the middle by Bryce Harper.

Otherwise, there was only more frustration. The Phillies left Stott on second base after a leadoff single in the fifth inning. Nick Castellanos waved at a pitch way off the plate in the seventh. Turner, Harper, and Realmuto couldn’t drive in a run from second base in the eighth.

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Nola, meanwhile, finally got to pitch in good weather after dealing with rain, wind, and cold temperatures — sometimes, all three — in his first three starts. After he pitched in a steady drizzle last week in St. Louis, Realmuto said he wished for “75 and sunny” for Nola’s next outing.

Pretty close.

The conditions at the start of the game: 77 and partly sunny. And Nola’s stuff responded accordingly. After he dialed back velocity to gain better command in the mud against the Cardinals, Nola’s repertoire ticked back up. His fastball scraped 93 mph and his curveball had such wicked bite that he got swings-and-misses on 12 of his 34 breaking pitches.

“I’ve seen his curveball really good, but it was as good as it gets tonight,” Thomson said. “It wasn’t just the curveball. The velocity came back, which was good to see.”

It was the latest in a string of terrific outings from Phillies starters. And, for a change, it wasn’t wasted.

Thomson called for struggling Whit Merrifield to drop a sacrifice bunt to move the auto-runner to third base. After pinch-hitter Alec Bohm grounded out, Pache, who entered as a pinch-runner in the eighth inning, jumped on a first-pitch sinker from reliever Jake Bird for the game-winning hit.

“It’s extremely exciting for me because I’m not playing much,” Pache said through a team interpreter. “I try to remain ready in the cage so I can seize the opportunity whenever it’s given to me.”

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After the winning run scored, the Phillies partied in shallow right field. A video circulated on social media that seemed to show Johan Rojas get injured in the celebration. But Rojas said later that he was unharmed.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.

Like the rest of the Phillies after salvaging another victory, Rojas will take it.