It sounds corny, but the Philadelphia Phillies seem to have found their mojo in an unlikely spot.
The Phillies have won nine games in a row, sparked by a 7-1 victory against Minnesota in MLB’s Field of Dreams game Aug. 13 in Dyersville, Iowa, when Kyle Schwarber hit two home runs into the stalk yard.
The winning streak continued for the Phillies on Sunday when they rallied from a four-run deficit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, defeating St. Louis 6-4 on Schwarber’s tiebreaking, two-run blast.
The Phillies will try to extend their streak to double digits when they open a three-game interleague series Monday night against the host Seattle Mariners.
“You can talk about the resilience, the no quit, and that’s why you play all the outs,” said Schwarber, who leads the majors with 39 home runs. “You’re in it until you’re not.”
Edmundo Sosa’s two-strike double with the bases loaded trimmed St. Louis’ lead to 4-3 on Sunday. Bryan De La Cruz singled to tie the score, also with two strikes, to set the stage for Schwarber’s 459-foot blast to straightaway center field.
“We’re the Phillies; I can’t say I’m really surprised,” Sosa said through a translator. “When we’re late in the game, we never stop fighting. It’s just a magical day.”
The Phillies have a four-game cushion in the National League’s wild-card race and are within three games of first-place Atlanta in the NL East.
“It’s a lot of complete baseball,” Schwarber said. “It’s not like we’re out there just hitting homers and relying on that. I feel like there’s a lot of different things that we’re doing well. I feel like the defense is playing really well. Our pitching, obviously, is our pitching; our starters set the tone for us.”
The Mariners had won five of their past seven games in their effort to track down an American League playoff berth before being blown out 19-2 Sunday by the visiting Chicago Cubs.
The Mariners’ Randy Arozarena went deep leading off for a second straight game to clinch a sixth successive season with at least 20 homers and 20 steals, but that was Seattle’s lone highlight.
With a short-handed bullpen, the Mariners had to use left-handed reliever Jose A. Ferrer for 1 2/3 innings, which could prove costly against left-handed Phillies sluggers Schwarber and Bryce Harper in the coming days.
“It was the situation that we had at hand and, just, it ended up, you know, not going our way,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson, who used a pair of position players to mop up. “It made it difficult there at the end.”
Monday’s series opener will feature a pair of former All-Star right-handers in the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler (10-4, 2.92 ERA) and the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert (10-7, 3.35).
Wheeler has dropped his past three decisions, though he didn’t get one Tuesday in a 6-4 victory against visiting Miami when he allowed two runs on two hits over five innings, with four walks and seven strikeouts. He’s 1-0 with an 0.00 ERA in one previous start against Seattle.
Gilbert has won his past two starts. He won 7-5 Wednesday at Milwaukee, giving up three runs on four hits over five innings, with four walks and five strikeouts. He’s 0-3 with a 7.50 ERA in four career starts against the Phillies.
–Field Level Media
