Edmundo Sosa’s defense and Cristian Pache’s legs helped the Phillies to an extra-inning win over the Athletics on a day when neither team was able to do much at the plate.
The Phils beat the A’s, 3-2, in 12 innings for their fifth straight win on the road.
The teams traded runs in the 11th, then Sosa made an outstanding play deep in foul territory to help Andrew Vasquez out of a jam. With one out and the winning run on second, Tyler Wade popped a ball up the third base line that would have been 25 rows deep in most stadiums. Not at the Oakland Coliseum. Sosa ran it down, reaching as far as he could with his legs and left arm. He did a split as he caught it with his glove fully outstretched. Vasquez was out of the inning five pitches later to give the Phillies another chance.
Pache and third base coach Dusty Wathan then took a big risk trying to advance Pache on a routine flyout to shallow-medium center field to begin the 12th. It’s something you don’t even try with a player who doesn’t have the plus speed of Pache. He was barely safe at third, sliding past the bag but evading the tag as he did.
It was a crucial play as Kyle Schwarber followed with a single up the middle against a drawn-in infield. That turned out to be the game-winner. The Phillies were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and the A’s were 1-for-19.
The Phillies have won five games in a row and five series in a row. They’re 37-34, the first time all season they’ve been three games over .500. They lost the first night of this trip to Arizona and Oakland and have won every game since.
They’ve also gone 8-1 in one-run games over the last three weeks and are 15-7 overall, second-best in the majors to the Marlins (18-5).
Left-hander Christopher Sanchez was recalled from Triple A after making three consecutive good starts with Lehigh Valley. He remained effective Saturday afternoon with four scoreless innings. He retired the first nine batters he faced, then made a series of big pitches in the fourth inning with two men aboard. Speedster Esteury Ruiz singled and JJ Bleday walked to start the frame and eventually executed a double steal before Sanchez struck out three in a row to neutralize the threat.
Sanchez had thrown between 90 and 96 pitches in each of his last five starts with the IronPigs but Phillies manager Rob Thomson pulled him after those four effective innings. Sanchez was tended to for several minutes in the fourth after being struck by a batted ball, which could have contributed to the early exit. Matt Strahm entered and gave up a solo home run to the first batter he faced, catcher Carlos Perez.
The Phillies answered the next half-inning when Bryson Stott reached on an infield single with the bases loaded and two outs after JT Realmuto had been intentionally walked.
“Just get something to the outfield,” he told the broadcast after the game. “Walking JT and getting to me, you know they’re going to try to throw strikes and get ahead. Being aggressive early and trying to get the right pitch.”
Those were the only runs of the game until the 11th, when Stott delivered a sacrifice fly after Realmuto was intentionally walked again. The A’s responded in the bottom half when Perez doubled to left field off of Vasquez.
Jeff Hoffman pitched the 12th inning for the save. The tying run was on third base with one out but he struck out Ruiz and combined with Alec Bohm for a relatively difficult 3-1 putout to end the game.
The Phillies used eight different pitchers. They have their ace, Zack Wheeler, going in Sunday’s series finale as they look for a sweep before a six-game homestand against the Braves and Mets.