Phillies’ Edmundo Sosa hits second-chance, game-winning home run against Dodgers – Phillies Nation
Edmundo Sosa hit a go-ahead home run against Los Angeles. (Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)
LOS ANGELES — Interim manager Don Mattingly‘s move did not work when he pinch-hit Edmundo Sosa for Brandon Marsh with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the sixth on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. It did, however, pay off two innings later.
Batting for Marsh, the cleanup hitter, versus left-hander Alex Vesia, Sosa struck out in a crucial at-bat as he chased three pitches out of the zone. He got another chance in the eighth against lefty Tanner Scott and punished a fastball over the outer half of the plate. Sosa hit a go-ahead two-run home run to left field, lifting the Phillies to a 4-3 comeback victory.
“It felt really good,” Sosa said through a club interpreter. “Thank God I was able to connect on that ball and get the big hit for us today and help the team win, which is the most important thing always.”
Marsh is batting .323 with an .830 OPS on the season, and he has received additional opportunities to play against left-handed pitchers of late. Sosa, meanwhile, has struggled this season after crushing lefties last year. Overall, Marsh has handled the bat better. But Mattingly made the relatively early call to the bench with Vesia on the mound and the Phillies down 2-1.
“I just liked the matchup, honestly,” Mattingly said. “I felt like that was a spot we needed to try to score there, and just the left-on-left. Although Marsh has been playing for the most part, I still like Sos there.”
Sosa whiffed on an outside changeup for the second out, and Alec Bohm, who hit a home run in the second for Philadelphia’s lone run off Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki, grounded out to end the threat.
Los Angeles held that lead and went on to score again in the bottom of the seventh on an unusual play. The Dodgers scored two runs in 5 1/3 innings off Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo, including one on a sacrifice fly after a double-misplay from rookie center fielder Justin Crawford and right fielder Adolis García turned a should-have-been single into three bases. Then, Mookie Betts drove in another run against Orion Kerkering on a seventh-inning single to right.
García fired home, and runner Andy Pages was called safe. The Phillies challenged the ruling, believing he was tagged out; it stood on the field. While it appeared that Pages’ foot skipped over the plate instead of making contact with it, Philadelphia was not allowed to appeal the missed touch of home. It was all about the order of operations, Mattingly said when asked what the home-plate umpire explained to him.
“If we would have known he missed the plate, then we would have had to appeal it first,” Mattingly said. “And that was what the discussion was about. So if we would have known, we would have appealed first, and then went to it.”
Trailing 3-1, the Phillies finally put up a crooked number in the eighth. Crawford led off with a base hit, and Bryce Harper plated him with a single to right field. That brought up the No. 4 spot again, with Sosa facing Scott. The lefty had Sosa in a 1-2 count and threw the free-swinging Sosa a pitch he could hit. The utility man belted it, turned to his dugout and strutted to first base with a newfound Phillies lead.
“It felt good,” Sosa said. “Honestly, I knew it was going to the other side as soon as I connected it.”
Sosa reacted as if the ball went 500 feet. It barely cleared the left-field wall and bounced back onto the field. His teammates never had a doubt.
“Sosa knows when he got it,” Luzardo said. “So the second I saw the little skip, I knew we were up.”
Marsh embraced Sosa in the dugout. The outfielder said his “whole body got chills” when the ball left the bat. Marsh has become a key cog for the Phillies (30-28) as one of just three hitters on the team with an above-average OPS+ (130 entering Saturday). The club will need him to come through in big spots, maybe even versus lefties because the right-handed options have not been productive.
But against the Dodgers, Mattingly wanted to see Sosa. Marsh supported his teammate in his success.
“As a competitor, just as a player, you want that at-bat, no matter how tough it is,” Marsh said. “And Vesia has really, really good stuff, and I would still like to have confidence in myself. But I’m riding with Donnie, and we made the decision and it worked out in the end. It’s a team game, and it took all of us tonight.”
Mattingly commended Marsh for his unselfish viewpoint. He didn’t feel the need to say anything extra to Marsh when he inserted Sosa since he knows that winning is Marsh’s priority. It took a couple innings, but the swap eventually gave the Phillies the result they were hoping to find.
“Of course I want the at-bat and I want to be in there and I want to come through for the guys, but tonight just wasn’t my night,” Marsh said. “It was Sosa’s night, and that’s kind of just a testament to this team. It takes all of us sometimes, like tonight.”
