WEST SACRAMENTO -- Johan Rojas danced backward toward the warning track with the baseball in his sights. As the center fielder homed in on a hard-hit fly ball from Athletics slugger Tyler Soderstrom, the rest of the Phillies could only watch.
Manager Rob Thomson saw the ball knuckling away from Rojas and knew it would be a tough catch. Shortstop Trea Turner thought it was a routine play -- until he noticed the exit velocity on the scoreboard.
“When I looked up and I saw 106 miles an hour, I was like, ‘Oh, no,’” Turner said.
At the last instant, Rojas reached up over his shoulder, snagging the sinking fly ball just before it could land in front of the outfield fence. He tumbled down in a heap in front of the wall, the baseball -- and his club’s 1-0 lead -- nestled in the safety of his glove.
Rojas’ crazy catch to end the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday’s 4-3 win over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park was perfect proof: It might not look easy -- and it sure didn’t Friday night -- but the Phillies keep finding ways to get the job done.
They won their eighth consecutive game and improved to 16-10 on the road in 2025, remaining tied with the Cubs and Mariners (who each won road games Friday) for the best road record in the Major Leagues.
After Rojas’ wild catch deprived Soderstrom of extra bases to preserve a one-run advantage headed into the ninth, the Phils put up three runs off A’s closer Mason Miller for some breathing room.
It turned out to be necessary, as A's rookie Nick Kurtz socked a three-run homer off Jordan Romano in the bottom of the ninth, and the A’s added a two-out single to bring the winning run to the plate.
But the Phillies sealed the deal. Left-hander Tanner Banks trotted in from the bullpen to bail out Romano, sending A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler chasing on back-to-back sweepers to close out the ballgame.
“A win’s a win,” Thomson said. “It kind of got messy there at the end, but I’ll take the win anytime.”
Hardly any contest during the Phils’ longest win streak since June 2022 has followed a conventional script. This is, after all, a hot stretch that began with a fateful seventh inning against the Pirates on May 16: four runs on just one hit to take the lead for good. Two days later, Mick Abel -- in his Major League debut -- outdueled Paul Skenes. On Monday, the Phils trailed Colorado 3-2 heading into the eighth before roaring past the Rockies in the opener of a four-game series sweep.
It has hardly come easy. But success in the Major Leagues never does.
“Just finding ways to win,” Turner said. “Sometimes you slug it out. Sometimes you win games like this.”
Turner pointed to starter Zack Wheeler’s stellar outing Friday as a main reason for the victory -- a performance that might understandably get lost in the shuffle of a chaotic final act.
Wheeler extended his scoreless streak to 22 2/3 innings, his longest such stretch as a Phillie and the second longest of his career, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. After tossing 6 2/3 scoreless frames with eight strikeouts Friday, he still has yet to allow a run since the fourth inning May 6 against the Rays.
“I thought his stuff was good,” Thomson said. “I thought he pitched behind in the count a little bit more than he normally does, but the stuff was good and he battled and gave us a really good outing.”
It’s nothing new for a Phillies rotation that has posted a 1.82 ERA since the start of the winning streak, second in MLB -- a key factor in the club’s NL-best 33-18 record.
“The rotation, we’ve got the best, I think, in baseball,” Rojas said. “Those guys, I love those guys.”
The feeling is mutual. Rojas’ teammates have seen the young center fielder make some special grabs over the years -- robbing Ronald Acuña Jr. in the 2023 NLDS certainly comes to mind.
Add Friday’s game-saving, lead-preserving snag to the list -- a play perfectly encapsulating a Phillies team that might make it interesting but will get things done when it matters.
“Big out, because who knows what happens after that?” Turner said. “Great play by him. He’s been doing that for a little while now, and we expect it out of him, because we need it.”