PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies haven’t had a walk-off home run at Citizens Bank Park in more than two years.
Edmundo Sosa hadn’t had a walk-off anything ever.
Sosa finally got his walk-off moment in the 10th inning of Monday night’s 3-2 victory over the Red Sox. It just wasn’t what he envisioned as a kid. There was no deep drive to left-center field, no watching the ball disappear into a sea of euphoric fans, no circling the bases and being mobbed by teammates at home plate. Instead, his bat struck Boston catcher Carlos Narváez’s mitt on a 1-2 pitch with the bases loaded.
Sosa won the game on a walk-off catcher’s interference. It was the first walk-off catcher’s interference in Major League Baseball since the Dodgers got one against the Reds on Aug. 1, 1971.
“To be honest, this just feels exactly like a home run,” Sosa said through the team’s interpreter.
Well, he said it felt that way because it helped the Phillies win. It was badly needed. The Phillies have lost three consecutive series and are 21-24 since May 29.
They need to get going.
“It’s strange,” Phillies ace Zack Wheeler said. “People always say, 'I’ve never seen that before on the baseball field.' It’s just another one. I wonder how many more times you can say that? I mean, Sosa, he loves the big moment. It isn’t what he probably pictured, but it got the job done.”
“There’s two things, this year, that I’ve never seen before in 40 years,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “One is a walk-off inside-the-park home run, and a walk-off catcher’s interference.”
The Phillies lost on a walk-off inside-the-park homer on July 8 in San Francisco.
This one felt better, we assume?
“It did,” Thomson deadpanned.
The Phillies got four scoreless innings from the bullpen, following six innings of two-run ball from Wheeler. Max Lazar pitched a scoreless 10th, stranding the automatic runner.
Red Sox pitcher Jordan Hicks started the bottom of the 10th with Brandon Marsh on second as the automatic runner. Hicks walked Otto Kemp to put runners on first and second. A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third.
Hicks intentionally walked Max Kepler to load the bases.
Sosa stepped to the plate. He entered the game in the eighth when he pinch-hit for Bryson Stott against Red Sox left-hander Aroldis Chapman. It’s the second time in four games that Sosa has pinch-hit for Stott against a lefty.
Stott has a .530 OPS this season against lefties.
Sosa singled against Chapman in that eighth-inning at-bat.
“Depending on the matchup,” Thomson said about Sosa pinch-hitting for Stott in the future.
In the 10th, Sosa quickly fell behind 0-2 to Hicks.
“At that point, I just thought about defending the zone and being short to the ball,” he said.
Sosa checked his swing on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, a slider away. Sosa’s bat clearly hit Narváez’s mitt, but home-plate umpire Quinn Wolcott didn’t see it.
Sosa immediately signaled to the first-base dugout to ask for a replay review.
“I felt something,” Sosa told Wolcott.
He got the review and the call was overturned.
Game over.
“I don’t feel I was that close to the hitter,” Narváez said. “Everything went so quick. Really tough for that to happen in that moment to cost us the game. I take accountability. I've got to be better. That cannot happen.”
The Phillies haven’t had a walk-off homer since Kyle Schwarber’s solo shot against the Dodgers on June 9, 2023. It’s one of nine walk-off homers for the Phillies since Bryce Harper’s memorable walk-off grand slam against the Cubs on Aug. 15, 2019. The other players among those nine are Sean Rodriguez, Scott Kingery, Luke Williams, J.T. Realmuto, Andrew McCutchen, Brad Miller, Stott and Garrett Stubbs.
But none of them have ever done what Sosa did.
When the Dodgers won on their walk-off catcher’s interference in 1971, Manny Mota attempted to steal home on the first pitch from Joe Gibbon. Reds catcher Johnny Bench moved outside, stood up and caught the pitch.
He tagged Mota at the plate, but umpire Harry Wendelstedt ruled that Bench interfered with Willie Crawford’s chance to hit the ball.
He correctly called catcher’s interference.
“I’ve been in baseball 43 years and I’ve never seen that play called,” Dodgers hitting coach Dixie Walker told the Cincinnati Enquirer at the time.
It would be another 54 years until a game ended in similar fashion.
“This was my first one, for sure,” Sosa said.