TAMPA -- Brandon Marsh told Bryson Stott that he planned to bunt in the 10th inning on Thursday night.
Stott scoffed at the suggestion.
“No you’re not,” he said. “I went to a college on the West Coast. I’ll bunt once you hit a double.”
Stott had smashed a three-run home run in the eighth inning to spark the Phillies’ 7-6 comeback victory over the Rays in 10 innings at George M. Steinbrenner Field, giving the Phils their first sweep since early April. Afterward, Marsh told Stott that Phillies first base coach Paco Figueroa had called the homer. José Alvarado said he called it, too.
“A lot of us had a good feeling that Stott was about to put a really good swing on the ball,” Marsh said.
Stott’s homer cut the Rays’ lead to one. The Phillies tied the game in the ninth, when Kyle Schwarber hit a leadoff single and pinch-runner Johan Rojas advanced from first to third on an errant pickoff throw and scored on a fielder’s choice.
Marsh stepped to the plate in the 10th with a chance to be a hero in what had been a rough season to that point.
He entered the year hoping to seize the opportunity to be an everyday center fielder, but he struggled, then he got hurt. He had returned from the 10-day injured list on Saturday, carrying an 0-for-31 skid with him.
It was the Phillies’ longest hitless streak since Rhys Hoskins’ 0-for-33 in 2021. It was the Phillies’ eighth-longest hitless streak by a non-pitcher since 1974.
But Marsh doubled in his first at-bat on Saturday to snap the hitless streak. He could breathe again.
“That was a big, big weight off the shoulders,” Marsh said. “I felt my normal weight again.”
Marsh had four hits in 10 at-bats since his return, when he got up in the 10th. He ripped a first-pitch fastball off Manuel Rodríguez for a double to left-center field to score Edmundo Sosa from second base to give the Phillies the lead.
“It feels good to contribute, to help the boys out a little bit,” Marsh said. “I’m just taking it day by day, at-bat by at-bat, and just ride with my guys here. They all got my back and I got theirs, so we’ll just keep stepping that way.”
As promised, Stott, who went to UNLV, bunted Marsh to third.
“That dude’s a gangster,” Marsh said. “That dude can play some baseball.”
Trea Turner missed a game-tying homer in the eighth by an inch or two, when Rays left fielder Christopher Morel leapt at the left-field wall to make a home run-saving catch. But the ball fell out of his glove and Turner settled for a double.
Turner laced a single up the middle in the 10th to score Marsh, giving the Phillies an important insurance run.
Turner is batting .397 with one homer, 10 RBIs and a .936 OPS in his last 17 games.
“Selfishly, starting the day 0-for-3 and then putting those two at-bats together was a nice way to turn it around,” he said.
Phillies left-hander Matt Strahm allowed a run in the 10th to put the game within one, but he struck out José Caballero swinging on a 2-2 fastball to end the game.
“I don’t even know where the pitch ended to be honest,” Strahm said. “I saw him swing. I didn’t hear a bat and I knew the game was over. I don’t know. I blacked out.”
The Phillies had won the first two games of their past two series against the Nationals and D-backs, but both times they lost the series finale. It happened two other times this season, too.
This time, they finished the job.
This time, they came back from a four-run deficit in the eighth.
“I love the fight in the club,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
“It’s just awesome,” said starter Jesús Luzardo, who gave up two runs in 5 1/3 innings. “Just knowing that we’re never out of it. We’ve got a lot of potential in that lineup. And experience and star power. So anyone can do it, whether it’s coming off the bench or the starting lineup. We’re never out of it. It’s good to see and it was fun to watch.”
Stott agreed.
“You always want to win the day you travel,” he said. “It makes it a lot more fun. You can kind of be rowdy on the bus and on the plane and things like that."