Red Sox turn clocks back on Phillies with improbable comeback

The Boston Red Sox are playing in one of the toughest divisions in baseball, making interleave series like this one against the Philadelphia Phillies extra important in their chase for a playoff spot. Coming into Wednesday night, Alex Cora and company were looking to salvage the series against one of the top teams in the National League after losing the first two games.

The Red Sox were on the ropes once again on Wednesday night, as the powerful Phillies lineup ripped off four home runs in the first four innings to take a commanding 5-0 lead. However, the Red Sox continued to battle and came all the way back, eventually getting a dramatic 9-8 win in 11 innings thanks to a two-run homer by Carlos Narváez in the top of the frame.

This was a stunning loss for the Phillies, who lost a game where they hit five home runs for the first time since June 10, 2019 according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.

All of the stars were out early for Philadelphia, which got big swings from Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and Bryce Harper to jump out to the big early lead. However, after Boston chipped in a few runs to cut the deficit down, Romy González swung the game in the fifth inning. With the bases loaded, González crushed a grand slam off of Jesus Luzardo to give Boston a temporary 6-5 lead.

J.T. Realmuto hit the fifth home run of the game for Philly to tie things up and force extra innings, but the Red Sox came through in the clutch to avoid the sweep. Now, Boston is just six games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the AL East and is hanging onto the final wild card spot in the American League.

On the Philadelphia side, Rob Thomson’s club is still firmly in the playoff picture in the National League but has struggled to find some of the same consistency that it did earlier in the season. After missing out on this opportunity to do so, the Phils have not won three games in a row in over a month since June 18-20, per Zolecki. If they want to make noise in the postseason, that will have to change quickly.