Trea Turner Walks-Off against Former team, as Phillies win against Nats, 3-2

By Zachary McMahon-

The Philadelphia Phillies hosted the Washington Nationals for the second game of the four-game series at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Friday night. The Phillies crushed the Nationals 13-3 in a game in which Phillies rookie outfielder Weston Wilson went for the cycle. 

Before the game, former Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, presenting him with the home plate of Wrigley Field, as he caught a no-hitter by Cole Hamels on July 25, 2015 against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley. Ruiz threw the first pitch to former pitcher Brad Lidge, who were battery mates when the Phillies won the 2008 world series. 

Aaron Nola tossed 6 ⅔ innings for the Phillies, where he allowed no earned runs on seven hits and two walks. Meanwhile, Patrick Corbin pitched 4 ⅓ innings for the Nats, allowing seven hits with two earned runs, walks, and strikeouts each. 

Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto both brought in runs on singles as the Phillies got to a 2-0 lead at the end of the third inning. Both extended their hitting streaks to five games, and Castellanos has reached in 10 out of the last 11 games. 

The Phillies shutout the Nats until the ninth inning when Luis Garcia Jr. and Juan Yepez both singled, and Yepez was pinch run by Nasim Nunez. Jose Tena brought Garcia Jr. home on a RBI single for the first run of the game for the Nats. Jacob Young brought in the tying run on a fielder’s choice in the top of the ninth. Alex Call and C.J Abrams struck out for the final two outs of the inning by Carlos Estevez, who was the only Phillies reliever with multiple strikeouts. 

In the bottom of the ninth, Marsh, who replaced Wilson on defense in the top half, led off with a single, and then went to second on a throwing error by Call. Cal Stevenson got his second hit of the season on a bunt single that sent Marsh to third as the runners were on the corners when Kyle Schwarber came up, in which he was intentionally walked by Kyle Finnegan to try to prevent the winning run from scoring. Unfortunately for the Nationals, Trea Turner hit it for a walk-off single against his former team as the Phillies won 3-2 over the Nationals. 

It was the sixth walk-off win for the Phillies this season, and the first since a Castellanos walk-off ground rule double on June 18 against the San Diego Padres. This was the second time the Phillies have walked off against the Nationals this season as former Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper hit a walk-off sacrifice fly on May 18. Turner hit his second career walk-off as a Phillies and his sixth overall, as the other was a single on Aug 23, 2023 against the San Francisco Giants. Turner capped off a four-hit night with three singles and a double, in his first four-hit game this season, and his 17th career game with four or more hits, the first since June 5, 2023 against the Detroit Tigers. 

Wilson went 0-for-2 with a walk as he has a five-game on-base streak for the Phillies. Alec Bohm with a single in the first inning, which extended his 33 game on-bass streak, which is the longest since Odubel Cabrera had a streak of 44 games from Sept. 27, 2017 to May 19, 2018, and the first in the same season since Chase Utley had a 35 game streak from June 23 to Aug. 3, 2006. 

The Phillies will look to win the series on Saturday as first pitch is at 6:05 pm with Christopher Sanchez and Mackenzie Gore taking the mound for the Phillies and Nats respectively.