The Phillies won on Friday thanks to Dalton Guthrie, Nick Nelson and others.
The Philadelphia Phillies are getting some unexpected contributions from players in recent weeks — and arguably months since Rob Thomson replaced Joe Girardi in early June as interim manager.
The trend continued in Friday evening’s 5-3 series opener victory against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park.
With the game scoreless in the bottom of the third, Edmundo Sosa carried over his historic two-game stretch with a one-out triple. Then, 26-year-old rookie outfielder Dalton Guthrie brought the Panama native home with an RBI single to right field — marking his first career hit and RBI.
🚨 first Major League hit and RBI for @DaltonGuthrie 🚨 pic.twitter.com/bRGj594o3f
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 9, 2022
Four innings later, Guthrie provided the Phillies with a much-needed insurance run with an RBI single on a soft ground ball that scored fellow rookie Bryson Stott from third base. The base knock was Guthrie’s second hit and RBI of the night, and his career overall. The Florida native — who also made a few nice plays in the outfield — went hitless spanning three plate appearances in his big-league debut on Tuesday against the Miami Marlins.
Then came the bottom of the ninth. After Brad Hand retired the first two Nationals batters, things got a little dicey for the left-hander — who allowed consecutive, two-out singles to put the tying run on first base.
Thomson then turned to usual long-reliever Nick Nelson — who needed just three pitches to induce a groundout for the final out of the inning and game. The effort notably marked the right-hander’s first career save.
Nelson appeared in 22 games with the New York Yankees across the 2020-21 seasons, before appearing in 39 games with the Phillies so far in 2022, entering Saturday.
Thanks to Sosa, Guthrie, and Nelson, among others, the Phillies were able to secure a crucial, late-season win. Since the Milwaukee Brewers lost on Friday, the team now has some extra cushion in the Wild Card standings — with just weeks until the regular season finale.