They were running like their season depended on it. Nick Castellanos, Brandon Marsh, and Johan Rojas were in a dead sprint toward the corner of Oracle Park’s expansive right field. Giants catcher Patrick Bailey had just laced a fastball off the top of the brick wall, and the baseball took a cruel, almost physics-defying bounce. It skipped past everyone and skidded along the warning track like a runaway car. As Bailey rounded third, Marsh finally grabbed the ball. It was already too late. The moment had passed, and the Giants were rushing out of the dugout, leaving the Phillies frozen in shock.
It game didn’t just end with a walk-off. It turned into an exhilarating inside-the-park home run, a feat not seen from a catcher in nearly a century. And it came against a Phillies team built to win in October, not unravel in July. But on Tuesday night, unravel they did. Manager Rob Thomson had no choice but to own it afterward. This wasn’t just a fluky finish. This was a game that slipped through the cracks strategically, emotionally, and painfully.
“We got kind of caught back in a corner,” Thomson admitted postgame, referencing the bullpen shuffle that forced him to ask Jordan Romano for a five-out save, something he hadn’t attempted all season. “It wasn’t ideal.”
The bullpen blueprint fell apart the moment rookie Daniel Robert walked Rafael Devers after allowing a leadoff single. Romano cleaned it up in the eighth but came back out in the ninth with diminishing velocity. He allowed a double, then a single, and then Bailey’s historic dash that turned a 3-1 Phillies lead into a crushing 4-3 loss.
Even Kyle Schwarber, who had belted his 28th homer into McCovey Cove earlier in the game, was stunned by the bounce that triggered the collapse. “It hit the peak and kicked out hard. That’s just a weird carom,” he said. “What can you say?”
This wasn’t just about one pitch or one player. It was the kind of unraveling that exposes soft spots in a contending team. Kerkering was unavailable. Strahm was used early. Options ran dry, and the Giants took full advantage.
Romano now holds a 7.44 ERA and his third blown save of the year. He didn’t shy away either. “It’s just like, I get on a decent roll, then it’s a big, bad outing. Get on a decent roll, another big, bad outing. And so it’s just been super frustrating, just not getting on a roll. I’ll feel really good for a little bit, and then it’s a bad one. That’s just how it’s gone.”
There’s no time to sulk in a postseason race, but the message was clear: even a team this talented can get exposed if the bullpen misfires and the margins thin out. The Phillies didn’t just lose, they learned.
Not just a loss for the Phillies, but a rare piece of baseball history
You don’t see that every night. In fact, you haven’t seen it in nearly a century. When Patrick Bailey raced around the bases and dove headfirst into home plate, he didn’t just win the game; he rewrote the history books. The Giants catcher became the first backstop in 99 years to hit a walk-off inside-the-park home run, a feat last accomplished in 1926 by Bennie Tate of the Washington Senators. Tate’s walk-off came against the Yankees; Bailey’s came at the expense of a Phillies team with October dreams and a bullpen stretched far too thin.
The wild bounce off Oracle Park’s brick outfield wall helped, sure. But Bailey never hesitated. He sprinted as soon as he touched the ball; his legs moving swiftly while chaos ensued behind him. Brandon Marsh, in center field, chased after the ball into the corner as the Giants dugout erupted in disbelief. The ball hadn’t cleared the wall, yet it had done something much rarer: it beat everyone. Before the Phillies could even react, Bailey had touched home, and the game was over.
Statistically, it’s one of the rarest walk-offs in modern baseball. According to StatCast, Bailey’s line drive would’ve been a standard home run in 29 other ballparks. Only Oracle Park’s quirky dimensions and that perfect bounce could turn it into something historic.
And while the Phillies were left stunned, the baseball community witnessed firsthand the wacky nature of the game.
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