The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies with a long fly ball, a bad bounce and a catcher’s legs.
With one out and runners at the corners in the bottom of the ninth inning, Giants catcher Patrick Bailey hit a walk-off, three-run, inside-the-park homer in a 4-3 win. The ball looked like it would end the game the simpler way, flying over the wall in right-center, but the cavernous right-field dimensions of Oracle Park kept the ball in play.
The play wound up being much funnier. The ball bounced hard and careened not just away from right fielder Nick Castellanos, but well past center fielder Brandon Marsh. It was the kind of bounce you need significant experience in San Francisco to anticipate, and the Phillies outfield didn’t.
Bailey, one of the slower players in the majors with an average sprint speed of 25.6 feet per second, rumbled around the basepaths and scored the winning run with time to spare. Per Baseball Reference, it was the first inside-the-park homer by a catcher since Bennie Tate in 1926, nearly a century ago.
A different Philadelphia athletes was just as surprised as everyone by what happened.
That ending continues a stretch of misery for the Phillies at Oracle Park, where they have lost 18 of their last 21 games.
Before Phillies reliever Jordan Romano entered the game, the Phillies pitching staff had allowed just one run and six hits in eight innings, led by starting pitcher Taijuan Walker. It has been a brutal season overall for Romano, who was non-tendered by the Toronto Blue Jays after a similarly rough campaign in 2024.
The Phillies’ bullpen has been in flux since closer Jose Alvarado was suspended 80 games after a failed performance-enhancing drug test. Romano has closing experience, having reached two All-Star Games as Blue Jays closer, but his ERA now sits at 7.44 in 32 2/3 innings. His peripherals aren’t much better.
Romano got into trouble Tuesday on a leadoff double by Casey Schmitt. Wilmer Flores brought the winning run to the plate with a single two batters later, and Bailey needed only one pitch to hit the most chaotic fly ball of his career.
Patrick Bailey is the first catcher in 99 years to hit a walk-off inside-the-park home run. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
(Thearon W. Henderson via Getty Images)
The win keeps the Giants in control of the third NL wild-card spot and five games back from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, a lead that peaked at nine games only five days ago. The Dodgers lost earlier Tuesday to the Milwaukee Brewers after a brilliant performance by rookie pitcher Jacob Misiorowski.
Meanwhile, the 53-39 Phillies have now fallen into a tie with the New York Mets for first place in the NL East.
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