With baseball still a ways off and a winter storm bearing down on the east coast, let’s warm ourselves in the blanket of memory. Despite how things ended, the Phillies did have a pretty good year in 2024. Especially if you focus mainly on the first half of the season.
In the second half they appeared much more … human. But that didn’t mean they didn’t plant plenty of memorable moments in your head, so that 2024 can be remembered by more than just what didn’t happen.
Two nights later, Cristian Pache got the same treatment when he walked the Phillies off with an opposite-field single. And it took over a month, but their next walkoff win on May 18 saw a Kody Clemens game-tying homer with the Phillies down to their last out against the Nationals at home. Johan Rojas made a daring escape from second to third in extras on a sac fly and made it with a Superman dive. Harper, the sound of missiles priming audible each time he stood up to the plate, launched a twisting high liner that the fielder tracked down but allowed Rojas to win the game with ease.
On June 4, after Seranthony Dominguez gets out of an impossible spot, Castellanos wins it in the 10th with an RBI double. He does it again two weeks later against the Padres, after Harper went first to third on a Bohm single. Bryson Stott tied it and Castellanos hit a plummeting pop-op right where no one could reach it. The ball drops, clearly fair, as the right fielder is trying to cradle it, and the ball game is over.
On August 16, Brandon Marsh suddenly aborted an attempt to get to second base on a sizzling high liner to right, then puts on the brakes when he sees the throw … but the throw sails over the entire infield. Marsh looks up and sees nobody covering second base, so he just kind of goes over there and starts dancing. This was very much a Brandon Marsh-style of play. Then the Nationals let Cal Stevenson get away with a bunt base hit, which sets up a Turner no-doubter to win it.
