J.T. Realmuto walks it off for Phillies after suspended game resumes

The Phillies opened a crucial day by winning their suspended game against the Miami Marlins, 4-2, in 10 innings.

J.T. Realmuto hit a walk-off, two-run homer off of Marlins reliever Yimi Garcia.

Saturday’s game was paused in the top of the 10th when Jose Alvarado had a 1-1 count on Jon Berti with a runner on second base. There was a torrential downpour at Citizens Bank Park and after the second rain delay of the night, the game was suspended and resumed Sunday afternoon prior to the teams’ series finale.

Alvarado picked things up by striking out Berti and delivering a 1-2-3 inning to put the Phils in position to walk it off.

The fourth and final game of the weekend between the Phillies and Marlins pits Zack Wheeler against left-hander Braxton Garrett, who’s pitched just 19 big-league innings. Wheeler has allowed one earned run in his last 14 innings to the Marlins and has had double-digit strikeouts in three of his last five starts against them.

The Phillies are 0-3-2 in their last five series against the Marlins and 1-6-2 in their last nine. With a win in game two Sunday, they’ll snap that long skid.

The Phils woke up Sunday with the ability to end the day one, two, three, or four games out of first place in the NL East. The best-case scenario of two wins over the Marlins and a New York Mets loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates could have the Phils as close to the top of the division as they’ve been since May 19.

Beyond that, the Mets are at risk right now. In their first weekend back from the All-Star break, they placed ace Jacob deGrom on the injured list with forearm tightness and lost Francisco Lindor for weeks with an oblique strain. 

The Mets have lost four of their last five games to the Pirates, who are 20 games under .500. They’ve blown ninth-inning leads in two of the last three, and on Saturday allowed nine runs in the final two innings of a game they led by six runs in the eighth.

The Phils were three outs from winning Saturday’s night game without issue when Ranger Suarez blew a two-run lead and a monsoon followed. After about 50 minutes, the game was suspended and resumed prior to Sunday afternoon’s series finale. It was the first suspended game at Citizens Bank Park since game five of the 2008 World Series.

Game two will begin at 2:00pm ET. Zack Wheeler will start for the Phillies while Braxton Garrett with start for the Marlins.