PHILADELPHIA — It was overlooked in the general September offensive swoon by the Phillies that Bryson Stott actually had a decent month.
Perhaps nothing to write home about – .262 average from Sept. 3 on, hits in 15 of 22 games. But for a season skidding along in the .230s into August, the final month kept Stott’s head above a level of water that, admittedly, was lower than he had hoped for his third professional season.
And so Sunday, with the Phillies looking for a spark, two left-handed starters due for the Mets in New York and Edmundo Sosa knighted as the spark-provider, it was perhaps surprising that Game 2 brought Sosa for Alec Bohm, instead of for Stott in Game 3.
Whatever measure of faith that brought, it carried a promotion to fifth in the order … and a chance, on his 27th birthday, to be one of the heroes.
Bryce Harper’s batter’s eye blast and Nick Castellanos’ walk-off single will make the all-time highlight reel. But just as vital was a two-run triple hit by Stott in the eighth inning off Edwin Diaz and the heady base-running play to tack on the sixth run in a 7-6 victory.
“Diaz, he’s one of the best closers in the game for a reason, and his stuff is electric,” Stott said. “His fastball was running more than it has, it felt like, in the past. And I was trying to beat one of those heaters to the outside part of the plate. And he threw a slider that I thought I could finally hit and was able to pull it down the line.”
Relative to those around him, Stott looked less bad in Game 1, working a walk in four trips. Sunday, he singled in the fourth and added a leaping run-saving snare of a J.D. Martinez liner in the fourth.
Stott’s seven-pitch at-bat against Luis Severino after Harper and Castellanos went back-to-back in the sixth was more evidence of progress.
“I thought his at-bats were good today,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He actually swung on a first pitch fastball, which I like to see every once in a while. He worked counts and didn’t chase hardly at all.”
Stepping in with Harper on third and Castellanos on first and one out in the eighth, Stott was patient. It’s his default, sometimes to a fault.
He took a fastball for a strike, didn’t bite on two pitches away, then let a slider catch the outside edge. Pushing the count full, Diaz had to give in. Stott ripped the slider over the plate down the line in right. His taking third with an extra burst allowed him to score when J.T. Realmuto nubbed a grounder to third for a fielder’s choice. The sixth run proved pivotal, Mark Vientos’ two-run shot in the ninth merely tying it.
In the approach against Diaz, Stott showed much of what made him great last year. His batting average fell from his second to his third seasons, from .280 to .245, with power numbers lower than his rookie season. But his walk rate rose and his whiff rate ticked down, so not all is bad.
He gets a memorable birthday to cap it.
“Pretty close to the top. Probably the top,” Stott said of his new birthday rankings. “That was fun.”
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