Sep 16, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies catcher Rafael Marchan (13) celebrates with in the dugout after hitting a 3-run home run in the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
LOS ANGELES - So much for the hangover - well, mostly, anyway.
There are moments players have in a season that are memorable, and then there's what happened on Tuesday with Rafael Marchan.
In the second round of a three-round clash of the titans out here in Tinseltown, The Phillies and Dodgers once again traded haymakers all night.
The stage was set for the final act of the drama in the top of the ninth. Two out, nobody on. Weston Wilson, who has come up so incredibly clutch lately, especially with all of Trea Turner, Alec Bohm, and Edmundo Sosa on the I.L., ripp a double to left field off Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen.
Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts - who had a hellish night - looked ahead and saw the next two hitters were Bryson Stott and then Marchan.
After pitching around Stott unsuccessfully for three pitches, Roberts walked him intentionally to get to Marchan. This was the guy they wanted to face.
And if Phillies manager Rob Thomson had his druthers, Marchan never would have stepped to the plate.
The exact reason they called up Garrett Stubbs as the extra man on the roster was for this very spot. It would allow Thomson to use J.T. Realmuto as a pinch hitter on his off night and still not have to go catch as Stubbs could enter the game as a third catcher.
And while the situation screamed for Realmuto to bat he was, um, unavailable.
"J.T. was ill," Thomson said.
Uh huh. The day after that wild N.L. East clinching celebration.
J.T. Realmuto was ill tonight. If he wasn’t, would he have pinch-hit for Rafael Marchán in the ninth inning?
Rob Thomson, to @AntSanPhilly: “Probably, yeah.” pic.twitter.com/NMkRWEozvX
Had Realmuto not been ill, would Thomson have gone to him in that spot?
"Probably, yeah," Thomson said. "(But) it gave Marchan a chance to come through and he delivered."
Did he ever.
The @Phillies answer RIGHT BACK
Rafael Marchán gives them the lead in the 9th! 🔔 pic.twitter.com/mnRv6s8W93
That homer put the Phillies up 9-6. Jhoan Duran finished it off for his 31st save of the season, and the Phillies climbed to 30 games over .500 for the first time all season.
They also won the season series over the Dodgers and spread their lead over them for a first round bye to 6 1/2 games with just 10 to play. The Phillies magic number to clinch that bye is down to four. It would take an epic collapse at this point to not get it. And the way the Phillies are going right now, that seems almost impossible.
But that's what happens when you get contributions from every player on the roster. On Monday, Otto Kemp and Wilson had key hits in support of Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
On Tuesday it was Wilson and Marchan making it happen with two outs in the ninth.
"I knew I hit the ball well but then I saw it hit the small wall and I tried to jump," Marchan said.
Was it the butterfly effect?
Was it Marchan's version of Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair in the 1975 World Series?
Either way the ball hit off the tippy top of the four-foot wall in the right field corner and rather than kick back into the field of play it kept going toward the stands for the home run.
It was the biggest moment of Marchan's baseball career.
"He's done a great job for us all year," Thomson said. "He plays every fifth (or) sixth day, so to be as prepared as he is - and not just behind the plate but offensively, too because he has to do double the work since he's a switch hitter - he's just done a fabulous job. He really has."
Thomson could say that about a lot of his players right now.
Brandon Marsh hit a three-run homer - off a lefty reliever, no less - in the sixth inning to help the Phillies overcome a four-run deficit in the sixth inning.
…and now Brandon Marsh gives the Phillies the LEAD!
Five straight base hits turns into five runs.
(via @TalkinBaseball_) pic.twitter.com/3oLIzKeRPr
Max Kepler also went deep later in the inning, capping off a six-run outburst.
Max Kepler absolutely DEMOLISHED this baseball😳 pic.twitter.com/HXPlBb5qMk
The interesting thing is, the Phillies did not have a hit prior to the sixth inning.
Shohei Ohtani started for the Dodgers and was very good. He walked just one batter and struck out five in five hitless innings.
But Roberts pulled him... after just 68 pitches.
Rafael Marchán on Shohei Ohtani, who hit a home run and didn’t allow a hit through five innings pitched:
“He’s really special, but they took him out, and we have the chance, and we win the game.”
(via @AntSanPhilly) pic.twitter.com/rBZv73k67x
The Phillies saw the Dodgers bullpen door open and turned into tigers in the zoo at feeding time and poor Justin Wrobleski's pitches were like read meat.
Marchan broke up the combined no-no with a one-out, opposite field single. That opened the flood gates.
Harrison Bader singled. Schwarber singled. Harper doubled. And then Marsh hit the big fly.
Maybe Roberts should have left Ohtani in - just saying.
Cristopher Sanchez allowed four runs on six hits, but he was attacking the zone. He threw 102 pitches, 75 of them were for strikes. His two big mistakes were leaving a couple of balls in the zone that Alex Call and Kike Hernandez deposited in left field.
The Dodgers have been fighters this series, despite coming up short. They punched back against David Robertson, who just didn't have it on Tuesday pitching for the third time in four days. He yielded a solo homer to Ohtani and a double to Teoscar Hernandez that would later score on a Call sacrifice fly off Tanner Banks.
This all set up the dramatics for Marchan though, and the bench exploded. Guys were doing the Cactus Jack "bang, bang" that Schwarber and Bader unveiled as a thing publicly - for the first time - during Monday's clubhouse celebration. High fives abounded.
"I was ready to run onto the field like we were in the bottom of the ninth." Marsh said.
The Phillies are having fun again. It all just feels different. It's a lot like it was when they were loose in 2022 and not at all like the uptightness that came at the end of the disappointing 2023 playoffs and carried through last year's early exit to the Mets.
Don't dismiss it. The fun is important. Vibes matter. There is a ceiling for their value, but you'd much rather be playing with them, and with some swagger when the calendar flips to October, than be a stoic team just plodding along.
And the Phillies are feeling them from the top guy to No. 28 on the roster and everyone in between, and more than anything, they believe.
