Last night was hardly something to celebrate for the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies escaped with a win on the brink of another embarrassing loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in extra innings, winning last night’s game by a final score of 7-6. They are now 64-64 on the season and remain 5.5 games back of the National League East leading Atlanta Braves.

Aaron Nola was on the mound for the Phillies and was efficient, throwing 5.1 innings and allowing three hits and two earned runs while striking out seven. The Phillies got another home run from MVP candidate Bryce Harper in the third inning to give them a 2-0 lead in the ball game.

Nola would allow one run, and Connor Brogdon allowed a run in relief that was counted towards Nola an dthe game was tied heading into the final three innings. JT Realmuto stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning and delivered his first clutch hit in what felt like forever, giving the Phillies a 4-2 lead. Hector Neris pitched another great inning in the eighth before Ian Kennedy entered the game to close things out for the Phillies.

Ian Kennedy blew the save. He allowed two hits and two earned runs. The game was going to extra innings and quite frankly the season seemed to come crashing to an abrupt end at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Even more so, when Girardi elected to bring Enyel De Los Santos into a tie game to pitch in extra innings. It felt like the Phillies weren’t even trying to win this game as frustration mounted given the fact that this was all happening against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

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As expected, De Los Santos let up two runs in the top of the 10th inning. Girardi stated that Archie Bradley had a sore shoulder and hadn’t pitched since Tuesday. Sam Coonrod, Bailey Falter, and Jose Alvarado all pitched on Thursday, so they were unavailable as well. The Phillies headed to the bottom of the 10th inning down 6-4. With one out and Realmuto on second, Brad Miller tagged a home run to deep right field to tie the ball game at six.

De Los Santos came out again to pitch the 11th inning and managed to throw a scoreless frame to send the game into the bottom half. From there, Jean Segura fought off what felt like a million pitches before hitting a ball to right field, giving the Phillies a 7-6 win.

There is no doubt that the Phillies are struggling right now and have a huge uphill battle to face if they want to avoid a decade long playoff drought. Last night was a step in the right direction. Ignore the fact that it was against the Diamondbacks. Bryce Harper, JT Realmuto, and Jean Segura all came through with clutch performances and that’s exactly what this team will need if they want to go on a run heading into September.

Kyle Gibson will be on the mound today for the Phillies looking for another win at Citizens Bank Park. From there, Ranger Suarez will wrap up the four game series against the Diamondbacks tomorrow.

Mandatory Credit: The Philadelphia Phillies