Last Night in Baseball: Phillies Walk Off Giants Twice in One Day

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: The Phillies and Giants were rained out on Wednesday, forcing a doubleheader into existence on Thursday. One can’t say that San Francisco would have won either of these contests had they happened at their regularly scheduled time, but, we can at least believe that they couldn’t have gone much worse. The Giants lost both games, and both in the bottom of the ninth via walk-off. To kick things off in game one, designated hitter Kyle Schwarber hit career home run number 350 to cut the Giants’ early lead in half to 2-1. There would be no more scoring in the game until the ninth inning, from either team. And the Phillies finally scored there in an at-bat that should be studied in a lab. Righty reliever Ryan Walker threw nine sinkers in a row to second baseman Bryson Stott, all either completely outside the strike zone or at least on the far side of it, away from Stott. He managed to foul off the two of those pitches that entered the zone ever-so-slightly while he had two strikes, creating an opportunity for Walker to just miss completely with the ninth and final sinker, which catcher Patrick Bailey setup inside for in order to cross up Stott after all those pitches away, but it instead caught the exact middle of the plate and didn’t do much sinking, either. The result? An RBI triple and a tie game. With Stott on third and two outs, it came down to center fielder Justin Crawford to keep this game from going to extras. Whereas Stott fought and fought until he got a pitch he could drive, Crawford jumped all over the first pitch he saw: a 95.7 mph sinker in the strike zone that he was able to poke toward shortstop, slow enough that Stott could score and he made it to first to beat the throw. The Phillies struck much more aggressively and convincingly in the second game. Shortstop Trea Turner led off with a home run, then Schwarber, playing in left, notched dinger 351 with a back-to-back shot. This was no joke of a homer, either: Schwarber hit this one 446 feet to right-center, obliterating a slider that did not slide nearly enough, and the Phillies were up 2-0. The Giants would continually answer, however, getting a run in the fourth and fifth and then two in the sixth, plus their fifth and final run was pushed across in the ninth to go ahead, 5-4. There, down to their final strike, Schwarber delivered once more. This one stayed in the park, but the result was the same: the Phillies scored a game-tying run thanks to Schwarber golfing a splitter beneath the strike zone into the corner in right, scoring DH Brandon Marsh. The Giants failed to score in the 10th, but Philadelphia did not. Stott bunted free baserunner Adolis Garcia over to third, then third baseman Alec Bohm hit a sacrifice fly to center to send the runner home. Ballgame Phillies, again. That’s the first time since 2004, per MLB, that a team has won both games of a doubleheader via walk-off. It’s been a tough season for the Phillies so far, which got their previous manager, Rob Thomson, fired. But they’re 3-0 since, and coming off an exhilarating double-dose of walk-off wins. They still have quite a ways to climb, but with this roster, there’s at least reason to hope that the rest of April can be put behind them, and that their season truly began this week. Well, okay, both grand slams happened in one game, but still. The Orioles played a makeup doubleheader against the Astros, just like the Phillies and Giants had their own, and Baltimore got its own little twist out of it. In this case, a pair of base-clearing dongs. The first featured Astros’ center fielder Brice Matthews thinking that he actually robbed catcher Adley Rutschman of a dinger, but then realizing that no, that ball went over the fence. Rutschman, by the way, is hitting .356/406/.661 on the season, and has a 1.360 OPS in the six games since he returned from the IL. After a disappointing 2025, this is the kind of start the Orioles needed to see out of their now-veteran backstop. The second grand slam came by way of Jeremiah Jackson in the bottom of the seventh. The O’s second baseman just got this one over the wall, too, but at least it wasn’t in any danger of being pulled back in. Baltimore would end up downing Houston, 10-3, but don’t fret, Astros’ fans. Houston won the other game, 11-5, and part of the reason for that… …was Yordan Alvarez’s continued resurgence from an injury-filled 2025. The Astros’ DH went yard for the 12th time in 2026 to put Houston up 6-0 in the second, following a strong first inning in which right fielder Cam Smith had hit a three-run homer to cap a five-run frame. Alvarez is now tied with Yankees’ star Aaron Judge and White Sox’ rookie Munetaka Murakami for the league lead in homers. Judge, you expect to see there, but Alvarez coming back with a vengeance like this and Murakami making his presence felt is something to behold. This was just a horrid start for Orioles’ right-hander Brandon Young, who lasted four innings while allowing 10 hits, two walks, two homers and 10 runs, seven of them earned. Again, though, two grand slams fixed/caused any potential issues in the other game, so, the day was a wash for both teams. The Mets. They have lost 17 of 20 games, despite being scheduled against the Twins, Rockies and Nationals to end April. As FOX Sports’ Deesha Thosar pointed out, that’s the fourth-worst April the Mets have had in their entire history. The problems are numerous — enough for Thosar to list out and break down — but let’s just focus on Thursday’s tilt against the Nats for a one-day look. Juan Soto is back, which is a boon for the Mets’ lacking lineup, except even the star outfielder can’t always escape the gravitational pull of this team. Right fielder James Wood brought him back down to Earth, robbing Soto of a solo homer in the first inning. The Nationals would then drop three runs on Mets’ starter Freddy Peralta across the second and third innings, but New York fought back almost immediately. Left fielder MJ Melendez hit a three-run home run off of Miles Mikolas in the bottom of the third, somehow taking this pitch way above the strike zone at his shoulders out of the park. Tie game. New York would push another run across in the sixth to go up 4-3, but that would be the end of their scoring. Peralta settled down, but he was lifted after six, and that’s where the problems began anew. Brooks Raley came on in relief and picked up a hold with a scoreless seventh, but Luke Weaver then came in for him, and did not perform nearly as well. Shortstop CJ Abrams, who had already driven in a run earlier, hit a Weaver changeup left over the middle of the zone 403 feet over the fence in right-center, putting Washington up 5-4. That would also be the final score. The Mets are 10-21, the worst record in MLB, and just got through what was supposed to be an easier part of the schedule. The calendar couldn’t flip over to May any faster for them, but it might not necessarily mean better things, considering. The Mets did, at least, give their fans quite the first pitch. Or a bunch of first pitches. Look, it’s the Team USA figure skaters throwing out the first pitch(es). Athletics’ first baseman won American League Rookie of the Year honors in 2025, and in 2026 he’s off to a slow start in some regards, but only some. That’s because, despite batting .231 to begin the year and facing a (relative) power outage, Kurtz has an OPS of .842 supported by a .417 on-base percentage. Kurtz went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs, a run and a walk against the Royals on Thursday in a 6-3 A’s victory, and that walk added another game to a historic streak he has going on. The 23-year-old Kurtz has now walked in 19-straight games, tied with Hall of Famer and one of the all-time greats in Ted Williams. He’s behind only Barry Bonds’ 20-game streak across the 2002-2003 seasons and Roy Cullenbine’s 22-game streak from 1947 for the longest such run in MLB history. The hits and homers will come, especially if he has the eye to draw this many walks, and if they don’t come to the same degree as last year, it’s only because pitchers are terrified of his prodigious pop. But that careful pitching around him will just mean a whole lot more walks, and the A’s have plenty of other hitters to drive him in. Ronald Acuña Jr.’s defense is his one true weak spot, but that’s just in general. If you want to talk about the strength of his arm, that thing is a cannon. The Braves’ right fielder reminded everyone of that on Thursday with this deep throw to get second baseman Gleyber Torres as he attempted to stretch a single into a double. Not on Acuña’s watch. And hey, a bonus high-five for a fan after a catch in right. The Braves would end up losing to the Tigers, 5-2, as Detroit avoided the sweep, but these two plays can still be appreciated for what they are. Speaking of a defensive play, Reds’ shortstop Elly De La Cruz made the kind that you only used to see back before restrictions were put on how far fielders could change their positioning with shifting. Look at the range on display here on this grounder from Rockies’ first baseman TJ Rumfield, which was hit to second and made its way into the outfield grass. Then, De La Cruz happened. It would have been enough if De La Cruz had merely gotten to it and kept it from becoming an extra-base hit, but he stood up and fired the ball to first in time to get Rumfield for the out. What an impressive player he’s become over the years.