Phillies rally to tie the game in the eighth, but lose to the Diamondbacks in walk-off fashion

PHOENIX — Adrian Del Castillo only needed one pitch to win the game.

With a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, the Arizona Diamondbacks catcher barreled up a fastball from Jeff Hoffman to walk off the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2.

Trailing by two for most of the game, the Phillies’ first run didn’t come until the seventh inning, when Bryce Harper crushed an opposite field home run to left. Johan Rojas tied the game an inning later with a double that scored Nick Castellanos from first. But by then it was too little, too late, as the Phillies squandered a quality start from starter Zack Wheeler.

Rojas had a solid night at the plate overall. He hit an opposite-field line drive in the third inning, but Corbin Carroll made an acrobatic catch in right field. Rojas followed it up with a single in the sixth.

The Diamondbacks, by contrast, got things started early. Arizona didn’t hit Wheeler very hard in the first inning — of their three singles, the hardest hit was 85.2 mph off the bat — but they were able to find gaps in the infield to plate a run on a Del Castillo single for the early lead.

Wheeler allowed some traffic on the bases, with seven total hits and a pair of walks, but the only other run he allowed came off a solo shot from Joc Pederson in the third. He recorded eight strikeouts, five of which were called looking.

Wheeler’s four-seam velocity was up. He averaged 95.9 mph with his fastball, a 0.8 uptick from his season average.

Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson faced the minimum through four innings, before Alec Bohm ended his bid for a perfect game with a bloop to right field that he stretched into a double. Nelson stranded him at second with three straight strikeouts.

Bohm singled in the ninth to put the go-ahead run at first, but Brandon Marsh grounded into a force out to end the inning.