Alumni Weekend came to a close Sunday with dozens of Phillies legends gathering along the third-base line to help the current team celebrate 20 years of Citizens Bank Park.
The crowd of 40,677 was bumping before Taijuan Walker threw his first pitch, and it looked after the Phillies took another early lead like they’d be able to finish off a four-game weekend sweep of the Nationals, but no such luck.
Walker was bitten by the home-run bug in each of his final two innings, and though the Phillies tied the game by going back-to-back in the bottom of the sixth, Matt Strahm allowed the game-winning run, a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the eighth inning of a 6-4 loss.
The Phillies put the tying run on base to start the bottom of the ninth and had Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto on the bench but manager Rob Thomson chose to stick with Cal Stevenson in the eight-hole. Stevenson hit into a 1-2-3 double play and Garrett Stubbs grounded out to second to end the game.
