Edmundo Sosa found himself swarmed by his Philadelphia Phillies teammates just past first base after a dramatic 3-2 walk-off victory over the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.
And the kicker? It all ended on a catcher’s interference.
“To be honest, this feels exactly like hitting a home run,” Sosa said through an interpreter. “What matters most is we got the win—that’s what we came here for.”
The unusual finish came in the 10th inning, with the bases loaded and no outs. On a 2-2 pitch, Sosa barely checked his swing—but the bat clipped the glove of Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez. After a quick video review, the interference was confirmed, awarding Sosa first base and allowing Brandon Marsh, the automatic runner, to trot home with the game-winning run.
“I knew I was a bit late with my barrel,” Sosa said, who came in as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and notched a single. “As I followed through, I felt contact with the catcher’s glove. I told the umpire and signaled to the dugout.”
This marks the first walk-off catcher’s interference in the major leagues since August 1, 1971, when the Los Angeles Dodgers claimed a win against the Cincinnati Reds on a call against the legendary Johnny Bench. Back then, Willie Crawford was the batter and Joe Gibbon the pitcher.
For Narvaez, the play was ruled an error—his sixth of the season, the second-most among all MLB catchers. Earlier, in the fourth inning, he also had a passed ball—his fifth—which let Nick Castellanos advance after driving in the Phillies’ first run. Castellanos then scored on a single from J.T. Realmuto.
“I didn’t think I was that close to the hitter,” Narvaez admitted. “It all happened so fast. Tough moment to let that happen and cost us the game. I take full responsibility—I’ve got to be better. That can’t happen.”
This was the Phillies’ third walk-off win of the season. The first came on April 29 when a wild pitch let Bryson Stott score against Washington. The second, on June 6, was sealed with a Marsh single in the 11th inning against the Chicago Cubs.
Ironically, the Phillies were also on the receiving end of walk-off madness earlier this month—July 8—when Patrick Bailey of the San Francisco Giants crushed a three-run, walk-off, inside-the-park home run.
“There’ve been two things this year I’ve never seen in over 40 years of baseball,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “One was that inside-the-park walk-off, and now this—a walk-off catcher’s interference.”
And get this—they won the game without even putting the ball in play in the 10th inning. Marsh began the inning on second base. Otto Kemp tried to bunt him over but ended up drawing a walk from Red Sox reliever Jordan Hicks.
Hicks’ first pitch to Max Kepler was wild, moving the runners to second and third. Then came an intentional walk to Kepler, setting the stage for Sosa. He fell behind 0-2, fouled one off, then swung at an 86 mph slider—just enough to graze the thumb of Narvaez’s glove, and that was game over.
“It’s wild,” said Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. “You hear people say, ‘I’ve never seen that on a baseball field’—well, this is another one. Makes you wonder how many more times we’ll say that this season.”