With Marsh in good spirits, Phils enjoy monumental night

CINCINNATI -- Brandon Marsh left Great American Ball Park on Tuesday night feeling “very optimistic” about his injured left knee.

“Spirits are high,” he said.

Marsh’s spirits and smile allowed the Phillies to enjoy their 11-4 victory over the Reds a little more because they know they cannot afford to lose their everyday center fielder for an extended period. The Phils hit five home runs Tuesday, including two from Rhys Hoskins. Kyle Gibson matched a career-high 11 strikeouts. The Phillies took a 1 1/2 game lead over the Padres for the second NL Wild Card.

Afterward, they toasted Rob Thomson’s 59th birthday.

“10,000th win for the Phils,” Hoskins added. “We’ll take a part of baseball history. I mean, that’s a lot of wins. I know we’ve got a lot of losses too, but it’s still a lot of wins.”

The Phillies are the ninth team in MLB history to win 10,000 games. Of course, the Phils became the first team in baseball history to lose 10,000 games.

They did that in July 2007.

The Phillies snapped a 13-year playoff drought in '07. Maybe 10,000 can be the Phils’ magic number again in 2022. They are trying to make the postseason for the first time since 2011.

The Phillies’ five homers were their first homers since Aug. 9, snapping a six-game homerless drought. It was their longest homerless drought since a seven-game streak in June 2015.

Darick Hall broke it with a solo home run to left-center in the third. Nick Castellanos followed with another homer to left-center to make it 2-0.

Hoskins hit a three-run homer to right-center in the fourth to make it 5-3. He hit a two-run homer to center in the eighth to put the game away. Garrett Stubbs hit a three-run homer to right-center in the ninth to turn the game into a laugher.

“I didn’t know it was six games,” Hoskins said. “It’s too long for me. But you can go back and think about the arms that we faced, right? But, yeah, they seem to come in bunches. Not just for me, but for everybody. I think it’s one of those things that can be a little contagious as a team. We had a great offensive night. We got contributions all the way up and down the lineup. We had guys hitting balls hard all over the place.”

Gibson allowed three runs on six hits in six innings. He is 4-2 with a 3.17 ERA in his past seven starts. He was 4-3 with a 4.91 ERA in his first 16.

Gibson made only two mistakes: back-to-back homers to Jake Fraley and Jonathan India in the third. Marsh tried to make a leaping catch at the wall in center field to rob India. The ball sailed over his glove, and when Marsh came down, his knee took an awkward turn to his right.

It looked bad. Marsh writhed in pain on the ground. Castellanos waved for an athletic trainer to meet them on the warning track. Assistant athletic trainer Christian Bermudez was the first to arrive. Thomson and assistant athletic trainer Aaron Hoback followed.

After a few minutes, Marsh stood up and limped off the field.

“I just came down a little weird,” he said. “I didn’t feel great. I was pretty scared at first, just the feeling I got. I calmed down a little bit and I’m feeling better.”

Marsh had an MRI exam during the game. The results were not immediately available, but there is some optimism that Marsh avoided the worst.

Maybe it is just a bone bruise.

Maybe not even that.

Then again, they will know more Wednesday.

“Gonna keep the positive energy,” Marsh said. “I did some testing with it right after it happened and had some decent reviews. Just going to go with it from there and re-evaluate it tomorrow.”

The Phillies will play shorthanded Wednesday, with uncertainty about Marsh’s short-term status and no game Thursday. It allows them an extra day to make a roster decision, if Marsh needs to go on the injured list.

Nick Maton will likely start in left field with Matt Vierling in center. Maton played left for the first time in his professional career Tuesday. He made a great diving catch and another nice play in the corner.

“That’s the way this club has been all year,” Thomson said. “Somebody is continually stepping up and doing things to pick each other up.”