The Phillies grabbed a 5-4 win over the Nationals on June 24, 2026, and Derek Hill delivered the swing that turned a one-run deficit into a comeback in the ninth. In MLB standings terms, it was the kind of late win that keeps a team from letting a tight game slip away.
Derek Hill and Kyle Schwarber
Hill pinch-hit for Justin Crawford and sent a go-ahead two-run homer out in the ninth for his first homer in a Phillies uniform. The shot came after Kyle Schwarber had already forced the issue with a 10-pitch walk when the Phillies were down to their last out.
Schwarber was on the bench for the previous two days because of tightness in his lower back, then let Don Mattingly know he was available to pinch-hit if needed. After the walk, he said, “You’re just trying to stay within yourself, stay in the zone, and just trying to find a way on base,” and added, “It’s never easy,” before calling pinch-hitting “the hardest thing to do in the game, I think, is being a pinch-hitter and having to go up there and taking an at-bat.”
Nationals Park ninth inning
The ninth began with the Phillies trailing by one run in Washington, and Orlando Ribalta took the mound to start the frame. The Nationals then brought in Richard Lovelady, and the leverage rose fast because both Schwarber and Hill were down to their last strike.
That is where the game turned on a narrow margin. The Phillies had already used both automated ball-strike challenges by the fifth inning, so the late at-bats had to resolve without that safety net.
Pinch-hitting numbers
Hill’s homer was his 17th pinch-hit plate appearance this season between the Phillies and the White Sox, a role that has asked him to deliver in short windows rather than everyday run production. Schwarber’s walk fit a much longer track record too: he has 61 career pinch-hit plate appearances, and his last one before this game came in 2024.
Don Mattingly summed up the night after the comeback: “It’s been a couple of crazy nights here.” For the Phillies, this one ended with a bench bat finishing the job, and for the Nationals it left a one-run lead erased in the final inning.
The practical takeaway is simple for the Phillies: when the game tightens late, Schwarber and Hill can still change it in one plate appearance, even after the club has already spent its challenge options. That combination gave them another late win and kept the result from becoming a missed chance in the standings race.
