Spontaneous chants and surreal moments in Phillies’ walk-off win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Whatever can, is and inevitably always will be said about Philadelphia sports fans, never question their ability to recognize a moment as it’s unfolding.
With two outs and two on in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game Monday night, Phillies manager Rob Thomson called the number of Buddy Kennedy, a reserve infielder from nearby Millville, NJ who grew up a Phils fan along with childhood buddy Mike Trout.
Kennedy had taken all of two plate appearances as a Phillie, striking out and walking at the end of Sunday’s blowout loss in Miami. Despite being a local kid, he’s not exactly a familiar face or household name.
Yet spontaneously, almost in unison, a Citizens Bank Park crowd of 39,511 began a chant as Kennedy stepped to the plate.
“BUDDY, BUDDY, BUDDY…”
Ball one.
“BUDDY, BUDDY, BUDDY…”
Strike one.
When ball three wasn’t particularly close, the chant grew louder. Nick Castellanos said two weeks ago that it felt like October was around the corner and the decibel level Monday night matched.
Kennedy drew a full-count walk and the crowd erupted, almost an anticipatory celebration a la Brett Myers vs. CC Sabathia.
Up came Kody Clemens.
And the chant followed.
“KODY, KODY, KODY…”
Line-drive, lefty-on-lefty base-hit between first and second to walk the Phillies off, 2-1 over the Rays.
“Growing up a Phillies fan, being on the fan side of it and chanting all my life, and then being in the box,” Kennedy began, “I was calm and collected when I got in there and then I heard the Buddy chants and was like, ‘OK, dude, you just gotta relax, be in the moment.’
“It was something very special and I’ll always remember it for the rest of my life.”
Clemens and Kennedy picked up three of their teammates.
Closer Carlos Estevez has been lights out but allowed a game-tying leadoff homer in the top of the ninth to Brandon Lowe.
Johan Rojas nearly made a spectacular robbery but, despite a perfect reaction and timely jump, the ball plopped out of his glove and over the wall.
And then in the bottom of the ninth, Bryce Harper thought he’d walked the Phillies off with a leadoff homer and admired his work. Problem was, it didn’t have enough height and caromed off the wall in right field. Not hustling out of the box, Harper was held to a single. Thomson said that before he could approach the face of the franchise, Harper walked over to him to…