The Phillies emerged victorious Tuesday night from a late-innings cascade of chaos around home plate. 

They nabbed a 7-6 win over the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park to open a six-game homestand and improved to 16-13 on the season. Appropriately, the game ended when Bryson Stott pounced on Kyle Finnegan’s wild pitch, darting home and sliding in safely. 

Even that was a bit complicated. 

“I think Finnegan stepped on his hand, so we’re just looking at him right now,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said postgame. 

Some nights are bound to feel like reruns in a 162-game season. Even with a few familiar Phillies themes, this was not one of them. 

Johan Rojas smoked his first home run of the season well before all the momentum swings. Trea Turner was 4 for 4 and at the dish for Stott’s winning scamper. Both players had subpar games defensively, including a Turner throwing error during the Nats’ four-run ninth against Orion Kerkering. 

“Little bit of everything,” Turner said. “Try to compartmentalize, separate the two. … Got to be a complete player. Got to get wins. And sometimes, when it’s not going (well) offensively, you can affect the game on defense. That’s kind of proof right there. It doesn’t matter if you’re 4 for 4, you can still affect the game in a positive or negative way.”

Rojas wasn’t assessed an error, but he misread a catchable James Wood liner in the ninth inning that wound up landing over his head. He also missed a CJ Abrams triple at the center-field wall in the third. 

“I’m not concerned,” Thomson said. “I think he needs to keep it simple and make the plays he’s supposed to make, but I’m not concerned. We’ll take care of that. He’s a great defender.”

Thomson did note that, in the big picture, the Phillies have been “giving up too many outs.”

“There are times we haven’t done that … so we just need to slow down and get the outs that we need to get,” he said. 

Offensively, Rojas’ evening featured a game-tying sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth. 

Though Alec Bohm is not the Phillies’ swiftest runner, third base coach Dusty Wathan sent him. A clean play would have spelled a crushing finale to the Phils’ night, but Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz couldn’t handle right fielder Dylan Crews’ one-hop throw. Rojas wasn’t sure whether he’d done enough to score Bohm. 

“I just hit the ball in the air and I said, ‘Come on, Alec! Come on, Alec!’” he said with a smile. 

The prior eight innings were not uneventful. 

Wheeler had a couple of blips, but he was an ace— 6 2/3 innings, five hits, two runs, seven strikeouts, one walk. Jose Alvarado saw the bases fill with Nationals before managing an out in the eighth inning. He enjoyed finding a crowd-pleasing route out of the quagmire. 

“No panic,” he said. “Focus on the target. I take the first strikeout. I throw my sinker looking for a double play, but I take another strikeout. Then I take a big breath, say, ‘OK, I’ve got two outs, bases loaded. I need to attack this hitter.’ And I take the third strikeout.”

Eventually, everyone got to celebrate. 

Margins are often minuscule in baseball and the Phillies are flawed, but they won and seem to have a decent knack for it. 

“It kind of calls to the grit of the club and the experience of the club. … They never feel like they’re out of the game,” Thomson said.

Wheeler wasn’t fixated on his no-decision. 

“That’s what good teams do,” Wheeler said. “They get punched in the mouth, but you have to get back up and keep going. It’s a long season. You’re going to have those types of games and you’re going to have your ups and downs, but that’s a good win to get started in the series. 

“Hopefully, we can win the next two.”