Brandon Phillips Caps Nutty Comeback With Game-Winning Dinger In His First Red Sox Game

Until this afternoon, longtime Cincinnati Reds star Brandon Phillips hadn’t seen major-league action in almost a year. The 37-year-old former all-star signed with the Red Sox in June after spending a rather anonymous 2017 season on the Braves and Angels. Phillips has spent the season with Triple-A Pawtucket, passing up two opportunities to opt out and look for a major-league roster spot, electing to stay with the Red Sox in hopes of nabbing his first World Series ring.

Phillips was finally called up yesterday, and he made his debut this afternoon against the Braves, as the Red Sox opted to rest Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, Ian Kinsler, and Eduardo Nuñez. Phillips scored the first run of the game for Boston after drawing a walk in the second inning, but the Braves took an early lead, and were up 7-1 heading into the eighth.

However, the Red Sox pulled off a stunning comeback, scoring six runs to tie it up in the eighth. It seemed that perhaps their heroic inning would be for naught when Freddie Freeman jacked a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth, but then Phillips got his first Red Sox hit in style. Dude crushed this one, 432 feet to left field.

This is the first time this season any team has pulled off such a late, large comeback.

Not a bad debut for someone who asked his new team for the weirdest number they could give him.