Bog wild: Phillies 14, Nationals 9

Down 5-0 halfway through the game, the Philadelphia Phillies (43-36) came all the way back to take the lead in the eighth inning, coughed in back up and then swallowed it once again with an epic ninth for a 14-9 victory to tie their four-game series against the Washington Nationals (41-39).

Kyle Schwarber was a late-scratch with a sore back but the Nationals’ still opted for a lefty opener, in the form of PJ Poulin, to face the top of the Phillies order in the first inning before giving way to bulk righty, Zack Littel.

Jesus Luzardo had a funky game, giving up five runs for the sixth time in his up-and-down season, but equaled his career-high with 13 strikeouts across his 6.2 innings of work.

The comeback began in the top of the fifth when Bryson Stott led off the inning with the first of his three hits and came home on a two-run home run by Edmundo Sosa, his fifth of the year.

Sosa again scored Stott in the seventh to cut the deficit to two on a fielder’s choice RBI.

The Phillies took the lead in the top of the eighth courtesy of the Nat’s bullpen and some bad luck by right fielder, James Wood.

Brandon Marsh laced a hard fly ball into the right field gap and ended up on third after the scoop was bobbled by Wood for what went down officially as a one-out double and an error. Alec Bohm worked a two-out walk and Stott took a pitch off the abs to load the bases. Ahead 3-1 in the count, JT Realmuto hit a foul ball just over the right field fence that Wood got a glove on but couldn’t secure. On the next pitch, Realmuto stroked a fastball the opposite way that landed just beyond Wood’s outstretched glove to clear the bases and give the Phillies a 6-5 lead. Wood also went 0-5 at the plate.

It took Orion Kerkering eight pitches in the bottom of the eighth to hand the advantage back to the hosts as he surrendered a three-run bomb to Jorbit Vivas after walking the leadoff man and hitting the next batter on the first pitch.

Nationals’ reliever, Brad Lord, who came into the game vying for a spot on the All Star team with a 2.29 ERA, came in to close and gave up a season-high six runs in the top of the ninth, a frame in which the Phillies sent 13 men to the plate, scoring eight total, all of it with two outs.

Marsh hit a two-run home run to tie the game for his third hit of the night, finishing a triple shy of the cycle.

Stott hit a three-run towering shot that stayed just fair of the right field pole. He also scored four runs on the night.

Sosa picked up his fourth and fifth RBIs on a double that scored Realmuto and Gabriel Rincones, Jr., who tripled his hit total for the season with two in the game.

Turner capped off the Phillies’ scoring with his second single of the inning, the first of which snapped an 0-10 drought.

It was the ninth time in their history the Phillies have scored eight or more runs in the ninth inning and first since September 27, 2015, also in Washington.

The Phillies will look to take the series lead tomorrow with Aaron Nola scheduled to face Miles Mikolas.