WASHINGTON -- Any team will tell you, winning both halves of a doubleheader, especially a day-night doubleheader, isn’t easy for anybody.\n\nThe Phillies made things especially difficult on themselves Friday. But they swept their twin bill with the Nationals anyway.\n\nThat’s how things are going these days for the surging Phillies, who ensured they’ll win five consecutive series for the first time since 2011 with a wild, come-from-behind 10-inning 8-7 victory in Game 2. Paired with their fairly straightforward 5-3 win in Game 1, the Phillies have now won 13 of 15 games under interim manager Rob Thomson, 14 of 16 overall and 11 straight over the Nationals, the longest active streak for any club against any one opponent.\n\n“It’s a different guy every day, and it’s been that way for a while now,” Thomson said. “That’s the character of this club. They believe.”
\n\nDouble dub Friday! #RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/wQzonZHK24
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 18, 2022
The Phillies used 22 players and exhausted nearly their entire bullpen in the two games, pulling out the nightcap on a disputed obstruction call, despite blowing a ninth-inning lead, and needing reliever
**Obstruction call \nSituation:** Game 2, Top of the 10th, two on, one out \n**Score:** 6-6\n\nOK, this first one wasn’t Thomson’s decision. But second base umpire Dan Iassogna’s snap-interpretation of the obstruction rule was the choice that turned all Thomson’s decisions to gold.\n\n
**Hitting Harper** \n**Situation:** Game 2, 8th inning, two on, two out \n**Score:** 5-3, WSH \n**Decision:** Pinch-hitting Harper, sacrificing the DH \n**Did it work?** Yes.\n\nThe Phillies were only in a position to win because Thomson decided to rest Bryce Harper for Game 2 and then pinch-hit his star slugger with the game on the line. Easy call, right? Actually, it was a gamble. Harper’s elbow injury precludes him from playing the field. So hitting Harper for Odúbel Herrera required forfeiting the DH for at least the next inning, with extras looming.\n\nAnd then Harper almost never swung. He fumed when home plate umpire Clint Vondrak called Kyle Finnegan’s 3-0 pitch a strike, believing it to be above the zone. Harper took out his frustration on the next pitch, lacing a game-tying double to the wall in right-center.\n\n**Quotable:** “Harper was upset it wasn’t ball four. I was like, ‘Good. Let him hit.’” -- Thomson
**Realmuto challenge** \n**Situation:** Game 2, 8th inning, two on, one out \n**Score:** 5-3, WSH \n**Decision:** To challenge \n**Did it work?** Yes.\n\nSimilarly, Harper’s heroics wouldn’t have happened had Thomson not challenged the play before, when Realmuto seemed to bounce into an inning-ending double play. But replay revealed Realmuto beat the return throw by a fraction of a second, and the inning continued after umpires reversed the original call.\n\nThomson’s successful challenge shifted the game on its axis. Instead of taking the field, the Phillies tied the game on Harper’s two-run double. Then they went ahead on
**‘Pen management** \n**Situation:** All day\n\nHad Gregorius’ miscue not extended the game, Thomson would’ve looked like a genius for summoning Alvarado for the last two outs of the ninth. Instead, Alvarado got four huge outs and stranded the tying run on second in the 10th.\n\nGame 1 provided the first glimpse of how Thomson’s closer-by-committee might operate since