For the second straight night, the Philadelphia Phillies (73-53) took an early lead, let the Seattle Mariners (68-59) back into the game and then finished them off with some late offense in a 6-4 victory to remain undefeated to start the home stand.
Cristopher Sanchez went 6.1 IP allowing two runs, though the second was inherited by Orion Kerkering in his seventh inning meltdown. Sanchez collected twelve strikeouts for the third time this season, tied with reigning AL Cy Young winner and current favorite
to repeat, Tarik Skubal.
Kyle Schwarber opened the scoring with a solo shot in the first inning, his NL-leading 44th homer and 104th MLB-leading RBI.
The Mariners tied it in the top of the third on a pair of doubles by JP Crawford and Randy Arozarena.
The offense utilized some small ball in the bottom of the inning. Bryson Stott led off with a walk followed by a Trea Turner single. Schwarber moved them over to scoring position with a ground out and Bryce Harper brought home Stott on a sacrifice fly. JT Realmuto plated Turner with an RBI single.
Stott hit a two-out solo home run in the next inning to extend the lead to three.
The offense seemed content to rest on its laurels until Orion Kerkering, following a one-out walk issued by Sanchez as he sat at 96 pitches, walked two batters of his own to load the bases and allowed Seattle to tie the game on a ground-out RBI by Julio Rodriguez and a two-RBI double by Eugenio Suarez.
David Robertson pitched a spotless, two-strikeout top of the eighth inning.
Facing M’s reliever, Matt Brash, in the bottom of the eighth, Harper pulled a 1-1 sinker to left for a leadoff single. On the next pitch, Realmuto shipped an identical sinker to the seats in the left center.
Jhoan Duran entered to his raucous new normal in the bottom of the ninth and closed it out 1-2-3. Aside from his injury shortened outing last Friday, he has saved each of the six games in which he has appeared in for his new club.
Phillies will look for their first home sweep since mid-June tomorrow afternoon as Jesus Luzardo goes up against Luis Castillo.
