Over the course of his long, illustrious career, future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer has had many dominant performances against the Phillies.
Tonight was not one of them.
The Phillies victimized the 41-year-old Scherzer in his first start back from the injured list, teeing off for five runs and two home runs off of their old nemesis while Jesús Luzardo delivered 5.2 strong innings and the Phillies bullpen avoided disaster to deliver a series win in Toronto with a 7-4 victory in the finale.
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?
Bryce Harper
opened the scoring in the first, taking the first pitch he saw from Scherzer to deep left field, and it kept on carrying right over the head of Blue Jays left fielder Yohendrick Piñango for Harper’s 15th homer of the year.
Scherzer needed 47 total pitches to get through the first two innings. Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner then led off the third inning with back-to-back singles before Harper grounded out to put runners on the corners with one out. Brandon Marsh then popped up to shortstop, putting the scoring threat in jeopardy, but Alec Bohm blasted a hanging slider from Scherzer into left for a three-run home run to push the lead to 4-0.
Bryson Stott then drew a five pitch walk and stole second, but J.T. Realmuto grounded out to end the inning. Scherzer was already at 75 pitches through three and the knockout blow would come in the fourth. That inning started with an Adolis Garcia strikeout before Justin Crawford singled on an infield hit to third base that chased Scherzer from the game. Mason Fluharty entered in relief and Schwarber greeted him with a two-run homer, his MLB leading 24th home run of the season, and gave the Phillies a 6-0 lead.
Road sweet Road
Jesús Luzardo entered tonight with a drastic split in his home/away ERA, with a 1.54 ERA in six road starts and a 7.34 ERA in seven starts at Citizens Bank Park. That trend continued as he went 5.2 and allowed one run on four hits and four walks with eight strikeouts. Luzardo looked to be headed for trouble in the third following back-to-back two-out walks, but a mound meeting with pitching coach Caleb Cotham and catcher J.T. Realmuto seemed to do the trick, as Luzardo then struck out Ernie Clement on three pitches.
He couldn’t quite finish his strong outing though, as Luzardo again walked two in the sixth, this time with one out, and then allowed a two out single to Brandon Valenzuela to get the Blue Jays on the board and end the night for the Phillies lefty after 96 pitches. Jonathan Bowlan replaced Luzardo and quickly retired Andrés Giménez to end the sixth. Stott meanwhile singled in Harper in the top of the seventh to get the run back that Luzardo surrendered.
Too close for comfort
Chase Shugart was then tasked with giving the Phillies leverage relievers some much needed time off with a 7-1 lead, but he couldn’t get the job done. Shugart allowed a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh before issuing three straight walks, forcing a run in and cutting the lead to 7-2. Clement followed with a sacrifice fly, finally getting the first out but bringing in yet another run. Brad Keller was called upon to clean up Shugart’s mess and he allowed another sacrifice fly, this time to Kazuma Okamoto that cut the lead to 7-4 before getting a groundout to end the inning. To add injury to insult, Adolis Garcia was injured making the throw on Okamoto’s sac fly and had to be replaced by Steward Berroa.
José Alvarado pitched around a two out single to throw a scoreless eighth, but the three-run lead once again led to Jhoan Duran entering for a save situation, making his 17th appearance in 33 games since returning from the injured list and fifth in a back-to-back over that span. He erased a leadoff single with a double play off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. but surrendered a two-out single to Ernie Clement. An ABS-assisted strikeout of Okamoto ended the game and gave the Phillies the lead, but Duran added 10 more pitches to his recent workload.
Friday’s Matchup
The Phillies will head to Milwaukee to face Jacob Misiorowski (7-2, 1.50) on Friday night. Andrew Painter (1-7, 6.21) will once again search for consistency on the mound for Philadelphia. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 pm.
