Sánchez ended his day after 7 innings pitched, with 2 ER, 7 K, and none walked. He was in line for the win, if the Phillies could hold on.
Schwarber walked in the top of the 8th, and was then replaced with Johan Rojas as a pinch runner. Rojas quickly proved the decision wise with a steal of 2nd, and a Trea Turner walk put runners on 1st and 2nd with none out. Edmundo Sosa advanced both with a sacrifice bunt (the art of which is not dead, apparently). But a lineout from Nick Castellanos and a strikeout from Bryson Stott stranded the runners, and the Phillies remained scoreless in their last 6 innings.
Jeff Hoffman relieved Sánchez in the bottom of the 8th; he sent the Blue Jays down in order.
The top of the 9th saw the offensive drought broken at long last via a J.T. Realmuto homer. Brandon Marsh doubled immediately after, seemingly promising more runs; he made it as far as third, but was ultimately stranded.
Carlos Estévez took to the mound to finish it, with Alejandro Kirk, Ernie Clement, and Spencer Horwitz standing in his way. Estévez took care of the first two quickly, but walked the third. That brought the tying run to the plate in the form of pinch-hitter Will Wagner. Estévez sent him down swinging, and that’s all she wrote.
The Phillies are 83-56 and are victors of both games in the abridged 2-game set against Toronto. They’ll start a 4 game series against Miami tomorrow at 6:40.
This one started with a Kyle Schwarber leadoff home run, as is tradition. In the not so distant future there will be children who cannot recall a Phillies game that did not start with a Schwarber home run; the idea will seem as plausible to them as Christmas without presents or a birthday without cake. In the present, though, there was a game against Toronto to play.
It wasn’t all joy in the 1st. Bryce Harper took a pitch that grazed off his elbow (though fortunately not the sore elbow that has been giving him trouble as of late). The Phillies ended the inning up 1-0, with a pair stranded.
In their half of the 1st, the Blue Jays scored 2 on Cristopher Sánchez with a trio of consecutive doubles from Daulton Varsho, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, and Alejandro Kirk. But they would not keep that lead for long. The Phillies’ 9-hole hitter proved to be as much of a problem for Toronto as the leadoff man as Kody Clemens hit a two-run dinger to right for a 3-2 lead in the 2nd.
The Torontos continued their parade of two-baggers with a Davis Schneider double in the2nd, though this one came to naught as his teammates stranded him.
In the 3rd, Edmundo Sosa came to pinch-hit for Harper, removed as a precaution to keep his elbow problems from worsening. Though the early innings seemed to portend an offensive explosion, most of the gamae proved to be sluggish, with the score remaining locked at 3-2 for quite some time. Another Blue Jay double, this one from Brian Serven, put Toronto on the verge of tying the game in the 5th, but a sliding catch from Kyle Schwarber, back in his old haunt of left field for the day, ended the inning.
Kyle Schwarber hit his 13th leadoff home run of the season, setting a new MLB record.
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