Phillies go deep five times in rout of Braves
Kyle Schwarber finished off the month with another June homer, Darick
Hall went deep twice and the host Philadelphia Phillies avoided a threegame sweep with a 14-4 rout of the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night.
Rhys Hoskins and Nick Castellanos also homered for the Phillies, who reached a season high in runs without star Bryce Harper in the lineup for the fourth straight game. The 2021 NL MVP is out indefinitely after having successful surgery on his broken left thumb on Wednesday.
Adam Duvall and Michael Harris II went deep for the Braves, who ended June with a 21-6 mark to equal the most victories in a calendar month since the club moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966.
Schwarber connected on a three-run shot in the third for his 12th homer in June and 23rd of the season. The line drive to deep right also was Schwarber’s 47th in 458 career June at-bats. His average of one homer every 9.74 at-bats in June is tops among all players in MLB history with at least 400 career at-bats, ahead of Babe Ruth’s mark of a homer every 10.63 June at-bats.
Aaron Nola (5-5) allowed four runs and seven hits with eight strikeouts
and one walk in seven innings. In his last five starts, the right-hander is 2-0 with a 1.70 ERA and 38 strikeouts and four walks in 37 innings.
The Phillies pulled away with seven runs and six hits in the second off Ian Anderson (6-5).
Castellanos’ three-run homer and Matt Vierling’s two-run double did the most damage in the inning, which also saw RBI singles by Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott.
After Schwarber’s twoout shot off Jesús Cruz, Hoskins made it back-toback homers with his second drive in two
nights. An inning later, Hall led off with a solo shot to right for his first career hit after going hitless in his first six at-bats following a call-up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Wednesday.
Hall’s second career hit also was a home run, as he launched a two-run shot to right in the eighth.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Astros 2, Yankees 1: Alex Bregman hit a tworun double early and host Houston held on to beat New York. Thursday’s game completes a stretch for the Astros of nine straight games against
New York teams.
Houston went 3-2 against the major leagueleading Yankees and swept four games with the Mets, who had baseball’s second best record before being overtaken by the Astros.
The Yankees were in town for just one game to make up part of a series that was scrapped because of the lockout. They’ll complete the series with a doubleheader here July 21.
Houston’s Kyle Tucker was thrown out when he tried to steal home while Yankees starter Luis Severino tinkered with his malfunctioning PitchCom device. Alex Bregman had just hit a two-run double to put Houston up 2-0 and Tucker was on third with two outs in the third inning.
With Yuli Gurriel at-bat, a frustrated Severino took off his cap and held the PitchCom speaker to his ear, apparently unable to hear instructions from catcher Jose Trevino. Tucker saw Severino was distracted and tried to sneak home.
Severino had the PitchCom earpiece in his right hand and had to quickly maneuver to get the baseball back in his throwing hand. He threw home while still holding his cap, and his throw narrowly beat Tucker and ended the inning.
The PitchCom digital pitch-calling devices, which transmit signals from the catcher to the pitcher, were introduced to the majors this season. The system was designed to halt sign stealing in the wake of the Astros’ 2017 scandal.
Guardians 5, Twins 3: Andres Gimenez hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning and host Cleveland beat Minnesota for its second straight walk-off win. On Wednesday, Josh Naylor’s two-run homer in the 10th inning sent the Guardians past the Twins, whose bullpen has imploded against Cleveland several times this season.