Harper steals show for Phillies
Smacks 300th career double to seal win over Rockies
It was Austin Gomber’s game on Friday at Coors Field, until Bryce Harper stole the show.
Gomber blanked the Phillies for six innings, but Harper won it at the end. Harper’s two-out, tworun double off Justin Lawrence in the eighth inning was the difference. After the hit, he stole third and then scored on an error as “MVP” chants broke out among the Philly faithful in Lodo.
The end result: A 6-3 Phillies win, cooling off the Rockies (winners of eight of their last 10) on the opening night of six-game homestand.
Gomber set down the first nine hitters he faced, mixing speed and location to have all the Phils off balance. His first-inning strikeouts of Trea Turner and Harper were an omen of the strong outing to come.
As Gomber settled in, so did Philadelphia right-hander Taijuan Walker, and the pitcher’s duel was on. The first six innings took about an hour to complete.
Gomber was halfway to a perfecto when JT Realmuto dinged him for a double with two outs in the fifth. On Realmuto’s hit to deep left center, Randal Grichkuk missed his cut throwing back into the infield, but C.J. Cron scooped it up and fired it to Ryan Mcmahon to get Realmuto at third. Realmuto later left the game with a sprained right pinkie from his headfirst slide.
Colorado finally got on the board in the sixth. Charlie Blackmon started with a leadoff single, then Jurickson Profar doubled to send Blackmon to third. Blackmon scored on Cron’s sacrifice fly.
Then Gomber’s gem got shattered in the seventh.
First, Alec Bohn belted
Gomber’s belt-high changeup 433-feet into the left-center bleachers to tie the game 1-1. Then, with two outs, Kyle Schwarber blasted a hanging curveball 430-feet to dead center. Gomber squatted in front of the mound and looked to the sky as he watched Schwarber’s homer sail over the fence, giving Philadelphia a 3-1 lead.
The Rockies responded in the seventh with Ezequiel Tovar’s RBI single and then Blackmon’s sacrifice fly to even the game 3-3. But Harper would have the final say.
Justin Lawrence, who got Colorado out of trouble in the seventh, was cruising until two outs in the eighth. Turner doubled, Bohm walked and then Harper sent his 300th career double on Lawrence’s sweeper pitch off of the Bridich Barrier in right. Harper pantomimed a throat-slash in celebration after getting to second, then forced an errant throw by Elias Diaz on his steal of third to plate another run.
The Phillies blanked Colorado over the final two innings to secure the win.
Even with the unfurling in the seventh, Gomber’s outing continued the recent positive trajectory for the southpaw. After going 0-4 with a 12.12 ERA across his first four starts, Gomber’s turned it around, with a 2.19 ERA over his last four starts including Friday.
The series opener was one of Gomber’s best starts in a Rockies uniform, although his eight shutout innings against the Padres in a 3-2 win at Coors Field on June 14, 2021, remains his bar.