The Phillies’ bats certainly made the weekend trip to Miami.
Behind four home runs and 16 hits, the Phils notched a 9-3 win Friday night to begin their three-game series with the Marlins. Every member of the Phillies’ lineup had at least one hit.
Cristopher Sanchez earned the win by tossing seven innings and conceding six hits and one run. The southpaw struck out five and walked one. Through 28 starts, he’s 12-5 with a 2.60 ERA.
Sanchez took the mound with a lead. Trea Turner singled, Kyle Schwarber singled, and Bryce Harper’s bloop to left field landed just inside the foul line for an RBI knock.
With a 4-for-5 game Friday, Turner’s batting average sits at a National League-best .305. Everyone else is under .300. He’s gone 43 for 100 in his last 22 games.
Marlins righty Valente Bellozo kept Miami’s deficit at 1-0 in the first. J.T. Realmuto ripped a 2-2 cutter to deep right-center, but Joey Wiemer made a leaping catch. Brandon Marsh then lined out to third base and Schwarber was miles away from avoiding a double play.
Nick Castellanos sat for the third time in the last four games and Max Kepler started again in right field against Bellozo. In the second inning, Kepler crushed a juicy changeup into the right-field second deck. He lined an RBI single in the seventh, too.
The Marlins got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third. Victor Mesa Jr. chopped an infield hit over the 6-foot-6 Sanchez’s head. Javier Sanoja followed with a ground ball down the left-field line that drove him in.
Sanchez was sharp overall. He threw plenty of elite changeups in and around the bottom of the zone, recorded 13 ground ball outs and never encountered any real trouble. Sanchez only needed 82 pitches over his seven innings.
The game wasn’t tight for long. The Phils teed off in the fourth against Miami reliever Lake Bachar.
Realmuto picked up a leadoff hit and Marsh deposited the ninth pitch of his at-bat to a nearly identical spot as Kepler’s blast. Harrison Bader clobbered a no-doubt back-to-back dinger, smashing a hanging slider to put the Phillies up 5-1. That shot meant all three of the Phils’ starting outfielders Friday had a homer through four innings.
Though the Phillies missed out on bases-loaded chances in both the fifth and sixth innings, they cruised into full blowout mode with a four-run seventh. Bryson Stott nailed a three-run homer to reach double digits for the fourth consecutive season.
The 82-59 Phillies will look for a third straight series win Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET. The Phils’ Jesus Luzardo (12-6, 4.05 ERA) will face the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara (8-11, 5.66 ERA).
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