Schwarber’s big fly makes Sánchez, Phillies winners in Miami
Sometimes, it only takes two. Well, three.
Cristopher Sánchez and Kyle Schwarber were those two for the Phillies in a series-securing win over the Marlins on Thursday night in Miami. The former dealt for eight innings of one-run ball, keeping a dormant Phillies offense alive long enough for Kyle Schwarber to provide the big blow in the eighth inning.
Sánchez was a notch from dominant against the Marlins, surrendering five hits in eight innings and walking none. He struck out just four but allowed just one run — and it didn’t come easy. Sánchez nearly pitched around a leadoff double in the fifth before Nick Fortes came through with a three-foot, swinging-bunt RBI single.
Sánchez made it impressively close and nearly kept the run off the board, but Fortes barely legged out the RBI.
For a while, it seemed those three feet might have been enough. But the Phillies pounced on what you could call a managerial blunder in the seventh inning.
With one on and one out, Miami manager Clayton McCullough lifted Marlins flamethrower Edward Cabrera — who had allowed two hits all game and had thrown just 82 pitches, including his last sinker of the night at 98 mph.
It woke the Phillies up. They loaded the bases before Bryson Stott drove in a run on an RBI fielder’s choice. It could have been a double play had Connor Norby fielded it cleanly, but it could have been two runs if his throw to first hadn’t bounced off of first base umpire Brian O’Nora’s leg.
As it were, the Phillies tied it up. One inning later, Schwarber put them ahead with his 23rd homer of the year — to the big-boy part of loanDepot Park.
It held. In part due an error by Alec Bohm, Orion Kerkering put runners on the corners with two outs, but he got Dane Myers to pop out to Bohm himself to end it.
The Phillies take three of four in Miami and, if Atlanta holds its lead over the Mets, will enter a huge series against New York this weekend tied atop the NL East.