Phillies’ offense stays hot to win series over Yankees
They say New York is “The City That Never Sleeps.” Through two games there this weekend, the Phillies’ bats seem to have gotten the memo.
The offense was alive and well again on Saturday, picking up where it left off in Friday’s 12-run performance by piling on nine more in another win on Saturday to seal the interleague series.
It’s the third straight game they’ve scored at least eight times.
It happened early and often against the Yankees and starter Marcus Stroman, who didn’t make it out of the fourth inning. Bryce Harper homered in the second and Stroman walked four in the fourth, including a run-scoring one to Johan Rojas.
Before all that, though, J.T. Realmuto got the party started with an RBI single in the first to stay red-hot: With two more hits including a double on Saturday, he’s hitting .394 since the start of play on June 30.
At Trea Turner’s rate the last four games, he might follow suit. Turner doubled twice for his fourth straight multi-hit game (including a four-hit one on Friday).
The Phillies put it out of reach in the seventh. A two-run homer by Edmundo Sosa and a two-run double by Kyle Schwarber made it 9-1.
The good news ended there for the Phillies and Sosa when the third baseman exited the game after backpedaling on a popup and colliding with Brandon Marsh in shallow left, injuring his back.
The Phillies got a modest bounceback outing from Ranger Suárez, who surrendered seven hits but one run in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out eight with 14 whiffs; his velocity was down from his 2025 averages, but not from his last start (other than his cutter).
In the hole was as close as the Yankees’ tying run got. The Phillies’ 60th win comes 12 games later than it did last year, but earlier than any other year since 2011. And, because the Mets play a night game in San Francisco, they’re momentarily tied atop the NL East.