Despite a tear in which Kyle Schwarber had homered nine times in eight games, Don Kelly debated the difficulty of pitching around the Philadelphia Phillies slugger because of the batter behind him.
The Pittsburgh Pirates knew that even by walking MLB’s home runs leader, there was no avoiding Bryce Harper. And the two-time National League MVP was prepared to make them pay when they did.
After Trea Turner hit a leadoff single and Schwarber walked in the first inning, Harper hammered a 457-foot shot off the batter’s eye in center field for his 11th home run of the season.
The Phillies pounced on Bubba Chandler by scoring five runs in the first two innings, and Cristopher Sanchez recorded a career-best 13 strikeouts in tossing his second shutout for a 6-0 win Saturday afternoon before 31,296 at PNC Park.
The Phillies (23-23) clinched a victory in the three-game series. Since enduring a 10-game losing streak that ended April 24, they have won 15 of their past 20.
Sanchez (5-2), a 29-year-old left-hander who was the runner-up to Paul Skenes in National League Cy Young voting last year, allowed six hits without a walk in throwing 74 of his 108 pitches for strikes.
Chandler (1-5) lasted only three innings. He allowed five runs (four earned) on three hits and four walks with two strikeouts. The Phillies jumped on Chandler from the start. Turner hit a line drive to right, Schwarber drew a full-count walk and Harper homered for a 3-0 lead.
The rookie right-hander put runners on base by walking JT Realmuto and Turner in the second, and Schwarber hit a sharp grounder down the first-base line to score Realmuto. Turner scored when Jared Triolo was charged with a throwing error on the relay throw, giving the Phillies a 5-0 lead.
Where Chandler threw 73 pitches in three innings, Sanchez was extremely efficient in retiring the first 11 batters he faced — six by strikeout — before Bryan Reynolds hit a two-out double to center in the fourth. Sanchez struck out Marcell Ozuna to end the inning. When Nick Gonzales singled in the fifth, Sanchez got Brandon Lowe to ground into a double play to end the frame.
The Phillies padded their lead against Justin Lawrence in the eighth, when Justin Crawford drew a two-out walk and scored on Turner’s double off the base of the Clemente Wall for a 6-0 lead.
Sanchez’s shutout bid was threatened in the ninth, when Konnor Griffin singled to left and raced to third on Reynolds’ single down the right field line. But Sanchez struck out Ozuna for the fourth time, then got Nick Yorke to ground out to shortstop to end the game.