Kyle Schwarber and Max Kepler hit seventh-inning home runs as the Philadelphia Phillies rallied past the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 on Friday.
Schwarber’s 10th home run and Kepler’s fourth of the season helped Philadelphia win for the fifth time in six games. Jesus Luzardo allowed two runs and nine hits during 5 1/3 eventful innings before four relievers closed it out.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had three hits and an RBI for Arizona, which had won three of its last four contests. Merrill Kelly received a no-decision despite allowing one run and four hits over five effective innings.
The key sequence came in the seventh, when Arizona called upon Jose Castillo (0-1) to protect a 2-1 lead.
The lefty started the inning with a sinker to Schwarber, who promptly slammed it into the right-center field seats. Two batters later, Castillo sent a 1-1 slider toward Kepler, and the first-year Phillie crushed it into the right-center field seats, even deeper than Schwarber’s blast.
Tanner Banks (1-0) worked a perfect seventh, Jordan Romano logged a 1-2-3 eighth and Jose Alvarado slammed the door in the ninth for his sixth save.
Luzardo consistently worked around trouble, including in the opening frame. Arizona put its first two runners on against the left-hander, who then recovered to strike out three straight batters.
He worked around two more baserunners in the second and once again in the third.
The Diamondbacks finally dented the scoreboard in the fourth as Gurriel opened the inning with a double and scored two batters later on Geraldo Perdomo’s single to left. That base hit tied the game at 1-1 after Schwarber had delivered an RBI double against Kelly in the first.
The visitors moved ahead in the sixth against Luzardo, who allowed a one-out double to Gabriel Moreno and then a run-scoring hit by Gurriel. Matt Strahm came on and escaped the jam when catcher J.T. Realmuto caught Perdomo’s bunt attempt and doubled Gurriel off second base.
–Field Level Media
