Taijuan Walker allowed one run over six innings and Bryce Harper delivered a tiebreaking, two-run single in the third inning as the Philadelphia Phillies recorded their ninth straight road victory, beating the Chicago Cubs 3-1 on Thursday.
Ex-Cub Kyle Schwarber clubbed the first pitch of the game for his 21st home run for Philadelphia, which completed the three-game sweep of the Cubs to extend its longest road winning streak since a nine-game run in 1984. The Phillies have won four in a row overall and 18 of their past 23.
Walker (8-3) yielded six hits and one walk while striking out six to match a career high by winning a fifth consecutive start.
Walker has allowed three runs over 32 innings (0.84 ERA) over those five outings.
After Philadelphia’s Yunior Marte and Gregory Soto each pitched a scoreless inning of relief, Craig Kimbrel tossed a perfect ninth for his 12th save in as many chances.
Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks (3-3) was relatively solid while yielding all three Philadelphia runs and six hits with four strikeouts and no walks over seven innings. However, two early innings did in the veteran right-hander as the Cubs dropped their fourth straight game following an 11-2 stretch.
Facing his former teammate for the first time, Schwarber wasted no time in giving Philadelphia a 1-0 lead by driving Hendricks’ first-pitch fastball over the right-field wall. Chicago, though, tied it in the second inning when Cody Bellinger singled and scored on Jared Young’s triple into the right-field corner.
Harper’s two-out, ground-ball single to center in the third inning with runners on second and third put the Phillies back ahead with what would be the deciding advantage. Harper had three RBIs in the series for Philadelphia, which went 5-1 against the Cubs this season.
For Chicago, Young has posted two hits and two RBIs in two games since being called up from Triple-A Iowa on Wednesday for his 2023 debut. Nico Hoerner and Christopher Morel added two hits apiece for the Cubs, who stranded nine men on base and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
–Field Level Media
