The Phillies smashed three home runs and right-hander Taijuan Walker overcame a shaky start to notch his 13th victory as Philadelphia rallied to beat the visiting Kansas City Royals 8-4 on Sunday.
The National League wild-card hopeful Phillies took two of three games in the series.
Walker (13-4) threw 95 pitches over seven innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and a walk. He struck out just two, but with his 13th victory, he now has the most wins in the major leagues along with the Chicago Cubs’ Justin Steele.
The Royals put Walker in a 3-0 hole straight away, tagging him for five hits in the first inning. Maikel Garcia ripped Walker’s second pitch of the game for a single to center and Kansas City scored runs on singles from Michael Massey and Matt Beaty, followed by Drew Waters’ sacrifice fly.
But the Phillies roared right back in the bottom of the first against Kansas City’s 39-year-old Zack Greinke. Bryson Stott followed Alec Bohm’s single and Bryce Harper’s double by clubbing a line-drive homer to tie the game at 3-3.
MJ Melendez slashed a two-out, opposite-field shot to left in the top of the second, putting the Royals ahead again, 4-3.
The lead was short-lived as Kyle Schwarber, who was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, connected for a two-run blast — his 28th home run of the season — to straightaway center in the home half of the second.
With the blast against the Royals, Schwarber has now homered against all 30 major teams in his nine-year career, joining teammate Nick Castellanos, who accomplished the feat earlier this season.
Castellanos drilled his 17th homer of the season, a two-run, 429-foot shot off reliever Jonathan Heasley, to lift the Phillies to a 7-4 lead in the fifth.
Harper tacked on an insurance run in the seventh with a long sacrifice fly to score Schwarber, and Philadelphia led 8-4.
Walker settled down to throw five scoreless innings in a row after the Melendez homer before giving way to the bullpen.
Greinke (1-12) lasted just four innings, giving up seven hits and five runs while seeing his ERA rise to 5.53.
–Field Level Media
