Wheeler, Schwarber lead surging Phillies to sweep over A’s
Final Score: Phillies 3, A’s 2
OAKLAND — Rob Thomson warned about this weekend. Coming into Friday, the Phillies had won 10 of their previous 12 games, and the A’s were the perfect combination of historically bad but inexplicably hot that could’ve spelled a trap series.
It was nothing of the sort. Instead, it was another chapter in what’s turned out to be the Phillies’ second straight red-hot June.
The Phillies and their half-strength lineup (missing Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos) took down the A’s on Father’s Day, sealing the sweep in their last West Coast series until September.
Kyle Schwarber and Zack Wheeler led the effort. The latter fired six innings of shutout ball, his third straight outing of at least six innings and at most one run allowed. Wheeler wasn’t exactly dominant — he allowed eight baserunners and struck out only four — but he grinded through his 107-pitch outing to preserve the two-run lead his offense had spotted him.
The first of those two runs came quickly for the second time in three days. Schwarber swatted a leadoff homer to left field on the fourth pitch of the ballgame (not the first, like he did on Friday) for an early Phillies lead.
Mr. June also provided the second run on his third knock of a season-high three-hit performance. He singled home Cristian Pache after the former Athletic doubled with two outs in the fifth.
The A’s chipped away in the seventh inning against Matt Strahm, the standout of the Phillies’ starting rotation through April who’s suddenly looked vulnerable as the workload has caught up to him the past couple weeks.
Pache’s second double of the day, and an ensuing Trea Turner RBI single, got the run right back in the eighth, but the A’s chipped the deficit back to one in the bottom half against José Alvarado.
It set the stage for an interesting decision in the ninth. With Craig Kimbrel and Gregory Soto each having pitched in three of the Phillies’ past four games, Alvarado already burned and Seranthony Domínguez on the injured list, Thomson tasked Yunior Marte with recording his first career save.
Marte passed the test with flying colors, striking out the side to seal the sweep in what may have been the final time the Phillies ever set foot inside Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
They’ve followed up arguably the best homestead of the season with arguably their best road trip, winning six of seven against the A’s and NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks.
The win — their 13th in their past 15 games — moved the Phillies to a season-high four games over .500 and the A’s to a dreadful 36 — yes, 36 — under.
Shibe Vintage Sports Notes
- June Schwarber is in full force once again this season:
- Maybe Strahm could use a reset.
- The Father’s Day + Bryce Harper Effect:
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Tuesday, June 20 vs. Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park
- 6:40 p.m. ET
- TV: TBS, NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Radio: SportsRadio 94WIP
- Spanish Radio: WTTM 1680
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