The Philadelphia Phillies rode a strong starting pitching performance from Zack Wheeler to an 8-4 road victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.
All nine Phillies batters finished with at least one hit – racking up 15 total hits as a team – and it got started in the first inning as Darick Hall made it a 2-0 game with his two-run triple. Nick Castellanos then drove in Hall with a base hit to make it 3-0 in the opening frame.
Wheeler never gave the Pirates a chance to fight back into the contest, holding the home side scoreless until late in the seventh inning. He finished with two earned runs from three hits and three walks, striking out eight.
After Alec Bohm's base hit to make it 4-0 in the second inning, there was a lull in the action until Kyle Schwarber made his presence known in the sixth frame.
With two runners on base, Schwarber connected on his 32nd home run of the season, trailing only Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees.
The Pirates rallied hard in the last inning, scoring five runs from four hits off Jeurys Familia, but there was not much to cheer about up until that point, except for an exciting showing from rookie Cal Mitchell.
Mitchell delivered the only runs for his side in the first eight innings with his towering 414-foot, two-run homer to center-field off Wheeler. He finished three-for-four at the plate, also adding a pair of singles.
Judge does it again for the Yankees
Aaron Judge won the New York Yankees another game off his bat as he blasted the game-winning, walk-off home run to defeat the Kansas City Royals 1-0 at home.
Both sides pitched beautifully, with Royals starter Brady Singer giving up just one hit while striking out 10 in seven innings, while Yankees starter Jameson Taillon struck out eight batters in six scoreless frames.
The home run was Judge's league-leading 39th of the season – seven more than any other player.
Angels blow another Ohtani gem
The Los Angeles Angels wasted another terrific starting pitching performance from two-way All-Star Shohei Ohtani, going down 2-0 at home to the Texas Rangers.
Ohtani struck out 11 batters in six innings, giving up two runs from eight hits in his 10th quality start (meaning at least six innings pitched and three or fewer earned runs) of the season. He now has 145 strikeouts for the season – the sixth most in the majors, and the five players ahead of him have all started at least two more contests.
Only Atlanta Braves rookie Spencer Strider (13.4) has a higher strikeouts-per-nine-innings stat than Ohtani's 13.1.