*Photo from TSN*
Ever since he came back, Bryce Harper has been a sparkplug. Kyle Schwarber homered, Harper had the big hit late, and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied past the Colorado Rockies with a 6-3 win on Friday night in Denver.
The win goes down as the 4th straight for the Phillies, who are now 19-19 and second place in the NL East. A big reason is because of Harper, who delivered the go ahead hit in the 8th. Right after that, he stole 3rd base and scored himself on an errant throw.
Harper said of the sequence that "In that whole situation, I love the opportunity to go up there with first and second, two outs, big situation, big leverage spot. I love those situations. Being able to face a guy like Lawrence and have that opportunity, I love that. I got to second base, and I thought to myself, ‘He’s probably not thinking about me right now.’ He’s just trying to get an out.’ So I tried to take that bag. The ball goes into left field, and it got us an extra run."
CJ Cron started the scoring in the 6th inning, giving the Rockies a 1-0 lead on a sac fly that scored Charlie Blackmon. In the top of the 7th, Alec Bohm tied the game 1-1, blasting a solo home run to left field. Schwarber followed that up with a two run home run to put the Phillies ahead 3-1 going into the stretch.
Ezequiel Tovar then trimmed the deficit for the Rockies, hitting an RBI single to make it a 3-2 game. Randal Grichuk then scored on a Blackmon sac fly to tie the score 3-3 after 7 innings. In the 8th, Harper provided the go ahead two run double to put the Phillies ahead 5-3. He then scored from 3rd on an error to make it a 6-3 score.
It was Taijuan Walker who started for the Phillies, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits in 6 innings, failing to get an out in the 7th. Matt Strahm got the win by getting the 3 outs in the 7th for Walker. Seranthony Dominguez worked the 8th, and Craig Kimbrel got his 4th save of the year in the 9th inning.
Austin Gomber got the start for the Rockies, pitching 6 2/3 innings while allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and striking out 6 hitters. Justin Lawrence worked 1 1/3 innings, allowing 3 runs and getting the loss. Brad Hand pitched a scoreless 9th inning.
Colorado manager Bud Black said of Gomber's start that "From a pitching standpoint, it was artful, those first six. Efficient strikes, in and out, up and down, changing speeds. It was tremendous. He was outstanding. So was the other guy. He was really good, too. We came in knowing that he had the good fastball, good two-seamer and the split-finger, but this sort of cutter popped up tonight and got away from the right-handed barrel."
Up next, the series continues on Saturday night. Ranger Suarez gets the start for the Phillies, opposed by Ryan Feltner of the Rockies.
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