FINAL: Phillies 8, Rays 4
The Phillies bats were alive at Tropicana Field, raking their way to a series win over the American League-leading Rays on Wednesday night.
Philadelphia clubbed a staggering 17 hits in a Tampa Bay bullpen game, breaking open a back-and-forth game to secure an 8-4 victory. Trea Turner and Nick Castellanos each hit a key home run and Bryson Stott recorded four hits as the Phillies claimed their second straight win in Game 2 of a three-game interleague series.
The offensive performance by Philadelphia (46-39) backed a solid outing from starting pitcher Taijuan Walker, who allowed four runs and struck out eight in seven innings of work.
Walker dealt with some bad luck in the bottom of the first inning with little help from his defense as a two-out pop-up with runners on first and second by Brandon Lowe landed in between three Phillies defenders. The shortstop Turner failed to corral the baseball on a big hop, allowing a second run to score and the Rays to go up 2-0.
The Phillies responded in the second, however, tying it up on RBI singles from Alec Bohm and Darick Hall. Tampa Bay went back up in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single off the bat of Francisco Mejía. The third inning was the same story; J.T. Realmuto hit an RBI single in the top of the frame, but Luke Raley homered in the bottom to put the Rays back ahead 4-3.
But once the fifth came around, the Phillies took their first lead and never looked back. Turner launched a moonshot off the left-field foul pole to knot the game at 4-4, before Stott hit a go-ahead single to drive in Realmuto later in the inning.
Castellanos added a blast of his own in the sixth inning to give Philadelphia a two-run lead, and Brandon Marsh broke the game open with a two-run single in the seventh to make it 8-4.
Walker made it through seven for the Phillies on 101 pitches before handing the ball to Gregory Soto, who took down a scoreless eighth. Right-hander Jeff Hoffman handled the ninth with another scoreless inning to give the Phillies a chance to go for the sweep on Thursday.
Shibe Vintage Sports Notes
- Stott posted the second four-hit game of his career and his first of the season.
- Castellanos, a 2023 National League All-Star, has homered in three of his last four games and is up to 13 on the season.
- Walker has a 1.62 ERA with over six innings per start in his last six outings.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Thursday, July 6 vs. Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field
- 6:40 p.m. Eastern
- TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Radio: SportsRadio 94WIP, WTTM 1680 (Spanish)
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