PITTSBURGH (AP) — Red-hot slugger Kyle Schwarber homered twice to boost his majors-leading total to 20 and the Philadelphia Phillies rallied to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-9 in 10 innings Friday night.
Philadelphia trailed by six early. Schwarber led the comeback, smashing a pair of two-run homers. The designated hitter went deep off Braxton Ashcraft in the fifth and again off Mason Montgomery in the seventh.
Schwarber has nine home runs in the past eight games, the second time in his career he’s achieved that feat. He also did it in 2021 while playing for Washington. Albert Belle is the only other player in MLB history to hit nine homers in an eight-game stretch twice.
The Pirates were so wary of Schwarber while holding onto a three-run lead in the ninth that closer Gregory Soto walked him on four pitches with the bases loaded. Bryce Harper followed with a two-run single off the top of the wall in right center to pull Philadelphia even.
The Phillies pounced on Pirates reliever Dennis Santana (2-3) in the 10th. Brandon Marsh led off with an RBI single and Rafael Marchán followed with a two-run single. Jose Alvarado (1-1) pitched a scoreless ninth. Orion Kerkering worked the 10th for his first save as Philadelphia won for the fifth time in six games to improve to 13-4 since Don Mattingly replaced Rob Thomson as manager last month.
Brandon Lowe homered twice for the Pirates. Marcell Ozuna added a 438-shot to the Pirates’ bullpen that reliever Yohan Ramirez caught with a traffic cone.
The traffic cones have become a fixture in both the Pittsburgh dugout and the stands at PNC Park this season in Pittsburgh after outfielder Jake Mangum brought one into the clubhouse in Cincinnati in early April, which coincided with an offensive explosion in a victory over the Reds.
The series continues Saturday. NL Cy Young runner-up Cristopher Sánchez (4-2, 2.11 ERA) was set to start for the Phillies against Pittsburgh’s Bubba Chandler (1-4, 4.62).
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