Harper, Schwarber, Bohm all go deep to back Luzardo's 8-K effort
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TORONTO -- The Phillies rained on a monumental moment for Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre.
Two batters after Scherzer recorded his 3,500th career strikeout and received a standing ovation in the first inning, former teammate Bryce Harper took a 94.6 mph fastball over the wall in left for an early 1-0 lead.
Philadelphia never relinquished that lead en route to a 7-4 victory and the series win in Toronto.
The offense piled on in the third when Alec Bohm hit a three-run shot to make it 4-0.
Kyle Schwarber got in on the power surge in the fourth with his MLB-leading 24th home run, a two-run blast into the seats in right-center field, off Blue Jays reliever Mason Fluharty.
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Bryson Stott tacked on a run with an RBI single in the seventh to make it 7-0.
The Blue Jays would make it interesting with a run in the sixth and three in the seventh, but it was as close as they would get.
After striking out 15 times on Tuesday, Schwarber said it was nice to be able to score runs in support of starting pitcher Jesús Luzardo.
“I feel like we’ve been scoring some more runs early on and feeling like we can give the pitcher a little bit of a cushion to go out there and settle in,” Schwarber said. “We got Max’s pitch count up, Bohm had a really good swing there and we were able to keep tacking on.”
Partly overshadowed by the offensive onslaught was the solid start by Luzardo.
The southpaw allowed one run on four hits over 5 2/3 innings of work. He walked four and struck out eight before being relieved by Jonathan Bowlan.
He referred to his performance as “good and bad” postgame.
“The walks were obviously very frustrating,” Luzardo said. “I beat myself up about that, I don’t like giving free passes but [I] limited hard contact.”
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The outing followed Cristopher Sánchez’s 10-strikeout game on Monday and Zack Wheeler’s six innings of one-run ball on Tuesday.
Luzardo’s latest start fell in line with an interesting trend that’s seen him pitch far better on the road this season.
Coming into action on Wednesday, he’d pitched to a 3-0 record and 1.54 ERA away from Citizens Bank Park. At home, his ERA has ballooned to 7.34 to go along with a 1-4 record.
As to why Luzardo has been so much better on the road, he doesn’t think there’s any particular reason for it.
“I think it’s just a coincidence,” he said. “Same routine; I’m a creature of habit so my routine stays similar. I feel great at home. Who knows.”
It wasn’t all good news for the Phillies, though, as outfielder Adolis García exited the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with what was announced as a pulled muscle in his right shoulder area after trying to throw out George Springer at home on a sacrifice fly from Kazuma Okamoto. Manager Don Mattingly said García will be further evaluated during Thursday’s off-day.