PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cristopher Sánchez pitched eight sparkling innings, Kyle Schwarber hit his 38th homer and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Detroit Tigers 2-0 on Sunday night.
Philadelphia took two of three in the weekend series to move back into first place in the NL East, a half-game better than the New York Mets.
Sánchez (10-3) surrendered five hits, struck out six and walked one. He allowed only one baserunner to reach third.
Jhoan Duran handled the ninth for his second save with the Phillies and No. 18 overall. The hard-throwing closer, who was acquired in a trade with Minnesota on Wednesday, fanned Riley Greene with a 102.5 mph fastball for the final out.
Schwarber made it 2-0 when he connected against Tyler Holton with two down in the eighth, hitting a 435-foot drive to center.
Schwarber is tied with Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani for the NL lead in home runs. It was Schwarber’s 15th homer this season off a lefty, which leads all of baseball and matches a career high for the slugger.
Detroit wasted a sharp performance by Charlie Morton (7-9), who pitched six innings of one-run ball. The veteran right-hander was acquired in a trade with Baltimore on Thursday.
Max Kepler drove in Philadelphia’s first run with a groundout in the second.
Key moment
The Tigers had a chance to tie the game in the seventh, but Jahmai Jones was thrown out at the plate when he attempted to score on Andy Ibáñez’s grounder to Phillies third baseman Edmundo Sosa.
Key stat
Sánchez has pitched at least six innings and allowed two or fewer runs in 10 of his last 11 starts.
Up next
Tigers: RHP Casey Mize (9-4, 3.43 ERA) starts on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series against visiting Minnesota.
Phillies: LHP Jesus Luzardo (9-5, 4.31 ERA) takes the mound on Monday night against Baltimore. LHP Cade Povich (2-5, 5.15 ERA) goes for the visiting Orioles.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
