PHILADELPHIA -- Aaron Harang has had a lot of success against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Philadelphia Phillies' right-hander had been excellent through his first three starts at his new home, Citizens Bank Park.

Both of those trends continued Thursday.

Harang threw eight scoreless innings, allowing five hits and striking out six, and the Phillies took advantage of several miscues by the Pirates to win 4-2 and salvage a split in the four-game series.

"He just hits his spots," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "He makes the pitch that he wants to make; and, it seems like when he misfires a little bit, it's not over the plate to get hit. He just works down on the zone and he's been missing the barrel of the bat and doing a good job at that."

Through four home starts, Harang (4-3, 2.03 ERA) has allowed just two runs in 29 1/3 innings (0.61 ERA), which is the best home ERA among qualified starters in the National League.

The fact that the 37-year-old is doing it at Citizens Bank Park, which has developed a reputation as a hitter's ballpark, is even more impressive.

"Going out there without fear of giving up a home run, I think that's a big thing," he said. "The philosophy is just go out there and be aggressive, keep runners off the bags, let the defense play behind you. If you make that mistake, it's only going to be one run instead of multiple runs."

The former Cincinnati Reds pitcher is now 17-8 (.680) against Pittsburgh, his highest winning percentage against any team.

On Thursday, Harang was helped by some poor Pittsburgh defense in the first few innings.

Phillies leadoff hitter Ben Revere reached base on a bobbled ball by second baseman Neil Walker, and four of the next five hitters reached base. Third baseman Cesar Hernandez drew a bases-loaded walk with one out to score Revere, and right fielder Grady Sizemore followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 2-0 in the first inning.

Miscues struck again in the third inning when Pittsburgh shortstop Jordy Mercer misplayed a ground ball with two on and two outs, allowing Phillies counterpart Freddy Galvis to score his second run of the day.

Pirates starter Vance Worley (2-3), a former Phillie, lasted four innings, giving up three runs (one earned). His ERA dropped slightly to 4.38.

"There's a couple of missed plays today; we didn't handle the ball as well as we should have," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "It's not all on (Worley), but he's a click off and we seem to be a click off with the gloves when he's pitching."

Galvis entered the game with the fifth-highest batting average in the NL and improved it, going 3-for-3 with a walk and two runs to raise his average to .353.

Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard tacked on his seventh home run of the season, taking a first-pitch fastball from reliever Radhames Liz and sending it into the bleachers in right field in the fifth inning. Howard went 3-for-4 to raise his average to .230.

"He's squaring up the ball much better (and) getting hits to go with that," Sandberg said of Howard, who's hitting 12-of-34 (.352) with three home runs and six RBIs in his last 10 games after hitting .177 over his first 22 games.

Left fielder Josh Harrison and center fielder Sterling Marte each went 3-for-4 to account for all but one of Pittsburgh's hits.

Pittsburgh threatened in the ninth, scoring two and putting the tying run at the plate, but Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon retired pinch hitter Andrew McCutchen on a popout to Howard in foul territory for his eighth save of the season.

NOTES: Pirates starting RHP Vance Worley was drafted by the Phillies in 2008 and spent his first five season with the organization, making 46 starts from 2010 to 2012 before being traded to the Minnesota Twins. ... The Phillies picked up their first win exactly 132 years ago today (May 14, 1883), defeating the Chicago White Stockings 12-1 after losing the first eight games of their inaugural season. ... This was the first of four consecutive day games for the Pirates, who are 6-4 in their first 10 day games of the season.