Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner homered and Taijuan Walker battled through seven innings as the Philadelphia Phillies earned an 8-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Philadelphia's 17-hit attack featured four hits from Bryson Stott, while J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm each chipped in with three hits.
Walker (10-3) gave up four runs in the first three innings but held Tampa Bay scoreless over the next four frames. He scattered five hits and five walks while striking out eight.
The Rays went with Zack Littell as an opener, and the right-hander allowed two runs in two innings. Reliever Yonny Chirinos (4-4) took the loss after yielding three runs on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings.
The Phillies have won the first two games of the three-game series, making them 7-2 in the past nine contests. Tampa Bay has lost four straight.
In the first inning, the Rays broke on top with two runs. Walker put himself in a bind by walking leadoff batter Yandy Diaz. With two outs, Randy Arozarena singled before Brandon Lowe lofted a two-run double on a perfectly placed fly ball to left-center.
The Phillies responded with a pair of runs in the second inning on RBI singles from Bohm and Darick Hall.
The Rays reclaimed the lead at 3-2 in the bottom of the second on Francisco Mejia's run-scoring single.
In the third inning, Chirinos entered, and was tagged for a run on Realmuto's two-out single that scored Bryce Harper, who had doubled.
The back-and-forth affair again swung in the Rays' favor in the third inning. Luke Raley's home run to right put Tampa Bay in front 4-3.
In the fifth inning, the Phillies pushed across two runs to go ahead 5-4. Turner led off with a towering home run off the left field foul pole. With two outs, Realmuto lined a double, and Stott ripped an RBI single.
Castellanos' home run to center off Robert Stephenson in the sixth inning gave the Phillies a two-run advantage.
Philadelphia boosted the margin in the seventh inning on Brandon Marsh's two-out, two-run single.
--Field Level Media
Philadelphia | Tampa Bay | |
Taijuan Walker | Player | Zack Littell |
Win | W/L | No Decision |
7.0 | IP | 2.0 |
8 | Strikeouts | 2 |
5 | Hits | 4 |
5.14 | ERA | 9.00 |
Philadelphia | Tampa Bay | |
Bryson Stott | Player | Brandon Lowe |
4 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 0 |
5 | TB | 4 |
.800 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Philadelphia | 17 | 2 | 26 | .395 | 18 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
Tampa Bay | 7 | 1 | 12 | .226 | 13 | 11 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 |