On his 27th birthday, Brett Phillips had two hits including his third home run of the season to help the Tampa Bay Rays finish off a two-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies with a 6-2 victory Sunday at Tropicana Field.
Phillips led off the third with a base hit off Zach Eflin, though he would be erased by a double play, then was the first of five Rays players to reach in the fifth, when he turned around a breaking ball from Eflin and sent it into the seats in right for his third homer of the year.
Randy Arozarena and Brandon Lowe followed with singles, and Ji-Man Choi made ot 4-0 with a double off the top of the wall in right, bringing in Arozarena.
Mike Zunino started the scoring for Tampa Bay, as he followed a walk to Austin Meadows, a fielder’s choice grounder by Joey Wendle, and strikeout of Taylor Walls by blasting his team-leading 12th home run of the year to left.
Rays opener Collin McHugh got the first two outs of the game, but left after giving up back-to-back hits to Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto. Left-hander Josh Fleming came on and got Brad Miller to ground out to get out of the jam.
Philadelphia finally got on the board in the sixth when Odubel Herrera and Jean Segura singled off Fleming, and Andrew Kittredge allowed both inherited runs to score on a sacrifice fly by Realmuto and a groud-rule double by Miller.
Tampa Bay Added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh, as walks to Arozarena and Meadows both came around to score on a base hit by Joey Wendle coupled by an error by Miller.
The win is Tampa Bay’s 14th in their last 15 games and pushes the Rays to 34-20 on the year, tied for the best record in Major League Baseball. They extended their lead in the American League East over the Boston Red Sox to a full game thanks to the Red Sox having their game Sunday postponed by inclement weather.
The Rays head to the Bronx next to take on a New York Yankees team that was swept in Detroit for the first time in 21 years. Rich Hill (3-2, 3.63 ERA) will get the start, taking on Jameson Taillon (1-3, 5.06 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:05.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
