Yankees 3, Phillies 1, and once again it was the long ball that did the heavy lifting on the road.
Ryan Weathers wasn't sharp for the New York Yankees on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park (six hits allowed in under six innings will do that), but he battled, and Austin Wells and Jasson Dominguez each turned around a Phillies sinker for a solo shot. That was enough to turn a shaky start into a 3-1 win, the Yankees' third straight, and a 2-0 lead in this series with one game left in Philly.
Turning Point
The Phillies got on the board first, a first-inning sac fly off the bat of Bryce Harper that scored Trea Turner. Wells answered in the third with a solo homer to tie it, and the game sat at 1-1 for a while after that.
It broke open in the sixth. Cody Bellinger lined a single up the middle, scoring Wells and pushing Paul Goldschmidt to second. By win probability, it was the single biggest swing of the night (a 16.2 percent jump for New York), and it gave the Yankees a lead they wouldn't give back.
(Credit the Phillies defense for keeping it that close as long as it was. Back in the third, with the game tied 1-1 and runners on first and second, Jose Caballero turned a Harper grounder into a double play -- Kyle Schwarber out at second, Harper out at first -- and Alec Bohm lined out right behind it to strand Turner at third and end the inning. As big a sequence as the Phillies put together all night, and it still wasn't enough.)
Star of the Game
Give it to Weathers. He wasn't clean early -- six hits in 5.2 innings is a lot of traffic to navigate -- but he struck out seven, walked just one, and only let the Harper sac fly cross the plate against him. Final line: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO, a win that pushes him to 4-7 on the season.
He earned it. But this one had two home run swings doing plenty of the talking too.
Key At-Bats and Pitching Lines
Wells started it in the third. He hit a first-pitch sinker from Brian Keller 430 feet into the left-center field seats (105.7 mph off the bat, for anyone counting), tying the game and setting up everything that followed.
Dominguez put the finishing touch on it in the seventh. Leading off the inning down 2-2 in the count against Jose Alvarado, he stayed on a sinker and pulled it 420 feet into the left field seats for his sixth homer of the year, pushing the lead to 3-1 -- which is exactly where it stood when it ended.
Neither ball left much doubt off the bat (105-plus mph exit velocity on both). That's not luck.
The Phillies played this one as a bullpen game, running through seven arms without letting one throw more than three innings -- Tim Mayza opened, Keller followed and ran into the Wells homer, and five more relievers cycled through after that. The staff combined for 11 strikeouts, which says the stuff was there. It just came with a couple of mistakes at the wrong time. Kyle Backhus took the loss, charged with the run after walking Wells to lead off the sixth -- Wells came around to score four batters later on Bellinger's go-ahead single off reliever Seth Johnson.
The Pen Closed It Out
Aaron Boone didn't need to get cute after Weathers came out. Angel Chivilli picked up a hold in a third of an inning, Paul Blackburn worked two clean innings around a single walk, and David Bednar slammed the door in the ninth for his 20th save of the season. Three relievers, 3.1 innings, zero runs, one hit total. That's about as tidy as a bullpen night gets.
The Yankees are 59-45 now, two games back in the AL East, winners of three straight.
Go finish the sweep Sunday.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
