Bryce Harper leads the Phillies’ bats with two home runs in 9-4 win over Toronto Blue Jays

TORONTO — Alec Bohm was asked Tuesday about his team’s approach when facing good pitching. He said it was important to be diligent. To not miss mistakes.

Less than 24 hours later, the Phillies found themselves facing another good pitcher in Kevin Gausman, and he was making mistakes. His splitter was sitting flat. This time, the Phillies capitalized, in a 9-4 win over the Blue Jays to snap a three-game losing streak.

There were some missed opportunities early on. In the second inning, the Phillies loaded the bases with no outs only to score one run. But they kept chipping away at Gausman, and by the end of the sixth, he’d allowed seven runs, of which five were earned, with three walks.

It was a resilient performance from a Phillies lineup that has often looked listless against good pitchers — and has looked listless against Gausman, specifically. The last time they faced him, on May 10 at home, the Phillies managed just three hits in six innings. His splitter kept them off-balance. He struck out nine batters.

But on Wednesday, the Phillies had a different approach. And that approach turned out to be critical, given how Aaron Nola was pitching. Like Gausman, Nola wasn’t at his sharpest, and the Blue Jays capitalized on his mistakes, too.

In the second, Nola threw a fastball right down the middle of the plate to Daulton Varsho, who took it to right field for a two-run home run.

Bryce Harper hit a solo home run in the third to tie the game at 2-2, but Nola allowed a two-run single to Cavan Biggio in the next half inning. He finished with the win, allowing four hits, four runs (all earned), four walks and one home run with seven strikeouts in five innings. Nola’s four walks marked a season-high.

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“Some deep counts, and a lot of walks,” Nola said. “That’s not acceptable. I battled out there. They battled me. Just overall, a lot of deep counts, though. I threw a lot of pitches.”

“I thought for the most part, he threw the ball well,” manager Rob Thomson said of Nola. “He got ahead of hitters, for the most part, but they grinded on him a little bit. He got into some three-ball counts and then ended up walking some guys, which made him work even harder. But overall, I thought his stuff was OK.”

Despite that, after the fifth, the Phillies held onto their lead.

Kyle Schwarber and Harper walked in the fifth to put runners on first and second with two outs. Nick Castellanos hit his second double of the night to score Schwarber, and in the next at-bat, Bryson Stott reached on a throwing error by Blue Jays third baseman Santiago Espinal, who short-armed a throw to first base that got past Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Harper and Castellanos both scored on the error. In the sixth inning, the Phillies piled on even more. J.T. Realmuto doubled, Jake Cave singled, and two at-bats later, Schwarber drove Realmuto home with a sacrifice fly. Bohm singled in the next at-bat to score Cave.

Cave hit a 419-foot solo home run in the eighth to give his team a comfortable four-run lead. Harper hit his second home run of the night in the ninth inning to give the Phillies a five-run lead. Wednesday was his first multi-home run game of the season.

When asked about how he feels offensively, Harper said each night is a bit different.

“Some days the arm feels good, some days it doesn’t,” he said. “Sometimes I go up there and just don’t feel right. But I like swinging in August, September and October. So, looking forward to hopefully, letting tonight be a stepping stone into my weekend. And hopefully just get out there and give myself some grace, as well. [I’m almost to] 100 hits and I have an over-800 OPS. I’m doing just fine.”

After going 0-for-18 with runners in scoring position over their last three games, the Phillies went 4-for-8 on Wednesday night. Their top five hitters went 7-for-22.

“Two tough matchups right there, Kikuchi yesterday and Gausman today,” said Harper. “Two really good pitchers having great years. I thought we had a really good approach against Gausman today. I thought we made him work a little bit. And that was kind of the plan all along. It was a good night for everybody.

“Anytime you’re able to hit with guys on base, and they make a mistake and you make it hurt, that’s huge. I think that’s how you win games. The last three-game skid we were on, I don’t think we swung the bats necessarily very well. Hopefully this is just a stepping stone into the weekend.”

It was an all-around cleaner brand of baseball. After Nola exited the game, Matt Strahm, Craig Kimbrel, and Gregory Soto allowed just one hit over four innings. There were a few defensive gems, notably a catch Johan Rojas made in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Espinal flied out to shallow center field. Rojas tracked it down perfectly and dove to make the catch.

A few innings later, in the eighth, Kimbrel flexed some of his defense, too. Biggio grounded out to Harper, and Kimbrel hustled over to first base to cover. The ball tipped off Harper’s glove, and Stott, standing behind Harper, threw it to Kimbrel, who got there just in time to secure the final out.

It was the Phillies’ first win in Toronto since May 14, 2021. They split the two-game series on the road, and won the season series against the Blue Jays, 3-4.

“I really was [happy with the at-bats tonight],” said manager Rob Thomson. “Gausman is a good pitcher. He’s really good. And we scored some runs. Every time we scored, they seemed to score, and then we just kept scoring. We hit home runs, but we scored some runs in other ways, too. Two sac flies, we had a sacrifice bunt, which that guy ended up scoring.

“So, I really like the way we played tonight. Our defense was solid. Noles got hit with walks today and they made him really work, and built his pitch count up, but our bullpen was fantastic. It was a great win against a really good club.”