A Near No-hitter and Pinch-hit Blast Sends Phillies Into 1st Place

BOX SCORE

Nick Williams did it again.

Coming off the bench to lead off the eighth inning of a tie game, Williams deposited another pinch-hit home run to the deepest part of Citizens Bank Park in left-center-field.

It was Williams' MLB-leading third pinch-hit home run. He also leads the majors in extra-base hits (4) and RBI (8) off the bench. He's 9 for 19 as a pinch-hitter this season and 11 for 22 the last two.

"Honestly, I've been doing a really good job of closing my eyes and swinging," Williams joked after the game.

The 2-1 victory, which makes the Phillies 29-20, unfortunately, did not go to Aaron Nola, who had a no-hitter snapped with two outs in the seventh inning of perhaps his most dominant performance to date (see story). Instead, the win went to Seranthony Dominguez, his first as a big-leaguer.

This was the fifth start by Nola this season following a Phillies loss and they're 4-1 in those games.

Williams and Franco
Williams' pinch-hit homer came off Blue Jays reliever Joe Biagini. The Phillies were just glad to get Jaime Garcia out of the game. Garcia, the veteran southpaw Phillies fans will remember vividly from Game 3 of the 2011 NLDS, allowed one run over seven innings and needed just 73 pitches as the Phils made quick outs in succession.

Toronto's bullpen is reeling and is the facet of this series the Phillies need to take advantage of after falling just short in the series opener.

Maikel Franco provided the first run with a solo homer to left to begin the fifth inning. Franco has eight home runs, two more than he had at this point a year ago.

Dominguez delivers again
How nice is it to have a go-to reliever like this? Relieving Nola in the seventh, Dominguez ended the Phillies' jam by inducing a groundout on two pitches.

He followed with a scoreless eighth inning.

In nine appearances in the majors, Dominguez has pitched 10⅓ scoreless innings with two hits allowed, no walks and 10 strikeouts. The Phillies have won every game he's entered.

Luis Garcia picked up the save.

Up next
The Phils-Jays series concludes Sunday at 1:35 p.m. when Nick Pivetta (4-2, 3.23) opposes former Phillies left-hander J.A. Happ (6-3, 3.97).

Happ has settled in with Toronto, where he's the ace of the staff. Since the start of 2016, Happ is 36-18 with a 3.43 ERA in 399⅓ innings.

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