The Phillies are simply rolling. They finished off a three-game sweep of the Cubs with a tightly played 3-1 win Thursday night and have won nine straight games on the road, their longest streak since 1984.
Taijuan Walker was a rock again with six innings of one-run ball. He has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball over the last six weeks, going 6-1 with a 1.69 ERA in his last eight starts. The Phillies are 12-5 behind Walker and would not have turned their season around without his work in June.
Speaking of June, Kyle Schwarber opened the game with a home run to right field, his 21st of the year and eighth in his last 100 plate appearances. The Phillies scored two more in the third inning on a two-out, two-run single from Bryce Harper. Neither team pushed a run across the rest of the way.
Walker stranded at least one runner in scoring position in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. His biggest jam came in the fifth when Schwarber muffed a ball in left field for a two-base error and Nico Hoerner singled to put runners on the corners with nobody out and the Phillies up two. Christopher Morel did the Phils a huge favor by bunting without an advance from the runner at third base, Ian Happ lined out to second and Walker struck out Dansby Swanson looking to escape unharmed.
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Yunior Marte, Gregory Soto and Craig Kimbrel followed by putting one man on base over three scoreless innings to send the Phillies to their 18th win in the last 23 games. They are 43-37 and 1½ games behind the Giants for the third NL wild-card spot.
The Phils had trouble winning on the road the first two months of the season. When they dropped their series opener in Arizona on June 12, they fell to 13-23 on the road, the worst mark in the National League at that point. They're now 22-23 away from home. They close out the first half with a six-game road trip to Tampa Bay and Miami but first up is a three-game home series against the Nationals this weekend.
Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler and Ranger Suarez will face the Nationals, in that order. The Phillies are slated to see Zach Eflin in their first game in Tampa next Tuesday.
