Phillies Win Second Straight But Lose Veteran to Injury

Maikel Franco (Al Bello/Getty Images)

The Phillies pulled out an 11-6 victory over the Yankees on Tuesday night, winning two straight games for the first time since winning consecutive games over the Reds on June 1 and June 2.

The Phillies were trailing 3-1 heading into the top of the fourth inning, an inning in which they scored five runs to take a 6-3 lead. With one out and a runner in scoring position, Cameron Rupp took C.C. Sabathia deep for his first homerun of the season, lifting a 1-1 pitch over the left-centerfield wall to tie the game at three. With two on and two out, Maikel Franco was the next Philadelphia batter to homer off of Sabathia, taking the 3-2 pitch over the right field wall for his tenth homerun of the year and giving the Phillies a 6-3 lead.

Sean O’Sullivan was on the mound for the Phillies to start the game, and quickly surrendered the Phillies 6-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. O’Sullivan let up back-to-back homeruns to Chase Headley and Alex Rodriguez, making the score 6-5 with the Phillies clinging to a one run lead. O’Sullivan was able to retire the next batter up, Brian McCann, easily for the first out. With nobody on and one out the next batter to the plate, Carlos Beltran, roped a double to left, ending O’Sullivan’s day. Beltran later came around to score to tie the game.

O’Sullivan exited the game with 4.1 innings pitched, giving up ten hits and six runs, including four long balls.

The Phillies went into the ninth inning tied, but were able to score five more runs against Dellin Betances and Nick Rumbelow to secure the 11-6 victory for their second straight win. The Phillies scored 11 runs on two straight nights, giving them more runs in two games alone than they had in their previous 11 games combined.

Despite the impressive offensive numbers, Ryne Sandberg announced after the game that veteran second baseman Chase Utley will be heading to the 15-day DL due to right ankle inflammation. The all-star second baseman has been having an off year this season. A first round draft pick out of UCLA in 2000, Utley is batting .179 in 63 games played this season.

The Phillies announced that Darin Ruf will be recalled from triple-A Lehigh Valley to take the place of Utley for the time being.