The Phillies wrapped up their series against the Angels with a 5-2 win Sunday, and the victory carried them into a pretty rare bit of club history. Philadelphia finished off the sweep, its fourth sweep of a series lasting at least three games this month - something the franchise hadn’t done in a single month since August 1991.
It also kept August rolling for a team that has been on a tear. The Phillies moved to 20-7 this month with one game left, have won 13 of their last 15, and are now a season-high 17 games over .500.
Zack Wheeler was right in the middle of it, and the start began with some stress before he found his footing. Coming in after an ugly stretch in which he went 0-3 with an 8.38 ERA over his previous four starts and posted a 7.18 ERA in the second half, Wheeler opened the game by loading the bases with nobody out in the first. He managed to limit the damage, though, getting a run-scoring double play and a strikeout to hold the Angels to one run.
From there, he settled in and gave Philadelphia six innings. Wheeler allowed four hits, one run and three walks while striking out six over 108 pitches.
His four-seam fastball made up half of those pitches, averaged 95.4 mph and topped out at 96.3 mph. In the sixth, he got Jose Siri looking on a full-count curveball to end another Angels threat and keep the game tied.
The Phillies’ bats took over late. JT Realmuto tied the game with a solo homer in the third, then Edmundo Sosa put Philadelphia ahead with a solo shot in the seventh.
Sosa had already delivered a ninth-inning grand slam in Friday’s 5-3 comeback win, giving him seven homers on the season. He came into Sunday hitting .423 with 15 RBIs in 26 at-bats in August.
Philadelphia kept adding from there. Luis Arraez delivered a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the eighth, Brandon Marsh followed with a pinch-hit RBI single, and Bryce Harper added an RBI double in the ninth. Harper’s double also stretched his career-best on-base streak to 32 games.
On the pitching side, Alex McFarlane threw a scoreless seventh, and Orion Kerkering closed it out for his second save even after Mike Trout lined an RBI double in the ninth.
Now the Phillies head to Arizona for a three-game set with the Diamondbacks, who hold the third NL wild-card spot and trail Philadelphia by 4.5 games.
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