The Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber hits his record 14th leadoff home run to open the bottom of the first inning on Tuesday. Derik Hamilton | AP photo PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Schwarber set an MLB record with his 14th leadoff homer of the season before leaving due to injury, and pinch-hitter Cal Stevenson hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the eighth inning as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays 9-4 on Tuesday night.
Trea Turner hit two, two-run homers and Bryce Harper added four hits as the Phillies (87-58) moved 29 games over .500, matching a season high.
Schwarber set the single-season leadoff homer record on the second pitch he saw from Taj Bradley, sending the ball 437 feet to center field for a 1-0 lead and moving past Alfonso Soriano, who had 13 leadoff homers with the New York Yankees in 2003. The Phillies designated hitter left the game in the fourth inning due to left elbow discomfort after reaching on a walk in the third and appearing to get hurt diving back into first base on a pickoff try.
Schwarber’s 35th homer of the season was the 45th leadoff homer of his career, with 32 coming since joining the Phillies in 2022.
The little-used Stevenson, who was recalled from the minors earlier this month to replace the injured Austin Hays, hit in place of Johan Rojas with two men on in the bottom of the eighth. He drove a 2-2 changeup from Tampa reliever Edwin Uceta down the right field line, scoring two runs.
The Phillies piled on from there, with an RBI single by Buddy Kennedy and Turner’s second homer of the game.
After Harper doubled, Uceta hit Nick Castellanos on the hip with a pitch, causing both benches and bullpens to empty and gather on the infield grass. Uceta was ejected from the game.
Turner also homered off Bradley in the third inning and had his 17th career multi-homer game, and third this season.
Harper, who has not homered since since Aug. 9 and has a homerless streak at Citizens Bank Park dating to July 27, appeared to have had a homer in the fifth inning. But the play was overturned upon replay review because of fan interference after a young fan reached over the railing atop the right field wall and caught the ball.
Harper was given a double and was left stranded as Castellanos flew out and Bryson Stott grounded out to end the inning. Harper had three doubles in a game for the third time in his career and the first time since Aug. 2021.
Jose Alvarado (2-5) pitched a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts and earned the victory.
The Rays nickel-and-dimed Phillies starter Ranger Suarez for four runs on 12 hits in the first six innings.
Junior Caminero had three hits and an RBI, and Yandy Diaz and Jose Caballero each had an RBI single for the Rays. Christopher Morel had an RBI triple off the top of the wall in center field, the deepest part of the ballpark.
Richard Lovelady (3-6) was tagged with the loss. He gave up two runs on two hits in two-thirds of an inning in relief.
ROYALS 5, YANKEES 0
NEW YORK — Seth Lugo struck out 10 in seven masterful innings and Salvador Perez hit two run-scoring singles to reach 100 RBIs for the second time as Kansas City beat New York.
Tommy Pham homered and Bobby Witt Jr. had an RBI single for the Royals, who began the night trailing first-place Cleveland by 3 1/2 games in the AL Central. They held a 2 1/2-game edge over Minnesota for the second AL wild card.
New York came in 1 1/2 games ahead of second-place Baltimore atop the AL East.
Lugo (16-8) carved up a full-strength Yankees lineup that entered leading the majors in homers and ranked second in runs. The right-hander allowed only three singles and walked none, retiring 17 straight batters after Gleyber Torres’ bloop hit to begin the bottom of the first.
Torres snapped the string on another soft single with two outs in the sixth.
Kris Bubic and John Schreiber completed the three-hitter, as Lugo tied Atlanta ace Chris Sale and Detroit lefty Tarik Skubal for the major league lead in wins.
The right-hander outpitched former Mets teammate Marcus Stroman (10-8), who permitted three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.
No. 9 batter Kyle Isbel scored twice after leadoff singles for the Royals, who had dropped six consecutive road games. They won for the fifth time in 13 games overall and improved to 2-4 against the Yankees this season.
PIRATES 6, MARLINS 4
PITTSBURGH — Andrew McCutchen hit a three-run blast to reach the 20-homer plateau for the 10th time in his career and Pittsburgh beat Miami.
The 37-year-old designated hitter turned on a fastball from Miami’s Adam Oller (1-3) with two on and two out in the fifth inning and sent it into the first row of bleachers in left field to give Pittsburgh a five-run lead.
McCutchen has had eight of his 20-homer seasons with Pittsburgh, the second-most in franchise history behind Hall of Famer Willie Stargell.
Isaiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan Reynolds had two hits apiece for the Pirates, who have won three straight. Joey Wentz (1-2) earned the victory. Aroldis Chapman survived a rocky ninth to earn his eighth save on a night the Pirates used six relievers behind opener Carmen Mlodzinski.
BRAVES 12, NATIONALS 0
WASHINGTON — Michael Harris II hit two of Atlanta’s four home runs and the Braves had 15 hits in a 12-0 rout of Washington, despite losing starter Reynaldo López to a right shoulder injury after one inning.
López left with right shoulder tightness after throwing 25 pitches, 16 for strikes. His fastball velocity — usually 96 mph — was down to the 92-94 mph range. He and three relievers limited the Nationals — losers of seven of their last 10 games — to three hits.
It was the fourth multi-homer game of Harris’ career. Sean Murphy hit a two-run shot and Orlando Arcia had solo homer one night after the Braves mustered only a pair singles by Matt Olson in a 1-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
Atlanta hit three doubles in the four-run third, then added three runs in the next frame to chase Nationals left-handed starter MacKenzie Gore and move within one-half game of the idle Mets for the final NL wild card.
Ramón Laureano and Murphy each had two hits and three RBIs. Olson added two singles and a double, his third multi-hit game in his last four.
TIGERS 11, ROCKIES 0
DETROIT — Rookie Keider Montero pitched Detroit’s first shutout in three seasons and the Tigers beat the Colorado Rockies 11-0 Tuesday night.
Montero (5-6) was making his 14th major league start and became the first Tigers pitcher with nine shutout innings since Spencer Turnbull’s no-hitter in Seattle on May 18, 2021. The 24-year-old right-hander needed 96 pitchers while facing the minimum 27 batters. He allowed three singles and struck out five without walking a batter.
All of Colorado’s singles — Ryan McMahon in the second, Ezequiel Tovar in the seventh and Aaron Schunk in the eighth — were followed by double plays by the Tigers’ infield.
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