SAN DIEGO – Kyle Schwarber scored on Joe Musgrove’s fourth pitch and Bryce Harper also hit one of the Philadelphia Phillies’ five home runs in a 9-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday night.
Musgrove (3-3) allowed a career-high four home runs and didn’t walk out of the fourth.
Aaron Nola (4-1) was brilliant as he pitched eight innings for the second straight start. He struck out 10 for the first time this season and the 31st time in his career while holding San Diego to three runs and seven hits, with one walk. His only big mistake was allowing rookie Graham Pauley’s two-run homer in the seventh, his second.
There was a scary moment in the second when Harper and Jurickson Profar were left shaken after an early game of tag. Nola jumped off the mound, caught Profar’s dribbler and threw it to Harper, who hit Profar. Harper spun on impact and Profar fell to the ground. Harper sprained his wrist and ran across the grass holding it against his lower back. Both players were checked by coaches and remained in the game.
Schwarber’s shot was his 100th in a Phillies uniform and he became the second fastest to do so in 342 games. Ryan Howard did it in 325 games.
His home run of the season was 379 feet, much shorter than his previous three home runs at Petco Park. He hit a jaw-dropping 488-footer into the second deck in right field in Game 1 of the 2022 NL Championship Series, which the Phillies won in five games. Last season, he hit home runs of 465 and 440 feet in a series in early September.
After taking a 2-0 lead in the first, Nola needed just seven pitches to retire the team in the bottom of the inning.
“We have a really good offense and everyone knows that,” Nola said. “Not just in average terms; obviously, the guys in power too. I think what makes our offense difficult to pitch is that they rebound really well. They fight until the end and that makes it difficult for the pitcher.”
The Phillies took a 6-0 lead after Harper, Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos scored third.
Harper hit a 396-foot moonshot to right, his sixth, starting. Marsh drove a two-run home run into the porch atop the right field wall, with JT Realmuto aboard on a double. Castellanos followed with a home run to left center that just cleared the fence above center fielder Oscar Azocar’s outstretched glove. It was Marsh’s sixth and Castellanos’ first.
Realmuto hit a two-run homer off Tom Cosgrove in the seventh, fourth.
Marsh also hit an RBI double in the first.
Marsh said the increased energy against Musgrove came “from just being stubborn about the approach. Not getting out of it, trying not to hit the pitches he wants us to hit and hitting the pitches he doesn’t want us to hit. We just did a good job tonight.”
Marsh, the left fielder, robbed Jake Cronenworth of an opposite-field home run in the sixth.
Musgrove was coming off a strong seven-inning performance in the win against Toronto, but was done after just 3 2/3 innings on Friday night. In addition to his career-high four home runs, his six earned runs tied the most he has allowed in a start at Petco Park. He joined his hometown team in a trade with Pittsburgh before the 2021 season. He threw the Padres’ first no-hitter in their second start, at Texas.
Musgrove allowed eight hits, with four strikeouts and two walks.
San Diego’s Manny Machado was activated from the paternity list and played third base for the Padres for the first time since August 31. Troubled by tennis elbow, he finished the season as a DH and later underwent surgery. He opened this season as DH.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: Rookie CF Jackson Merrill was out of the lineup for the second straight game due to tightness in his right groin.
NEXT
Phillies LHP Ranger Ranger Suárez (4-0, 1.36 ERA) is scheduled to start Saturday night against Padres RHP Dylan Cease (3-1, 1.82).
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