By ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT (AP) — Bryce Harper homered, doubled twice, drove in five runs and helped turn a triple play as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-1, on Monday night, June 24.
Alec Bohm had four hits, including a homer, and was also involved in the triple play for the big league-best Phillies (52-26).
Philadelphia took a 4-0 lead before Detroit starter Casey Mize recorded an out. Kyle Schwarber started the game with a routine grounder to short, but Zach McKinstry misplayed it. Trea Turner followed with a flared double to right and Harper hit a two-run double into the right-center gap.
Bohm made it 4-0 with a home run to left and Nick Castellanos singled before Mize recovered to retire the next three hitters.
Aaron Nola (8-4) won the 99th game of his career, allowing one run on six hits in seven innings and starting the third-inning triple play. Michael Mercado pitched a perfect eighth in his MLB debut.
Mize (1-6) allowed four runs, three earned on nine hits, in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out a career-high 10 batters.
The Phillies have won three straight by a combined score of 24-3. Detroit was held to fewer than three runs for the eighth time in 10 games.
Detroit’s best chance at a rally came in the third, when singles by McKinstry and Carson Kelly put runners on the corners with no one out. But Matt Vierling hit a broken-bat liner back to Nola, who tossed to Harper at first for a double play.
Catcher Garrett Stubbs, noticing McKinstry had never stopped running from third, signaled to Harper to throw to third, where Bohm stepped on the bag to finish the 1-3-5 triple play.
It was the first 1-3-5 triple play in the majors since the Tigers turned one against the Red Sox on July 11, 1929, Major League Baseball said, citing the Society for American Baseball Research.
