Brandon Valenzuela capped a two-run ninth inning with a walk-off single as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 on Tuesday.
Bryson Stott’s RBI double against Louis Varland (3-1) gave the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth, but in the bottom of the inning, Jhoan Duran (1-3) blew a save for the first time in 17 opportunities this year.
Sanchez led off the frame with an infield single, his third hit of the game. Pinch runner Myles Straw replaced Sanchez, and he went to third on Yohendrick Pinango’s single to right. Daulton Varsho pinch-ran for Pinango and stole second. Straw scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, and Valenzuela lined a game-ending single to left.
The teams have split the first two matchups of a three-game series.
Sanchez earlier hit a solo homer and a double. Pinango added two hits for the Blue Jays, who have won three of their past four games.
Stott went 2-for-4 for the Phillies, who had won six of their previous seven contests.
The Phillies scored a first-inning run against Dylan Cease, who had not pitched since May 24 because of a left hamstring strain.
Trea Turner broke his bat on a looping double down the right field line. He took third on a wild pitch and trotted home when Brandon Marsh lashed a two-out double to the right field corner.
Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. batted first for the second time in his career and broke an 0-for-15 drought with an infield hit in the third inning.
The Blue Jays had runners in scoring position against Zack Wheeler in the second and third innings but failed to score.
After Marsh’s first-inning double, Cease retired 15 of 16 batters before Bryce Harper walked with two outs in the sixth. Harper singled in the fourth.
Cease struck out 11 while allowing one run, three hits and one walk in six innings.
Wheeler retired eight in a row before Sanchez homered to right on an elevated 0-1 cutter with one out in the sixth, tying the game 1-1.
Wheeler finished six innings, giving up one run, six hits and no walks with five strikeouts.
Former Phillies right-hander Jeff Hoffman pitched around an infield single and a wild pitch in the seventh, striking out two.
Varland walked Harper on four pitches to start the ninth. Two outs later, Stott lined an RBI double into the left field corner.
–Field Level Media
