By AARON BRACY Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Edmundo Sosa homered, Bryce Harper doubled and singled and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 on Friday night for their seventh consecutive win at home.
Aaron Nola (7-2) pitched into the seventh inning for the Phillies, who entered tied with the Yankees for most wins in baseball. Philadelphia improved to 40-18.
Sosa put the Phillies up 3-0 with a 439-foot, two-run drive into Ashburn Alley in center field in the second inning against Miles Mikolas (3-6). It was the first ball to reach the walkway beyond the outfield seats since July 22, 2022, when Darick Hall hit a drive there.
“That ball definitely went a little far,” Sosa said through an interpreter. “I was just aggressive, trying to look for a ball near me.”
Nola allowed a pair of home runs among his three hits while striking out six and walking two.
“Nola was really good,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
Nolan Arenado and Brandon Crawford hit the homers for the Cardinals, who lost for just the fourth time in the last 16 games.
“We fought hard,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said.
Philadelphia returned home after losing four of six on a road trip in Colorado and San Francisco. They were welcomed back to Philly by another sellout crowd, their largest of the season of 44,742, on a beautiful night for baseball. The Phillies improved to 23-8 overall at home and followed three-game sweeps over the Nationals and defending World Series champion Rangers by opening this three-game set against the Cardinals with a victory in a crisp 2 hours, 14 minutes.
“They’ve really played well and played hard every day,” Thomson said.
Jeff Hoffman pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save in eight tries.
The Phillies also got some stellar defense from second baseman Bryson Stott, who leaped high to catch Iván Herrera’s liner in the fifth and then dove hard to his left to record the final out of the eighth on Alec Burleson’s grounder.
“Tremendous,” Thomson said. “He’s Gold Glove caliber.”
J.T. Realmuto went 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts to end his hitting streak at 17 games.
Cardinals rookie Masyn Winn’s 18-game hitting streak also ended. Winn entered in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter and flew out to left.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: OF Lars Nootbaar (strained oblique) was placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 30, and INF José Fermín was recalled from Triple-A Memphis. … OF Brendan Donovan (neck stiffness) was not in the lineup.
UP NEXT
Phillies LHP Ranger Suárez (9-1, 1.75) opposes St. Louis RHP Sonny Gray (7-2, 2.60) in the second contest of the three-game series on Saturday night.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
