Kyle Schwarber's 2-run homer pushes Phillies past Pirates, as late rallies fall short

Carlos Santana is now a Milwaukee Brewer, so there would be no City Connect walk-off home run for the Pittsburgh Pirates to start their Yinzerpalooza weekend against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Instead, the Pirates went down swinging.

Their rallies ended with a one-pitch strikeout in the seventh, a double play in the eighth and a pop fly in the ninth — all with at least one runner on base — as the Philliles rode Kyle Schwarber’s two-run home run to a 2-1 win Friday night before 34,202 at PNC Park.

It was the first game for the Pirates since trading Santana to Milwaukee on Thursday. The 37-year-old first baseman delivered a heroic, 431-foot homer beat the Brewers for an 8-7 walk-off win June 30.

Phillies starter Zack Wheeler (8-5) outdueled Pirates All-Star Mitch Keller (9-7), as they combined for 19 strikeouts.

“He’s been really good for years, so just to be able to go toe to toe with him for a while there was really cool,” Keller said. “Pitchers’ duels are always fun. It’s a quick game, and you’re ready to go and you need to be out there and throw up zeroes. Every pitch is intense and every time there’s a runner on base, it’s elevated a little bit more to get out of it because you know the guy on the other side is not letting too much go on.”

After giving up 14 earned runs on 19 hits, including five homers, in his first two starts of the second half, Keller fell just one out shy of his 13th quality start. He escaped scoring situations in each of the first two innings and allowed two runs on six hits and three walks while striking out eight before being pulled after throwing 108 pitches in 5 2/3 innings.

“Definitely needed a good one after two rough ones,” Keller said. “I just felt more in a groove, attacked the zone a lot better. And just was able to finish better. … I think a lot of it just comes down to execution. I think the previous couple starts, I didn’t execute some pitches, and those were the ones I got taken advantage of.”

Schwarber hit a flare that dropped between three Pirates along the left-field line in the first, but Keller used a pickoff move to catch him stealing third and struck out Trea Turner and Bryce Harper.

After Bryston Stott hit a liner that sailed past Byran Reynolds in left field for another double, Keller got a groundout and a lineout to end the second inning.

But the Phillies took a 2-0 lead in the third, when Keller walked leadoff batter Brandon Marsh and Schwarber drilled a first-pitch curveball 406 feet into the bullpen in left-center for his 27th home run.

The Pirates answered in the fourth, when Reynolds singled to left and scored on Ji-Man Choi’s double down the right-field line to cut it to 2-1. But third base coach Mike Rabelo held Andrew McCutchen, and Wheeler got Henry Davis to fly out to right field and Endy Rodriguez to line out to Stott to strand the runners.

Shelton defended Rabelo for keeping McCutchen at third.

“I have no problem with that,” Shelton said. “Rabs is a good third base coach. I think anytime you get a stop or you get a send that doesn’t go the way you want, then everybody turns it around. He had a send the other day in San Diego that was probably the best send we’ve had in four years, and no one talks about it. It comes into play when people feel that he should have done one or the other. If he sends (McCutchen) and he gets thrown out, everybody’s like, ‘Why’d he send him?’ We’re second and third one out. We had a couple of opportunities we did not capitalize on.”

The Pirates can blame Wheeler for that, as the Phillies righty was efficient in holding them to three hits and one walk while striking out 11. He fanned every player in the Pirates’ lineup except Rodriguez, who singled to right before a downpour halted the game with two outs and two strikes against Jared Triolo in the bottom of the seventh.

“That may have been as good as we’ve seen this year on the mound,” Shelton said of Wheeler. “He was in control. Executing all his pitches. Velocity was up. Fastball to all quadrants. He was really good.”

After a 42-minute rain delay that saw the grounds crew struggle with a tarp that got stuck, the Phillies turned to righty reliever Jeff Hoffman, who got Triolo swinging at a slider at the bottom of the zone for a one-pitch strikeout that left the tying run at first.

The Phillies loaded the bases in the eighth, after Marsh singled, Yerry De Los Santos intentionally walked Schwarber and rookie Liover Peguero booted a Turner grounder to short that would have forced the final out. The Pirates turned to rookie right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski, who got Harper to line out to left for the final out.

Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel got McCutchen and Choi to fly out, but Davis drew a four-pitch walk to put the tying run on base. Rodriguez swung at a first-pitch fastball and hit a fly ball that left fielder Jake Cave caught in foul territory to end the game.

“We’re talking about a guy that’s going to the Hall of Fame in Kimbrel,” Shelton said. “You get a fastball to hit, you gotta take a swing at it.”