Phillies hit three home runs and get a quality start from Zack Wheeler in 8-4 win over the Rays

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on May 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays’ temporary home, George M. Steinbrenner Field, is built with the exact same dimensions as Yankee Stadium.

That includes the short porch in right field, which stands only 314 feet from home plate, eight feet closer than the same wall at hurricane-ravaged Tropicana Field.

That may make the park hitter-friendly, but mainly for pull-happy lefties. When right-handed Alec Bohm sent a cutter over the Steinbrenner short porch in the Phillies’ 8-4 win on Tuesday, he went opposite-field for his first home run since Sept. 20, 2024.

Phillies starter Zack Wheeler was extremely efficient in the win, needing just 84 pitches through seven innings. Wheeler leaned heavily on his four-seam: of his nine total strikeouts, eight came on his fastball. He allowed zero walks.

The Phillies’ bats backed him up. They hit three homers, all to opposite-field.

Bohm’s two-run shot came in the second inning, four batters after Kyle Schwarber crushed a ball over the left-center field wall. Rays starter Drew Rasmussen had only allowed two home runs in his first 30 2/3 innings before Tuesday, but Schwarber and Bohm doubled that by the end of the second.

In the eighth inning, Castellanos crushed a three-run shot to right field. He drove in another run with a two-out single, also to right, in the ninth.

Wheeler had only allowed one hit — a bloop single — before Brandon Lowe hit a leadoff double in the fourth. Yandy Díaz then barreled up a sinker for a two-run shot to bring the Rays within one. Wheeler has allowed one home run in every start so far this year.

He responded with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning, and went on to retire the next nine Rays until Jonathan Aranda led off the seventh with a single. That runner was quickly erased, however, with a double play.

The Phillies broke things open in the eighth. Trea Turner and Bryce Harper hit back-to-back singles before Schwarber laced a hit to right-center out of reach of a diving Travis Jankowski, scoring Turner. Castellanos drove in three more when Rays reliever Mason Englert left a sinker up in the zone.

Orion Kerkering took over for Wheeler in the bottom of the frame. The Rays scored one, stringing together a walk, a single, and a sacrifice fly. Matt Strahm pitched the ninth, and also allowed a run. Strahm struck out the first batter, but a walk, a single, and a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position. Junior Caminero hit a sacrifice fly to score Aranda from third.