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

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.

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“Feels good,” Bohm said. “I mean, you get to this point of the season without playing very well, obviously feels good to start producing a little bit.”

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.

“I knew it was flying good tonight, and I was locating it for the most part,” Wheeler said.

The Phillies’ bats backed him up. They hit three homers, all to the 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 allowed only two home runs in his first 30⅔ innings before Tuesday, but Schwarber and Bohm doubled that by the end of the second.

“Rasmussen leaves the first inning with nine pitches,” Thomson said. “He leaves the third inning with the 68. So that’s what stands out to me, because we just wore him down and had really good at-bats, up and down the lineup.”

In the eighth inning, Nick 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.

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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 gets behind in the count,” Thomson said. “First two pitches to Lowe [in the fourth were] ball, ball, double, ball to Díaz, home run. So he’s got to continue to keep pounding the zone.”

But Wheeler responded with back-to-back strikeouts, retiring the next nine Rays until Jonathan Aranda led off the seventh with a single. That runner was quickly erased, however, with a double play.

“All his stuff really, was really good,” Thomson said. “He pitched up and down, in and out. He was commanding the ball all over the place. I thought the cutter was really good. Threw a couple sharp breaking balls, couple of really good splits. I thought he was really good today.”

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 diving right fielder Travis Jankowski, scoring Turner. Castellanos drove in three more when Rays reliever Mason Englert left a sinker up in the zone.

“Castellanos, big day, Schwarber, big day,” Thomson said. “Great to see [a] Bohm home run, his first one.”

Orion Kerkering took over for Wheeler in the bottom of the eighth after the long half-inning. 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.

Five Phillies had multi-hit nights. After going 0-for-3 in his first three plate appearances, Harper ended the night on a higher note with a pair of singles.

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And Bohm, whose batting average sank as low as .150 earlier this season, has had two hits in each of his last two games.

“Obviously that’s the game nowadays, everybody wants home runs and all that stuff,” Bohm said. “But I feel like, when I go up there trying to do that stuff, I never end up doing it. And that’s not what I’m at my best.

“And then when I just kind of stick within myself, what happened today is what can happen for me.”