Max Kepler's solo homer lifts Phillies past Blue Jays, extends winning streak to three

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jun 14, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

PHILADELPHIA — Max Kepler didn’t see many pitches to hit on Saturday.

He had walked twice before stepping up to the plate in the eighth inning against Toronto, and the first two pitches from Blue Jays reliever Chad Green were well outside the strike zone.

But then Green put a four-seam down the middle, and Kepler connected with an explosive swing that sent the ball over the right-field wall. The solo shot lifted the Phillies to a 3-2 win over Toronto, securing the series win. The Phillies have won three straight games.

The Phillies offense only finished with four hits, but Kepler wasn’t the only one with plate discipline. Patience against Toronto starter Bowden Francis scored two runs for the Phillies in the fourth inning. They strung together three walks and two batters were hit by pitches.

For the first five innings, a pair of singles from Brandon Marsh accounted for the Phillies’ only hits. The lineup made solid contact overall, racking up seven hard-hit balls off the Blue Jays staff that just stayed in the ballpark for flyouts.

Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez held Toronto to two runs over seven innings. He generated six whiffs off his change-up, with three of his five total strikeouts coming on the pitch.

Sánchez didn’t allow a single walk, after struggling with free passes over his last few starts.

In the fifth inning, Sánchez hit nine-hole hitter Tyler Heineman with a pitch, but then induced a groundout from Bo Bichette. The Toronto shortstop was initially called out on an inning-ending double play, but that ruling was overturned on review. Bichette then scored on a double from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to tie the game at 2.

Orion Kerkering pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning against the top of the Toronto order. Matt Strahm pitched a clean ninth to pick up the save.