The Phillies’ Bryce Harper had two hits to end a hitting drought on Friday night, but it wasn’t enough to edge the Pirates in Philadelphia.
Matt Rourke | AP photo
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Pirates catcher Henry Davis, left, and closer David Bednar, right, celebrate after beating the Phillies.
Matt Rourke | AP photo
PHILADELPHIA — Bailey Falter allowed one run over five innings to beat his former team, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates over Philadelphia 5-2 on Friday night as Phillies star Bryce Harper broke out of an 0-for-18 slide with two hits.
David Bednar pitched a perfect ninth for his second save in five chances, and Henry Davis doubled, singled and drove in two runs. Bryan Reynolds and Connor Joe also had RBIs for the Pirates, who took advantage of some sloppy play by Philadelphia.
“Overall, we played a really clean game,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said.
Harper singled in the first and doubled in the sixth as part of a 2-for-4 night, raising his average from .196 to .220.
Philadelphia ditched its red and white pinstripes to debut blue, yellow and black City Connect jerseys that were odes to Philadelphia’s flag and rich history. The jerseys have gotten mixed reviews from the Phillies’ notoriously tough fan base, and the club’s play on the field on Friday didn’t give the home crowd of 35,578 much to be thrilled about, either.
The Phillies will wear the alternate jerseys in every Friday home game this season, or 11 more times.
“Hopefully, next we get a win in them,” Harper said. “I just want to win. I don’t care what we wear. Obviously, it’s really cool for some of the fans to be able to wear something different, the blue and the story behind it and things obviously is really cool, but I just want to win.”
Falter (1-0) allowed one run and four hits and three strikeouts. He had a 4.56 ERA in 24 starts and 26 relief appearances over three seasons for the Phillies before his Aug. 1 trade to Pittsburgh for infielder Rodolfo Castro.
“He did a nice job,” Shelton said. “That’s a tough lineup to navigate through.”
Cristopher Sánchez (0-2) loaded the bases in the second with a pair of walks and his own error, then forced in the go-ahead run with his third walk of the inning, to Davis with the bases loaded.
Pittsburgh doubled the lead in the fourth when Michael A. Taylor scored on Joe’s two-out grounder that was ruled a hit when shortstop Trea Turner slipped and fell as he was about to backhand the ball.
Bryson Stott cut the deficit with RBI single in the fifth, but Pittsburgh made it 3-1 in the seventh when Yunior Marte’s fastball with a 2-2 count ricocheted sharply off catcher JT Realmuto’s left wrist for a wild pitch and dropped third strike.
“We scored in some strange ways,” Shelton said.
Davis hit an RBI double in the eighth against Ricardo Pinto and scored on Reynolds’ single.
Aroldis Chapman walked Alec Bohm with the bases loaded in the bottom half, then froze Brandon Marsh with a slider for a called third strike.
Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes, the top pick in last year’s amateur draft, allowed three hits in 3 1/3 scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and one walk for Triple-A Indianapolis at Toledo. Skenes threw 36 of 55 pitches for strikes. He reached 100 mph with 15 pitches.
Pirates LHP Marco Gonzalez (0-0, 2.45) opposes Philadelphia RHP Spencer Turnbull (1-0, 0.00) on Saturday in the third game of the four-game series.
METS 6, ROYALS 1
NEW YORK — Pete Alonso homered and Luis Severino earned his first win for New York, who snapped Kansas City’s seven-game winning streak.
Brett Baty hit a two-run double and the Mets scored all five of their runs off starter Michael Wacha with two outs. New York reached double digits in hits for the fourth consecutive game and has won six of eight following an 0-5 start.
Coming off a 7-0 homestand that marked the longest winning streak in the majors this season, the surprising Royals (9-5) were looking for their first eight-game winning streak since a nine-game run in July 2017.
Salvador Perez homered for the Royals, making their first visit to Citi Field since June 2016. The year before that, they clinched the club’s second World Series title there.
Severino (1-1) worked around four walks in five innings during his third start for the Mets, who signed him to a $13 million, one-year contract in December after the two-time All-Star spent his first eight seasons across town with the Yankees.
The only hit he gave up was a 433-foot leadoff homer by Perez in the second. Severino struck out four, including young star Bobby Witt Jr. with two runners aboard to end a 27-pitch fifth that began with a 12-pitch walk to Adam Frazier.
Four relievers finished the three-hitter.
Jeff McNeil had three of New York’s 14 hits, one day after the Mets pilled up 16 in a 16-4 rout at Atlanta.
Harrison Bader singled against Wacha (1-1) with two outs in the third and stole second before scoring on Brandon Nimmo’s double.
New York hit four straight singles with two outs in the fourth, with McNeil and DJ Stewart driving in runs to make it 3-1.
Baty’s double just over center fielder Kyle Isbel’s head made it 5-1 in the fifth.
Wacha gave up 10 hits in six innings. Alonso launched his fourth homer on an 0-2 pitch from Will Smith leading off the eighth.