Phillies

Max Kepler Crushes Phillies to Series Win Against Toronto

By Luke Arcaini

Published: Jun 14th, 2025 · 7:59 PM EDT

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The Phillies clinched their 2nd-straight series win against an above-.500 team on Saturday afternoon, beating the Blue Jays by a final score of 3-2.

Cristopher Sanchez dazzled through seven innings, allowing just two earned runs, zero walks, and striking out five batters. The two earned runs were ultimately both due to defensive mistakes from Nick Castellanos, and a bad flip to second from Trea Turner.

It was a quiet game at the plate for the Phillies, and their biggest inning of the day came without a hit. Bowden Francis cruised through three innings for the Blue Jays but fell apart in the 4th. He got Kyle Schwarber and Alec Bohm out to start the inning, then he lost it:

• BB
• BB
• HBP
• BB
• HBP

The Phillies took a tie game into the bottom of the 8th inning. Max Kepler, who has been hitting the ball hard as of late, cracked a home run to right field to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead. Rob Thomson said after the game that he’s liked what he’s seen from Kepler over the last week or so. Not everything is falling, but the swing looks smooth and he’s hitting the ball hard. Results will come, and they did on Saturday.

Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm held it down in the Phillies bullpen, not allowing a single hit between the two of them. Thomson said postgame that nothing is wrong with Jordan Romano, they just liked Strahm in that situation because they knew the Blue Jays would try and unload lefties in the 9th.

It was another good game for Brandon Marsh, who is really starting to find his stroke at the plate. Marsh is 10 for 23 in the month of June, and had two more hits in this game. Here’s what Thomas said after the game about him:

“He’s found his swing, he’s found his timing, he’s using the entire field”

Rob Thomson has been very impressed with Brandon Marsh recently, who is now hitting .435 in the month of June. pic.twitter.com/ps3DrAhYPS

— Luke Arcaini (@ArcainiLuke) June 14, 2025

The Phillies will look to sweep out the Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon with their ace, Zack Wheeler, on the mound. Jose Berrios will get the ball for the Jays, and is 2-2 on the year with a 3.38 ERA.