Phillies win fourth straight behind Velasquez as Harper homers again
Bryce Harper homered in his third consecutive game, and the Phillies offense remained hot en route to an 8-4 win over the Padres on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies collected 12 hits and tied their season-high winning streak at four in a row. The win draws the club even with the Cubs for the second NL wild-card spot.

Harper has been on a tear as of late, with six homers and 16 RBIs over his last seven games. He's hitting .333 over that span. J.T. Realmuto chipped in Friday with three hits, including a a homer while driving in three runs.

“J.T. and Harper have been swinging well for a couple of weeks,” manager Gabe Kapler told reporters afterward. “We have a lot of other guys with long track records of success. It doesn’t have to be everybody all at once, but I think when we get kind of a smattering of guys up and down the lineup performing, we’re going to score runs and we’re going to score runs regularly. We’re going to beat good pitching like we did tonight and we’re going to be successful against more mediocre starters as well.”

Vince Velasquez tossed 5 1/3 innings in the win, surrendering three runs on five hits. The Phillies bullpen combined to surrender one run over the final 3 2/3 innings.

Zach Eflin will be on the mound Saturday for the Phils, taking over the rotation spot vacated by Jake Arrieta. The Padres will counter with right-hander Dinelson Lamet who is 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA on the season.

Quinn to the IL
Roman Quinn was placed on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a right groin strain. He suffered the injury in the eighth inning of Friday's contest while trying to leg out a grounder. He's hitting .213 on the season with four homers and 11 RBIs.

Surgery Updates
Reliever David Robertson underwent Tommy John surgery on Friday and will miss the rest of this season and likely all of 2020. Also of note, Jake Arrieta will undergo season-ending surgery later this month to remove a bone spur from his pitching elbow. He's expected to be ready to go by the start of next spring training.

Saturday's Lineup
Hoskins 3
Harper 9
Realmuto 2
Dickerson 7
Segura 6
Hernandez 4
Kingery 5
Haseley 8
Eflin 1
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Follow Patrick on Twitter: @PGordonPBR

BY PATRICK GORDON
Managing Editor
pgordon@philadelphiabaseballreview.com

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