Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper capped their big weekends by each hitting home runs on Sunday night as the host Philadelphia Phillies rolled past the New York Mets 6-2 in the rubber game of a three-contest series between the National League East rivals.
Zack Wheeler pitched into the sixth for the 10th straight start for the Phillies, who outscored the Mets 21-5 over the final two games of the series to improve to 12-6 this month.
Carson Benge homered and scored both runs for the last-place Mets, who went 2-4 on a six-game road trip.
The Phillies picked up where they left off following Saturday’s 15-3 victory by scoring twice in the first against David Peterson (3-6). The left-hander threw 29 pitches in the opening frame of his first start since May 26.
Trea Turner and Schwarber drew leadoff walks against Peterson before Harper struck out. Turner scored on Alec Bohm’s infield single, which landed just fair down the third base line. Schwarber went to third when Brett Baty threw wide of first baseman Jacob Young and raced home one pitch later on Edmundo Sosa’s single.
Schwarber, who hit three homers on Saturday, slugged a 418-foot three-run homer in the second inning on Sunday. Harper, who hit for his first career cycle Saturday, went deep off Austin Warren in the fifth.
Harper finished 3-for-4 and went 7-for-9 in the last two games as he raised his average from .248 to .266.
Wheeler (7-1), who missed the first four weeks recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery near his right shoulder, allowed the two runs on four hits — including Benge’s third-inning homer — and three walks while striking out seven over 5 2/3 innings. His ERA rose from 2.01 to 2.11.
Wheeler issued all three walks in the sixth, when he exited after A.J. Ewing grounded into a forceout to score Benge. Jonathan Bowlan struck out Marcus Semien and the Mets got just two singles the rest of the way.
Ewing had two hits.
Peterson gave up five runs (four earned) on six hits and two walks while striking out five over four innings.
