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#978 Toronto Blue Jays (Berrios) -105 over Philadelphia Phillies (Abel) 6:07 PM CT

Bryce Harper made a triumphant return with an early home run as the Phillies poured a nightmare first inning on Toronto starter Bowden Francis with a rare open roof game at the Rogers Centre providing five home runs in the game. Take away the first inning and Toronto outscored Philadelphia 3-2 in the remaining eight innings and Eric Lauer was able to eat the bulk of the bullpen innings after the short start from Francis. The Phillies have lost four of the past five games and the bullpen has struggled with a 1.73 WHIP and a 5.45 ERA in the past 10 games. In contrast the Toronto bullpen has a 1.01 WHIP with opponents batting .185 in that span. With Aaron Nola on the IL and Zack Wheeler unavailable, Mick Abel will make his second MLB start tonight. Abel was a 1st round pick in 2020, and his MLB debut couldn’t have gone much better, striking out nine in six shutout innings. Toronto’s offense has more potential than the Pittsburgh lineup he faced at home in his debut, however, and walks have been a consistent problem for Abel in the minors. Jose Berrios has been very good for Toronto the past two-plus seasons after a tough 2022 campaign and in his time with the Blue Jays his home splits have been greatly superior. The Blue Jays are 20-13 at home this season and in the past five games vs. right-handers Toronto has hit .352 with 10.7 runs per nine. Berrios should fare better than Francis did yesterday and the bullpen edge for Toronto should remain significant.