Phillies 2, Indians 1
PHILADELPHIA -- In a pitcher's duel on a sloppy, wet day at Citizens Bank Park, it took Danny Salazar's duel with the pitcher's mound to help determine the winner.
The Phillies took advantage of one rough inning from Salazar and won their sixth straight game, 2-1 on Sunday.
Salazar had retired the first seven batters he faced, including a stretch of five straight strikeouts with his changeup, when opposing pitcher Vince Velasquez -- hitting eighth -- came to the plate with one out in the bottom of the third.
After getting behind 0-2, Velasquez worked a walk and was advanced on a Peter Bourjos single. After the second out was made by Odubel Herrera, Freddy Galvis lined a single up the middle, scoring Velasquez while advancing Bourjos to third.
That's when the slippery mound came into play.
As Salazar prepared to deliver a pitch to Phillies slugger Maikel Franco, his back foot slipped out and home plate umpire Larry Vanover immediately signaled a balk, allowing Bourjos to trot in from third base for a 2-0 Phillies lead.
That would be all Velasquez and his steady bullpen would need.
Velasquez scattered just two hits, both in the first two innings, over six innings. He struck out six and walked four.
The Indians threatened to score in the top of the fourth after Velasquez was staked a lead, but they failed to score after getting the first two batters on base. With two outs, Rajai Davis lined a ball to left-center field but Phillies left fielder Darin Ruf closed on the ball and made a diving catch to end the inning.
Philadelphia's bullpen upped its scoreless innings streak to 20 innings, the longest streak in the majors this season.
With normal closer Jeanmar Gomez unavailable, Hector Neris recorded his first save of the year after David Hernandez pitched scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth innings.
It wasn't easy, though. With one out, Carlos Santana launched a home run to right field to cut the deficit in half. But Neris worked past a hard-hit out by Yan Gomes and struck out Tyler Naquin to end the game.
Salazar completed seven innings while striking out eight batters to two walks. He allowed just three hits.
On this day, it wasn't quite good enough.
The Phillies (15-10) have won nine of their last 10 games. They completed back-to-back series sweeps for the first time since September 2012.
NOTES: Cleveland played its sixth straight one-run game and has already played 11 such games. The Indians are 5-6 in one-run games and 1-5 during the current stretch. They led baseball with a 94-68 record in one-run games from 2012-15. ... Phillies manager Pete Mackanin batted the pitcher, in this case Vince Velasquez, eighth for the 10th straight game. ... Cleveland is now 2-4-2 in eight completed series so far in 2016. ... The Phillies entered Sunday four games above .500 for the first time since the final day of the 2011 season. ... Philadelphia's bullpen entered Sunday having pitched 18 consecutive scoreless innings, the longest streak in the majors this season.