J.T. Realmuto had a two-run double, All-Star Cristopher Sanchez tossed seven-plus strong innings, and the visiting Philadelphia Phillies ended the Detroit Tigers’ six-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory on Saturday.

Sanchez (11-4) allowed two runs and 10 hits while striking out seven. Sanchez bounced back from his worst outing of the season when he surrendered nine runs to Kansas City on Monday. Jhoan Duran recorded his 24th save with a perfect ninth.

Eduardo Valencia homered for Detroit. Casey Mize (4-6) gave up all four runs (three earned) on five hits in 5 2/3 innings.

An error allowed the Phillies to take the lead in the third. Third baseman Kevin McGonigle made a throwing error on a Derek Hill grounder. Hill then stole second and third base before Trea Turner knocked him in with a sacrifice fly.

Detroit had two baserunners with two outs in the bottom of the inning. Ben Malgeri reached on an infield single before Hill, playing center field, robbed Zach McKinstry of an extra base hit with a diving grab. Matt Vierling followed with a single but Sanchez escaped the jam by striking out McGonigle. Philadelphia then extended its lead in the fourth.

Brandon Marsh drew a leadoff walk, and Bryson Stott had a one-out single. Realmuto then took advantage of a hanging slider and drove in both runners with a double to left. Realmuto scored one out later on a Hill single.

Valencia put the Tigers on the board in the fifth with his second homer in three games since being called up from Triple-A Toledo to make his major league debut on Thursday. Singles by Hao-Yu Lee and Vierling put runners on the corners with two outs. McGonigle then flied out to left-center.

Detroit had another threat in the seventh after back-to-back leadoff singles by Valencia and Lee. Sanchez then struck out Malgeri before inducing McKinstry to bounce into a double play.

Sanchez departed after Vierling drew a walk and McGonigle singled in the eighth. Dillon Dingler was hit by a Jonathan Bowlan pitch to load the bases. Spencer Torkelson bounced into a double play as Vierling scored, making the score 4-2. After Riley Greene walked, Valencia grounded out to end the inning.

The Tigers finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven.

–Field Level Media

On a day that challenged the rest of the leaders, Zach Johnson dominated the third round of the Kaulig Companies Championship on Saturday to take a four-stroke lead into the final round at Akron, Ohio.

Johnson, who entered the day a stroke back of the lead, shot 7-under-par 63 to reach 13-under 197. That strong, bogey-free performance began at the onset, with birdies on four of the first five holes to kick off a 5-under front nine at Firestone Country Club.

“Yeah, it was really solid. I don’t know if it was easy, but it was not difficult,” Johnson said after his round. “Today was a pin high day, it was crazy. And a good thing. If you needed to be short, you needed to be long, certain hole placements for the most part, I did that. The front nine was as solid of nine holes as I’ve played in I couldn’t tell you how long.”

The two-time PGA major winner only became eligible for PGA Tour Champions events in February. He’s already won two Champions events this year and would move up from third to second in the Charles Schwab Cup standings should he hold on to win Sunday.

While he hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since 2015, Johnson finished T9 at last week’s John Deere Classic and feels he’s been in strong form for quite awhile now.

“I feel like I’ve been in a pretty good trajectory even prior to (John Deere) if I’m going to be blunt,” Johnson said. ” … Deere was solid. Fortunately the momentum’s kind of carried me into this week.”

While Johnson finished with seven birdies and no bogeys Saturday, he didn’t have the best round of the day. That belonged to Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, who shot 8 under to sit alone in second place at 9 under for the tournament.

Jimenez, who won this event last year in a playoff against New Zealand’s Steven Alker, also birdied his first two holes and finished with four birdies on each nine of his bogey-free round.

“I shoot my age today, 62. Every time you can shoot your age is great,” Jimenez said. ” … I played very solid. I hit it very good, especially my irons was very nice today to the flags all day.”

Round 2 leader Cameron Percy of Australia (70) shot even-par and sits six strokes back of Johnson in solo third place at 7 under. He’s followed by Tag Ridings and Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, who both shot 68 and are tied for fourth at 6 under.

–Field Level Media

HAMPTON, Ga. — Ryan Blaney claimed his second pole position of the season Saturday evening at Atlanta’s fast high-banked EchoPark Speedway — leading a Team Penske Ford front row sweep for Sunday night’s Quaker State 400 (7 p.m. ET, TNT, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Blaney’s No. 12 Team Penske Ford turned in a lap of 179.912 mph around the 1.5-mile track, besting his teammate Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford by a slight .016-second in Busch Light Pole Qualifying.

It’s the 32-year old Blaney’s 14th career pole and marks the first front-row Penske sweep this year. All three Penske’s advanced to Saturday’s 10-car second round after dominating the top of the speed charts in round one. Austin Cindric will roll off eighth in the No. 2 Penske Ford.

The typically low-key Blaney was thrilled for the result, crediting his team for the hard work. However, the 2023 series champion was quick to remind at a high-speed, drafting track such as Atlanta, he was confident starting up front doesn’t automatically translate into a trip to Victory Lane.

Toyota, which is enjoying a dominant season in wins, failed to place a single car into the final round of qualifying.

NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Denny Hamlin will roll off 28th in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who trails Hamlin by 44 points in the standings, will start 31st in the No. 45 Toyota. A five-time race winner this year, Reddick won at Atlanta this February.

Gibbs drivers Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell will start 23rd and 32nd. And Reddick’s 23XI teammates Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst are 23rd and 29th on the grid.

“I feel like we’ve seen that,” Blaney said of the Toyotas qualifying effort. “They don’t really qualify great at these speedways, just the build of their race car. So usually that means they can probably be aggressive in the draft and get in the middle and get to the top and things like that. I’m sure we’re going to see them up there.

“If you look at the spring race here and Toyotas were really, really good when it came race time. Hopefully, our balance in the race is good enough to be able to either maintain the lead or if we get shuffled back to be able to go forward. You really don’t know that until the race starts.”

The Chevrolets of Kyle Larson (No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports) and Austin Dillon (No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ) make up row two.

Daniel Suarez will start fifth with the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Alex Bowman and defending race winner Chase Elliott, Cindric, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski owner-driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford, rounding out the top 10.

The front row start is especially significant for the three-time series champion Logano, who is enduring one of the most challenging seasons of his Hall of Fame-bound career. He’s still not in the top 16 field that will ultimately settle the title in the 10-race Chase. Logano’s ranked 18th, 16 points behind 16th-place Erik Jones.

“The good news is the Hunt Brothers Pizza Mustang is fast and that speed you see in qualifying will usually show up in the race,” said Logano, a two-time Atlanta winner. “I’m proud to see the speed that’s there and the handling seemed fine in qualifying.

“I feel like our team can handle these speedways really well and you can remember what happened here last Fall (he wrecked after leading laps and winning the pole position), so there’s no guarantee you see the end of it.

“But,” he added with a smile, “The speed’s there and that’s half the battle, so we know we have that.”

–By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service. Special to Field Level Media