Baseball, much like life, is a matter of perspective.
What is most beautiful about Major League Baseball’s 162-game regular season can also be the agonizing aspect of the ensuing six-month schedule: it never stops.
So, regardless of whether your team is on a record-breaking tear or is finding a different way to lose each and every night, the schedule doesn’t care.
It keeps moving, pushing forward relentlessly, a reminder that one bad stretch can turn a team’s season upside.
The Phillies have been in the midst of such a stretch lately, going 2-8 in their last 10 games and allowing their hold on the division to drop to a measly six games.
Since the All-Star break–which served as a de facto coronation for the crowning of the Phillies as the best team in baseball–virtually everything that can go wrong has.
They’ve lost six straight series dating back to their date with Oakland on July 12. The bullpen has fallen apart, blowing six three-run leads in the 15 games since the break, including a 5-0 lead in Saturday night’s loss to the Mariners. The starting rotation has been pockmarked with injuries and seemingly out of sync with the lineup–when they pitch well, the Phillies haven’t hit. When the Phillies do hit (which has been increasingly rare), the rotation doesn’t pitch well.
Sunday’s 6-0 victory over the Mariners, however, could be the silver lining the team has been searching for—at least, one can hope.
With the Phillies heading into Chavez Ravine to face the N.L. West leading Dodgers on Monday night, they’ll need all the good vibes they can get.
Here are a few reasons that the tide might be turning for the Phils.
Offensive Resurgence?
The Phillies crushed four home runs on Sunday, including three in a five-run 8th inning to cap off a spectacular, sweep-saving victory. Perhaps most inspiring were the contributions of three key lefties in the team’s lineup: Bryce Harper, Brandon Marsh, and Bryson Stott. Harper, who has been in the worst slump of his career, broke out on Saturday night with a key double and added three hits on Sunday, including a towering two-run shot in the 8th inning. Marsh, who has struggled mightily against lefties this year (.185 with 26 strikeouts entering Sunday’s game), has started to change the narrative. He singled off of Guardian’s pitcher Joey Cantillo last Sunday, tripled off of Mariner’s reliever Jhonathan Diaz on Friday night, and hit singles off of fellow Mariner’s lefty Tayler Saucedo in both Saturday and Sunday’s contests.
Also encouraging was Bryson Stott’s eighth-inning solo shot, his eighth of the year. If Stott, who has been unable to find his stride at the plate all year, can look more like the Stott of 2023 down the stretch, then the Phillies will unlock a new weapon for the postseason.
The Return of the Rotation
Zach Wheeler’s dominant outing on Sunday, in which he allowed just two hits and struck out nine over eight scoreless frames, might have done more than just break the team’s six-game losing streak. It might’ve been a glimmer of hope for the rotation. Aaron Nola, the Robin to Wheeler’s Batman, will take the hill for the Phillies in the series opener against LA. Nola, the owner of an 11-4 record with a 3.43 record this year, enters Monday night’s game pitching relatively well–at least for the current standards of the rotation. Ranger Suarez, out with a back injury that could very well be labeled as ‘exhaustion,’ looks primed to return in the next couple of weeks.
And while Taijuan Walker hasn’t impressed any scouts in his minor league rehab stints, his hopeful replacement, Spencer Turnbull, is trending for a return later this month. If the team’s offense can start hitting and the rotation can just hold it together for a couple more weeks, this rocky stretch in August could be a little smoother than anticipated.
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