Bryce Harper has already punched his ticket, having the most votes across all positions in the National League.

This next phase of voting, which opened Sunday, June 30 at 12:00 p.m. ET, features six more Phillies — Trea Turner, Alec Bohm, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos.

Here, the votes have been reset and fans are only able to vote one time per day through 12 p.m. ET on July 3. Like the first phase, you’ll be able to vote for one player for each infield position, three for the outfield positions and one for the designated hitter spot.

Fans will also have a “write-in” space, as a way to vote for alternative players not listed on the ballot. (Here’s a good one in case you haven’t thought of anyone for second base: Bryson Stott.)

Voting is only open four days, so every vote counts.

Set an alarm, make it a part of your daily routine, put a sticky note as a reminder on your coffee pot. Just vote.

Get the fellas to the All-Star Game. You know they’ve earned the nod.

You can vote here.

Subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Youtube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | RSS | Watch on YouTube

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They had a superb rotation anchored by future Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, a deep bullpen and a putt-putt offense that scored just enough, often enough to win. A typical rally is remembered as Maury Wills leading off with a walk, stealing second, being bunted to third and scoring on a sac fly.

Koufax pitched the last of his four no-hitters in Chicago in 1965. Legend has it that Drysdale was starting the next day in Houston, had flown ahead of the team in order to be well-rested and only heard the news after he landed. “Great,” he’s supposed to have said. “Did he win?”

Baseball has changed a lot in the last 60 years, but the basics remain the same.

So here we are. Due to circumstances beyond their control – injuries to starters Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto – the Phillies find themselves in a predicament remarkably similar to what the Dodgers faced six decades ago. They possess quite possibly the best top-to-bottom pitching staff in all of baseball, albeit one that’s currently relying on run support from a lineup that’s far shorter than it was even a week ago.

Aaron Nola didn’t pitch a no-hitter Saturday against the Marlins in front of another sellout at Citizens Bank Park. He only pitched really, really well and that wasn’t good enough. The last-place Fish won, 3-2, and have now taken two out of three in the series that ends Sunday. Meanwhile, the Braves won, reducing the Phils’ lead back to seven games in the National League East.

The only difference from long ago Los Angeles is that the Phillies could (insert your favored superstitious ritual here) be back at full strength shortly after the All-Star break.

The problem is that, in the interim, things can start to go cattywampus. They’ve scored two runs in each of the last two games. If that continues, pitchers can start to put pressure on themselves to try to be perfect. Hitters can start to press, feeling as though they have to produce every time up.

Nola, speaking for the pitchers, doesn’t buy it. “We take every game the same, no matter what,” he said. “Obviously, it sucks not to have those guys in our lineup. But as a staff, we take the ball every time we need to. We try to limit the damage every single time no matter what the lineup is. The mindset doesn’t change.”

Shortstop Trea Turner, representing the hitters, allowed that it’s something that must be guarded against. “You want to do the same thing, right?” he said. “But I think sometimes guys try a little harder. I think that was kind of the case for me. I was trying to do a little too much and missing some good pitches to hit and then started chasing.

“It’s easy to look at from afar but when you’re out there it’s difficult not to try a little harder without those guys.”

It’s not just that the Phillies haven’t been scoring runs in the style to which they had become accustomed. It’s that they’re really having to scratch to score for everything they get.

They won Friday night in their first game without their regular first baseman, DH and catcher because Cristopher Sánchez pitched a complete game shutout and the offense managed to push across a pair of runs despite going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

They lost Saturday because, as manager Rob Thomson put it so eloquently, “We didn’t have many chances. Eight baserunners (five hits, three walks), you’re probably not going to score many runs.”

They scored in the third on back-up catcher Garett Stubb’s first home run of the year. The second run could have been a sepia-toned sequence that would have for right into Chavez Ravine back in the day, with Johan Rojas playing the role of Wills. The Phillies’ centerfielder started the fifth with a walk, stole second, advanced to third (on a single to left by Bryson Stott instead of a bunt) and scoring on the sacrifice fly (by Alec Bohm.)

They also had runners on first and third with one out in the fourth, but came up empty. Edmundo Sosa hit the ball right back at pitcher Roddery Muñoz. The ball bounced off his glove and trickled toward second base. Nick Castellanos at third broke for the plate, stopped and by then it was too late. He was stranded when Muñoz retired Stubbs on a soft line drive.

“The contact play wasn’t on,” the manager said. “He was on a read and I don’t think he saw the ball pop out of the pitcher’s glove.”  

For a time, it looked as though two runs might be enough. With two outs and nobody on in the seventh, Nola had allowed one run on four hits while striking out nine. He hadn’t walked a batter. The Phillies were up by one. Then Marlins second baseman Otto Lopez doubled, bring No. 9 hitter Nick Fortes to the plate.

The catcher was hitting .158. For his career he was 1-for-13 (.077) against Nola, who was at 94 pitches. Manager Rob Thomson left him in the game to face the righthanded hitter with lefty Matt Strahm warming up. It all made sense. It just didn’t work.

Fortes ripped a double to left to tie the score. Strahm came in to face Jazz Chisolm Jr., who promptly singled home the winning run.

“First of all, if there were two runners on when we got to Fortes, I probably would have gone to Strahm,” Thomson said. “Once there were two out, I thought we should leave (Nola) in there. He’d handled him all day. And even though he was a little bit tired, I thought he could handle it.

“Unfortunately, I can’t predict the future.”

If he could gaze into a crystal baseball, he’d probably have visions of lots of low-scoring games the next few weeks.

“You can’t do anything about it. It’s out of our control,” he shrugged. “But the guys who are here are more than capable of creating runs. They’ve just got to stay within themselves and do what they can do.”

Sandy Koufax couldn’t be reached for comment.

Shortstop Trea Turner missed six weeks and outfielder Brandon Marsh 10 days earlier in the year, also with pulled hammies.

The early indication is that Harper should be back sooner rather than later, but it still raises the question of whether there’s anything the team can do to avoid this and similar injuries; Kyle Schwarber is also out with a strained groin.

“We do postmortems on everything,” manager Rob Thomson said before Saturday’s game against the Marlins. “They (athletic trainers) do it. I do it myself. I go back and look at all my paperwork. OK, have I messed up here? Have I played them too many days in a row? Or didn’t give them enough DH days? Whatever it is. We’re always checking on ourselves to make sure we’re doing what’s right, and if we have to make adjustments, we do.

“At this point, I think it’s just a coincidence. But they’re still grinding away at it.”

With all the modern science available, and the huge financial investments involved, teams try to be hypervigilant when it comes to trying to keep players on the field.

For example, lefthanders Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez are both on track to rack up heavier workloads than they have in the past. As a result, the team is keeping a close eye on advanced metrics such as extension and spin rate, in addition to velocity, to detect any early warning signs that they might be starting to wear down.

“I’m a little. . . I’m not worried (about them), but it’s in the back of my mind all the time,” Thomson said. “So far all the indicators are good and we’ll keep an eye on that. If we have to pull back, we will.”

ON THE BUMP: Marlins RHP Yonny Chirinos (0-2, 2.70) will face LHP Ranger Suárez (10-2, 2.01) in the series finale Sunday at 1:35 p.m.

After an off day, the Phillies go back on the road beginning a three-game series against the Cubs with RHP Michael Mercado, RHP Zack Wheeler and LHP Cristopher Sánchez lined up to pitch on Chicago’s North Side.

It will be the first big league start for the 25-year-old Mercado, who made his Major League debut with one relief inning at Detroit on June 24. “I think he’s pretty poised. But this will be a big start for him,” Rob Thomson said. “Wrigley Field. I’m sure his parents will be flying in. So we’ll see how he reacts.”

In 14 games for the IronPigs, 10 of them starts, had a 1.71 earned run average. He’ll be on a limit of about 90 pitches.

Thomson was asked if he’d considered flip-flopping Wheeler and Mercado, which would have allowed Aaron Nola, Suárez and Wheeler to pitch against the division rival Braves next weekend in Atlanta. “Yes, but because of the 115 pitches (thrown by Wheeler on Thursday) and the complete game (by Sánchez on Friday), I think it’s just smarter to take care of those guys and give them an extra day,” he explained.

NOTES OF A SCORECARD: The Phillies have used three different designated hitters – Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, Alec Bohm – in the last three games and Rob Thomson said a modified version will likely continue even after Kyle Schwarber (strained groin) returns from the IL. The manager said it’s “huge” to get some of the other position players what he calls “half-days off” and that he won’t hesitate to use Schwarber in left in those situations.”

Righthanded reliever Luis Ortiz will undergo Tommy John surgery on July 11. He was removed from his rehab assignment with Triple-A Lehigh Valley on June 18 with forearm tightness. He opened the season on the IL with a sprained ankle, then was shut down with shoulder soreness in his first attempt to come back.

The Phillies bullpen, so good for so long, exploded more spectacularly than the postgame fireworks show, helping turn a three-run Phillies lead into a 7-4 loss to the last-place Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. And then it got worse.

Designated hitter Kyle Schwarber had to come out of the game in the ninth inning with what was announced as tightness in his left groin. And then it got worse.

Newly-minted All-Star starting first baseman Bryce Harper, a legitimate MVP candidate at the mathematical midpoint of the season, came up limping running out a grounder for the final out of the game after pulling his hamstring.

What went wrong for the Phillies in the final three innings? Everything. Everywhere. Seemingly all at once.

From back to front:

Both Harper and Schwarber are expected to undergo further testing Friday. “We’ll just have to wait and check them out,” manager Rob Thomson said. But losing either or both for any significant time would obviously be a large setback, especially since the lineup is already missing catcher J.T. Realmuto following arthroscopic knee surgery.

Said Harper, who began to feel discomfort halfway up the line. “We’ll see what the imaging shows and we’ll go from there. I don’t know (how concerning this is). I’ve never felt anything like this before. If I had something to go back on, I’d let you know. But I haven’t.

“It hurts. So we’ll see what happens.”

Said Schwarber, who started in left field for just the third time this year: “They wanted to get me out of there precautionary-wise. Hopefully it won’t be super serious. We’ll see what happens and go from there.”

He was injured while making a throw back to the infield in the eighth after a routine grounder rolled under the glove of shortstop Edmundo Sosa. “I reached down barehanded and tried to plant to throw and that’s when it just grabbed. I thought it cramped at first but running it still kind of hurt,” he said.

Coming into the game, Phillies relievers had a 2.04 combined earned run average in their last 40 games.

But Matt Strahm (0.86) and Jeff Hoffman (1.08), two of their most dependable bullpen arms, didn’t get the job done against a Marlins team that’s next to last in baseball in runs scored.

Strahm relieved Wheeler with two outs and runners on first and third in the seventh. He hit Jazz Chisolm Jr. with a pitch to load the bases, then gave up a double to Bryan De La Cruz that cleared the bases and tied the score. De La Cruz then scored the go-ahead run when Josh Bell followed with a single.

The Phillies came back to tie the score in the bottom of the seventh, but Hoffman gave up a leadoff homer to Jake Burger in the eighth and Miami tacked on another run after Tim Anderson doubled with one out.

“That’s baseball. It happens,” manager Rob Thomson said.

Wheeler was convinced it shouldn’t have come to that, that he struck out Sanchez on an 0-2 fastball that appeared on the replay to have caught the upper outside corner of the strike zone. Instead it was called a ball. Sanchez eventually singled and that’s when Strahm came into the game.

“I know for a fact that was a strike,” Wheeler said. “He called it and it cost us four runs. I know it’s hard back there but, at the same time, it cost us four runs.”

Either way, the Phillies lost. Now they have to pick themselves up, just like the grounds crew had to pick up the fireworks debris from the field after the fans filed out of the stadium.

UP NEXT: Pitching matchups for the remainder of the Marlins series: RHP Kyle Tyler (0-0, 4.50) vs. LHP Cristopher Sanchez (5-3, 2.67) Friday at 6:20 p.m., RHP Roddery Munoz (1-3, 5.80) vs. RHP Aaron Nola (9-3, 3.39) Saturday at 4:05 p.m. and RHP Yonny Chirinos (0-0, 2.70) vs. LHP Ranger Suarez (10-2, 2.01) Sunday at 1:35 p.m.

The Phillies reached the mathematical midpoint of their schedule – not to be confused with the more common usage, which signifies everything after the All-Star break – by imploding in the late innings on the way to a 7-5 loss to the last-place Marlins before another sellout crowd Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park.

That, too, is a significant enough serving to require more than a couple Big Gulps to get down. But it’s a convenient roadside rest stop to pause and consider the lessons learned from what’s transpired to this point and how it informs what may unfurl before the commish presents that coveted piece of metal in late October or early November.

Here are five takeaways:

1. Despite Thursday’s dud, the Phillies are a really good team. They’ve won in the morning, afternoon and evening. They’ve won in five different time zones. They’ve won wearing their classic red pinstripes, their road grays, blue throwbacks and their black futuristic City Connect ensembles.

But they’ve really won at home. They’re 31-13 (.705) at CBP. They’re 22-15 (.595) everywhere else.

They currently have the best record in baseball. The overall Major League standings are what to keep an eye on the rest of the way. Notwithstanding their inexplicable inability to win one game in two home chances against the Diamondbacks in the NLCS last year, homefield advantage throughout is the best leg-up they can get if they hope to capture their third world championship in franchise history.

2. That’s why those upcoming games against the Guardians and Yankees loom so large.

In fact, the Phillies are probably tired of hearing about how soft their schedule has been to this point, but that doesn’t change the fact that it has been. Yes, they can only play whoever shows up in the opposite dugout and they’ve taken care of business.

But this is also true. They’ve played only four teams who would be still be playing if the playoffs opened today. And that includes the Red Sox who are definitely on the bubble.

Beginning a week from Friday they play 28 of their next 50 against teams that would qualify (if you include the Royals, another bubble team at the moment). That would be the Braves, Dodgers, Twins, Guardians, Yankees, Mariners, Dodgers (again), Braves (again), Royals and Braves (yet again).

That includes a gauntlet of 12 straight from July 26-Aug 7 that consists of Cleveland and Yanks at The Bank, followed by games at Seattle and Los Angeles.

3. They haven’t wrapped up anything yet, including the National League East. Yes, they’re 8 games ahead of the Braves with 81 to play. They’re prohibitive favorites to end Atlanta’s streak of division titles at six. It would be stunning and cataclysmic if they didn’t.

But baseball history is replete with stunning cataclysms. Has everybody already forgotten that the Phillies were seven behind the Mets with just 17 games left in 2007 before catching and surpassing them? Does anybody have a pair of Phillies 1964 World Series tickets?

Also, if you weren’t keeping track, that’s 10 more against Atlanta, six of them on the road.

4. Manager Rob Thomson has consistently said that the only thing he wishes for is good health for his roster. Putting Spencer Turnbull on the IR before the game was one thing. Seeing Bryce Harper come up limping after grounding in to the final out after Kyle Schwarber had to leave an inning earlier with left groin tightness was a stark reminder of how quickly injuries can change the calculus.

This is a club that has weathered losing shortstop Trea Turner and catcher J.T. Realmuto for significant chunks. But there’s a tipping point, even for the deepest rosters.

5. What the Phillies have accomplished so far is impressive. But it’s also built almost entirely on winning 29 of 35 (.829) from April 15 through May 23. Before that they were 8-8. Since then they’re 16-14 (.533).

No team can maintain the sort of sizzling pace the Phillies set for those six weeks in the middle. And injuries to Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto have to have taken a toll.

But to go deep into the postseason they’ll need to be better than they’ve been recently. The good news is, with reasonably good health, they’ve shown they’re capable of that.

Normally the team’s designated hitter, Schwarber came into play against the Marlins hitting .323 with a .455 on base percentage since June 9.

First baseman Bryce Harper came off the field limping noticeably after grounding out to end the 7-4 loss to the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. Harper was hitting .384 coming into the game.

No further information was immediately available.

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Harper will bypass the second phase of voting and has been awarded an automatic starting spot for the July 16 game at Globe Life Stadium in Arlington, Texas because he led all National League vote-getters in the initial round.

Harper received 3,277, 920 votes. The only player to receive more was Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, who also was awarded an automatic starting spot.

It is Harper’s eighth All-Star selection and seventh as a fan-selected starter.

There are two finalists per league at each remaining position. The eligible Phillies are catcher J.T. Realmuto, third baseman Alec Bohm, shortstop Trea Turner, designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and outfielders Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos.

Voting for those spots begins Sunday.

Bryce Harper has already punched his ticket, having the most votes across all positions in the National League.

This next phase of voting, which opened Sunday, June 30 at 12:00 p.m. ET, features six more Phillies — Trea Turner, Alec Bohm, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos.

Here, the votes have been reset and fans are only able to vote one time per day through 12 p.m. ET on July 3. Like the first phase, you’ll be able to vote for one player for each infield position, three for the outfield positions and one for the designated hitter spot.

Fans will also have a “write-in” space, as a way to vote for alternative players not listed on the ballot. (Here’s a good one in case you haven’t thought of anyone for second base: Bryson Stott.)

Voting is only open four days, so every vote counts.

Set an alarm, make it a part of your daily routine, put a sticky note as a reminder on your coffee pot. Just vote.

Get the fellas to the All-Star Game. You know they’ve earned the nod.

You can vote here.

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The Phillies announced before Saturday’s game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards that Marsh (right hamstring) has been taken off the injured list and that infielder/outfielder Weston Wilson has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Turner (left hamstring) once again ran the bases and manager Rob Thomson said it’s “theoretically” possible that he could be back in the lineup as soon as Sunday’s series finale against the O’s. It’s also possible, he added, that the shortstop could run again or get a day off. Either way, barring an unforeseen setback, he appears to be close.

Said Marsh, who arrived in Baltimore Saturday morning: “We definitely tested it, and everything went well. Big thank you to the training staff who helped me get well. We just had to check off the boxes to make sure I was 100 percent.

“We got it feeling good and we then tested it, pushed it and strengthened it after that. So I’m feeling good and feeling confident and excited (to be back).”

When Turner comes back, the Phillies will have an interesting decision to make. Every indication is that David Dahl, Cristian Pache or Johan Rojas will have to be moved to clear a spot on the 26-man active roster.

There has been speculation that Marsh, who has played mostly left field, could move to center, which would leave Rojas as the odd man out. Marsh is tied for second among all National League outfielders with seven Defensive Runs Saved.

The manager did not refute that possibility.

“Right now we have Rojas and Pache. But I view (Marsh) as a centerfielder as well,” he said.

Marsh, who started in left Saturday, insisted he didn’t read anything into the fact that he played center for Reading during his rehab assignment.

“No. I just showed up and played a ball game,” he said.

It only began to come into focus when the games started to count. The Phillies jetted out to one of the best starts in franchise history. The rest of the standings began to form around them. With each passing day it became clearer that Milwaukee represented the sternest test the World-Series-or-Bust Phillies had faced since the defending division champion Braves visited for Opening Weekend.

Those two series bookended an uninterrupted two-month stretch of Reds, Nationals, Cardinals, Pirates, Rockies, White Sox, Padres, Angels, Giants, Blue Jays, Marlins, Mets and Rangers. It takes nothing away from what the Phillies accomplished to point out that not one of those teams woke up Wednesday morning with a winning record. San Diego, at 32-32, was the pick of the litter.

Think of it more as a 20,000 mile tune-up than a final exam.

No matter what you call it, the Philllies aced it. They completed the sweep with a 2-0 win Wednesday, holding what had been a potent Brewers lineup to a total of just two runs in the three games.

Now, the Phillies didn’t exactly scald, either. The margins of victory in the first two games were 3-1 and 2-1 in extra innings. But that’s probably more a result of a low grade chill that settled over the top of the order, starting with the Colorado-San Francisco trip that started May 24, than anything particular the Brewers pitchers were doing.

Before that they were averaging 5.4 runs per game. In 12 games since: 3.6.

The Phils still have a +104 run differential, second best in baseball. After Tuesday night’s win, manager Rob Thomson suggested that playing taut games against a contending team created a playoff atmosphere that could only be helpful in the long run. He picked up the theme Wednesday.

“They’re a good club,” he said. “I think winning close games like this, where we don’t score runs and win games, I think that’s huge. I really do.”

As the traveling party gathered itself for the long day’s journey into night that was scheduled to deposit them at their London hotel around 10 a.m. British Summer Time on Thursday, they had played nine more games at CBP than on the road.

There are seven teams besides the Phillies that opened for business Wednesday with winning percentages of .580 or better.

They still haven’t played any of the first-place teams in the American League (Yankees, Guardians, Mariners) or the second-place Orioles or Royals. They haven’t played the Dodgers, have three more series against the Braves and a rematch in Milwaukee in September.

The real gauntlet could be the 12-game stretch between July 26 and August 7 when they host Cleveland and the Yankees, then fly West to play the Mariners and Dodgers.

Add it all up and it comes to six down, 34 to go against the teams that, on paper at least, will be the best measuring sticks they’ll face before the postseason.

But, hey, it’s like former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel always used to say. “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

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Then Ranger Suarez started winning. And winning and winning and winning. Much of the focus shifted to him.

For those who are suckers for a good coming of age story, what about Cristopher Sanchez? Something of a surprise choice when he was called up last season, he has a 2.71 earned run average after a dozen starts.

And then there was Aaron Nola. Maybe it’s because he made his Phillies debut in 2015. Maybe it’s because he was cuffed around by the Braves in his first start of the season, allowing seven runs (six earned).

Well, don’t look now but Nola is at the top of his game again. He allowed just two hits in seven shutout innings as the Phillies completed their sweep of the first-place Brewers, 2-0, at Citizens Bank Park. His ERA (2.77) is under three for the first time this season. And in his last five starts, his ERA is 1.45. That’s his best five-game stretch since 2019.

“He was really good,” manager Rob Thomson said after the game. “His breaking ball was really sharp and his command was really, really good.”

Nola, who became a free agent last winter before signing a 7-year, $172 million contract, has consistently said uncertainty about his future didn’t impact him last season. But he seems more at ease this year.

“I’m just grateful to be back over here,” he said. “This is where I’ve always wanted to be. Last year was an up-and-down season with the contract negotiations and everything. But that didn’t affect me.”

Instead, he said, his improvement this year is a result of staying more consistent with his delivery and simplify his approach.”

RANGER’S READY

When Phillies lefthander Ranger Suarez intercepted a line drive with his thumb against the Cardinals last Saturday night, the following sentence seemed improbable at best:

Suarez (9-1, 1.70) will start against the Mets Saturday in London on what would have been his normally scheduled day.

“I believe we can line him up,” manager Rob Thomson said. A further sign that the team is confident he’ll be ready is that Spencer Turnbull, who would have filled in if necessary, was available out of the bullpen for Wednesday’s series finale against the Brewers at Citizens Bank Park.

Suarez was originally scheduled to throw a bullpen Wednesday, but opted instead to play catch, including long toss, in the outfield. He’ll throw a light bullpen Friday at London Stadium. It helps that he’ll have two extra days of rest because of the built-in off days that preceded the long flight to Europe.

Thomson has made it clear he’s feels fortunate that the 28-year-old, who has been one of baseball’s best pitchers so far this season, wasn’t seriously injured. “That could have been really bad,” he said.

Taijuan Walker (3-1, 5.73) will start Sunday.

NOTABLE: Catcher J.T. Realmuto, who took a foul tip off his protective cup and was also involved in a home plate collision Tuesday night, was out of the lineup as a result Wednesday. “He’s sore all over,” Rob Thomson said. “I just need to give him a day off. That will give him three in a row and he’ll be fine for the weekend.”

Each team is allowed to take a “taxi squad” of three extra players to London. For the Phillies it will be catcher Rafael Marchan, first baseman Darick Hall and righthanded reliever Nick Nelson.

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With one out and the go-ahead run 90 feet away from the plate, Phillies manager Rob Thomson brought his infield up and. . .

Wait, what? Played the infield in? In the third inning? And the score tied? When his team leads baseball in runs scored? What in the name of Wee Willie (“Hit ‘em where they ain’t”) Keeler was Thomson thinking?

Even without the benefit of a mindreader, here’s a loose translation of what the thought process could have been like:

Yeah, we’ve scored a bunch. Not so much in the last week-and-a-half, though. That’s what happens when the top six bats in your order are all cold at the same time. I trust my guys. I believe they’ll all get hot as blazes again. I just wouldn’t bet the ranch that it will happen in the next couple hours. So, since our pitching has been so good, I’m going to try to cut off this run and hope we can grind out just enough to win.

Thomson lost the battle. Milwaukee second baseman Andrew Montaserio hit a high chopper toward third with enough hang time that Alec Bohm’s only play was at first. Perkins, running on contact, scored easily.

But his instincts were dead on. It took a Nick Castellanos double in the 10^th inning to lift the Phillies to a 2-1 win.

“I kind of sensed that it was going to be a low-scoring game, for whatever reason,” he said in the postgame interview room. “Just a kind of feel.”

Here are some numbers that might help explain why Thomson’s Spidey Sense told him this wasn’t going to be a shootout.

Since their 9-8 start, the Phillies have played 45 games. Eight times they’ve been held to three or fewer runs. Five of those have come in the last 11 games, in which the team is 6-5. Overall they’re 43-19, tied with the Yankees for the best record in baseball.

And the lack of punch has largely been a result of the slumping hitters at the top of the lineup. In order:

1. Kyle Schwarber is 1-for-20 (.050) in his last five games.

2. J.T. Realmuto is 4-for-29 (.138) in seven games.

3. Bryce Harper is 7-for-34 (.206) in nine games.

4. Bohm is 25-for-112 (.223) in 27 games.

5. Bryson Stott is 7-for-51 (.137) in 14 games.

6. Castellanos is hitting .214 for the season.

Bohm and Castellanos each got one hit Tuesday night. And that was just enough to eke out the win. Having a .692 winning percentage – the Phillies would win 93 games if they just play .500 the rest of the way – there’s no real pressure to make any dramatic lineup changes. Or even undramatic ones, for that matter.

Thomson did point out that if Realmuto, who took a foul tip off the cup and was involved in a home plate collision in the game, gets Wednesday off it will necessitate some change in the top two-thirds of the order.

“But I don’t think we’re at the point now where we shake it up,” he said. “I think our guys are doing okay.”

The Phillies dropped their series finale against the Cardinals in extra innings Sunday night, 5-4. They now sit at 41-19 on the season. It’s the first time since April 27 that they don’t hold the most wins in MLB.

Big picture, one loss isn’t the end of the world. The concern does shift to Brandon Marsh, who abruptly exited the game in the eighth inning after rounding second base. He grabbed at his leg and called for the trainers immediately. Marsh was able to walk off on his own power.

While the Phillies were able to erase two two-run deficits, but the dreaded ghost runner struck again.

With Gregory Soto on the mound, Nolan Gorman singled to score Masyn Winn. That was the game.

The first inning has not been kind to Taijuan Walker this season. Winn singled on the first pitch of the game and it eventually came back to bite Walker. Three batters later, Gorman hit a two-run home run to give the Cardinals an early lead.

Walker has allowed at least one run in the first inning in four of his seven starts.

“It’s just frustrating,” the starter said following the game. “Obviously, the team is playing so well right now and I just want to be a part of that and help the team. I’m just not doing my part right now.”

With Marsh on first with a lead off walk in the second inning, Nick Castellanos grounded into what is typically a routine double play ball. Cardinals shortstop Winn bobbled on the transfer but the force out on Marsh was initially called. Phillies manager Rob Thomson challenged the call and the replay revealed Winn did not have possession of the ball when tagging second.

With two on, Garrett Stubbs hit his first double of the season to score Marsh. Stubbs has five hits in his last three starts.

Johan Rojas grounded out to Winn but it scored Castellanos to temporarily tie the game.

And so, the Cardinals and Phillies swapped two-run innings like a tennis match … and then ping, back to the Cardinals.

Walker allowed another two-run home run. This time, he let one hang right over the plate to Alec Burleson, putting the Cardinals ahead once again. This marks Walker’s second game this season where he allowed two home runs. He’s given up eight total.

Walker did not retire the side once in his five innings Sunday night.

Ping, back to the Phillies.

Let’s start an inning with back-to-back bunts, because why not?

The first two pitches in the fifth, Stubbs and Rojas bunted to get on base. The third pitch tacked on a Kyle Schwarber single and, very quickly, the Phillies had the bases loaded with no one out and Bryson Stott at the plate.

Stott singled, both bunt boys scored, and once again, things were all tied up. That was the end of the night for Cardinals’ starter Lance Lynn, who went just four innings. Two runs was all the Phillies could muster up, though.

Coming up …

The Phillies have a week full of headlines ahead of them. They’re set to host the Brewers the next three days, marking Rhys Hoskins’ first time back in Philadelphia since signing with Milwaukee as a free agent.

The Brewers have not named their starting pitchers for the series but expect Zack Wheeler (6-3, 2.32 ERA), Cristopher Sanchez (3-3, 2.83 ERA) and Aaron Nola (7-2, 3.03 ERA) for the Phillies in that order.

Then, the Phils travel across the pond for a two-game slate against the Mets for the 2024 London Series. It will be the third time they face the Mets this year and are currently up on the season series 3-1.

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“If we stay healthy. . .” Then they mentally tap their knuckles on wood.

Not just the scouts, either. It’s both the hope and the worry of every baseball person employed by every contender, one of the few matters old school and new are completely in accord with.

So when lefthander Ranger Suárez – by any accounting the Phillies top starting pitcher through the first two months of the season and arguably in all of baseball – had to pull the plug on his start against the Cardinals on Saturday night after a line drive off the bat of St. Louis leftfielder Alec Burleson hit him on the base of his right thumb, having the best record in baseball suddenly seemed a bit more tenuous.

Suárez, who entered the evening 9-1 with a 1.75 earned run average, retired the first five batters he faced before Burleson ripped a 106.1 mile per hour shot right back at him. The 28-year-old knocked the ball down and threw the runner out at first, but grimaced noticeably as he came off the field.

“You try to make sure he’s good and then go win a game,” first baseman Bryce Harper said when asked about the mood in the dugout after Suárez was taken away for evaluation. “That’s about it. You can’t really think about it too much. Ranger’s been our horse. He’s been our guy. But you’ve still got to understand that winning a game and winning a series was huge for us.”

The Phillies won, 6-1, and clinched the series in large part because the bullpen came up big again.

But the big story. . .

X-rays on Suárez’s hand were negative. He may miss a turn but the medical staff doesn’t anticipate that he’ll be out any longer than that. The smile on Rob Thomson’s face when he walked into the postgame interview room told the story as well as his words.

“We’ve got to wait a couple days to get the swelling out to see if he can grip a baseball to see if he can make his next start,” the manager said. “I feel pretty lucky right now. No doubt. If he can’t make his next start, that’s fine, too. So we’ll figure out and make sure that doesn’t turn into anything else.”

Suárez was playful, almost giddy after the game. There is an island in the middle of the clubhouse where players traditionally conduct their postgame interviews. Instead of walking to his spot, he crawled under the counter. When he was asked to show the reporters how swollen his wrist was, he playfully hid it under his T-shirt.

“It was a hard liner, but as soon as the ball hit me I knew I was going to be okay,” he said through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “But as soon as the ball hit me, I knew I wasn’t going to continue. Why force it? The season is just starting, so there was no reason to try to play through it.

“Obviously I feel fortunate, with the speed that line drive had, if it catches another part of my body or a bone, for sure it’s broken. But luckily it hit all muscle.”

Righthander José Ruiz came in to pitch the third, giving former starter Spencer Turnbull an opportunity to go through his normal warmup routine. He then took over in the fourth. In the end, five relievers filled the final seven innings allowing just one run on five hits and no walks while striking out 11.

Even with a lingering concern about Suárez, the sellout crowd of 44,648 at Citizens Bank Park had plenty to cheer about. They’ve now won two straight against a resurgent Cardinals team that had won five straight series but will now have to try to salvage one win in Sunday night’s finale.

The Phillies have overcome some adversity already this season. They’ve been without shortstop Trea Turner (pulled hamstring) for a month and he was hitting .343 when he went on the injured list. Still, they’ve barely missed a beat, largely because Edmundo Sosa is playing some of the best baseball of his big league career.

If Suárez has to miss a start, Thomson all but announced that Turnbull will step in. He opened the season in the rotation while Taijuan Walker (shoulder) was sidelined. In six starts, he went 2-0 with a 1.67 ERA.

He was dominant Saturday night, striking out six in three innings. The only baserunner he allowed reached on an error. The issue would be how long it would take him to get fully stretched out again to the point of being able to pitch deep into games.

“He really picked us up,” Thomson said. “Three innings, fifty pitches. I wasn’t really comfortable sending him back out because he really hadn’t been to that pitch count in close to three weeks. But if he does have to make Ranger’s next start, I am comfortable with him at 80 pitches.”

It also helps that the Phillies are under no pressure to make an immediate decision. With Thursday and Friday off to accommodate travel to London and another open date Monday after they play two games against the Mets in London Stadium, they could get by without filling that spot until June 13 when they play the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

They also have depth in their rotation – Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez – that most teams would envy, plus the ability to outslug their opponent on any given night.

Harper smashed his 14^th home run into the second deck in right in the seventh, a two-run shot that added an exclamation point to the proceedings.

And, because the Braves lost, the Phils increased their lead in the National League East to 7.5 games.

The Phillies remain on track to achieve their unofficial World Series Or Bust motto. Assuming, of course, that they stay healthy.

For others, it will be an opportunity to say hello and good-bye to first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who spent 11 years with the organization, becoming a fan favorite along the way. It will be his first time at Citizens Bank Park since he signed as a free agent with Milwaukee last winter and his first time to play in a game there since the 2022 World Series.

The beginning of the end for his time in Philadelphia came during spring training in 2023 when he tore the ACL in his knee while fielding a routine ground ball. That created a situation in which it benefitted the team for Bryce Harper to move to first base. And when Harper and the team decided to make the move permanent – and with Kyle Schwarber ensconced at designated hitter – Hoskins became the odd man out.

Until Friday there was no guarantee that the reunion would actually happen. Hoskins had missed 15 games with a pulled hamstring. But he was activated and played against the White Sox that night, so now the stage is set.

“He should get a huge ovation,” Rob Thomson said before Saturday night’s game. “And I’m sure he will. He’s such a great guy. Such a big part of what we did in ’22. And even with him on the injured list year he was a leader in the clubhouse. And a leader in the community, too.”

The manager said that the team was “right on the edge” of activating Hoskins for the World Series had they not been upset by the Diamondbacks in the NLCS even though he hadn’t had an at-bat under game conditions all year and would probably have been limited to pinch-hitting if he had been added to the roster.

“It was all about making sure he didn’t re-injure himself, because he was going into a contract year and we wanted to take care of him,” Thomson said. Hoskins ended up signing a 2-year, $34 million deal with Milwaukee.

He became a prospect to watch after hitting 38 homers for Double-A Reading in 2016 and made his Major League debut on August 10 the following year. In six years in the big leagues with the Phillies he batted .242 with 148 homers and an .844 OPS. Along with wife Jayme, he was active in charity work, especially for muscular dystrophy.

His signature moment came in Game 3 of the 2022 NLDS when he broke out of a deep slump with a three-run homer off Braves ace Spencer Strider that started an onslaught that led the Phillies to an easy win.

“It really fired up our guys,” Thomson said.

AND SO FORTH: Rob Thomson said he would “absolutely” consider the possibility of Edmundo Sosa playing in the outfield after Trea Turner (hamstring) comes off the IL. Since stepping in for Turner at shortstop on May 4 he was hitting .313 with a 1.014 OPS going into Saturday night. “If he keeps hitting like this it will be tough to take him out of the lineup,” he said, adding that he hasn’t had any substantive conversations on the subject yet. . .The Phillies had a meeting after batting practice to discuss their travel plans to London. The itinerary is to leave after Wednesday’s 4 p.m. game with the Brewers and arrive at their hotel around 10 a.m. Thursday. “There’s a lot that goes into it,” Thomson said. “From Colorado-San Francisco (on the last trip) to here to London and back we’re crossing like 18 different time zones.”. . .The Phillies have claimed righthander Freddy Tarnok on waivers from the Athletics. Tarnok was originally considered a top prospect in the Braves organization. “Big-time velocity,” the manager said. “So he’ll go to Triple-A (Lehigh Valley) and we’ll see what he’s got.”. . . Cardinals RHP Lance Lynn (2-3, 3.45) will face RHP Taijuan Walker (3-2, 5.51) in the series finale Sunday at 7:10 p.m.

Which, by the way, they still are if their record is to be believed.

What was a little disconcerting, though, was that an offense that had been percolating like diner coffee pots during the breakfast rush, cooled off. In the four losses they scored 2, 2, 0 and 4 runs.

Just to put that in perspective, before that they had gone more than two weeks without scoring fewer than four runs even once.

The offense still wasn’t back to full boil Friday night when the team returned to Citizens Bank Park with a 4-2 win over the Cardinals. Which, when you think about it goes a long way toward explaining why they’ve been so successful to this point.

Despite their recent lull, they still lead baseball in runs scored.

The starting rotation has a 2.69 earned run average.

And, in the end game, manager Rob Thomson can choose from a smorgasbord that includes Matt Strahm (0.78), Jeff Hoffman (1.09), Orion Kerkering (1.47), Jose Ruiz (1.64) and Jose Alvarado (1.52 in his last 25 appearances since his first outing of the season).

They are now 40-18, just the third time in franchise history (1976, 1993) they’ve reached that milestone in their first 60 games.

So has the hitting taken a small step backwards? Maybe. But it doesn’t really matter.

Because Aaron Nola gave up two runs on three hits in 6.1 innings to the delight of a sellout crowd of 44,742, the largest of the season. Because he was followed by Strahm, Alvarado and Hoffman, who didn’t allow a baserunner.

Because the pitching benefited from a pair of outstanding defensive plays from second baseman Bryson Stott, one when he leaped to snare a line drive off the bat of catcher Ivan Herrera in the fourth and again in the eighth when he made a diving stop and threw leftfielder Alec Burleson out at first.

And because, on this night, No. 8 hitter Edmundo Sosa and No. 9 hitter Johan Rojas combined to drive in three of the runs with big two-out hits.

In short, they’ve shown no signs of being overly dependent on any one aspect of the game.

Nola continues to justify the Phillies decision to lock him up with a 7-year, $172 million contract last winter. He’s given up three or fewer earned runs in 10 of his 12 starts and pitched at least six innings eight times.

Trea Turner, who has been on the injured list since straining his left hamstring on May 3, took grounders hit right at him, jogged and hit in the cage before the game.

Once the lineups were exchanged and play began for real, though, it was Sosa who continued to pick up almost right where Turner left off.

The Phillies had already pushed a run across against Cardinals starter Mile Mikolas in the bottom of the second when Sosa stepped to the plate with two outs and Nick Castellanos at second. The first pitch he saw was a slider and Sosa ripped it just to the left of the center field bullpens and all the way into Ashburn Alley to put his team up by three.

It was the first time a Phillies hitter reached the concourse since Darick Hall in July, 2022. According to the Phillies it was the hardest-hit (110 mile an hour exit velocity) and longest (439 feet) homer of Sosa’s career.

Sosa has started 21 of 25 games at shortstop since Turner was hurt and is batting .313 in that span. “That guy’s raking right now,” Nola said. “I love watching him because he plays with a lot of passion and energy.”

Said Sosa, per interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “I feel like I’m living the dream right now. I’m having a lot of fun on the field and I’m just going out and trying to do things right. And I really feel good.”

Rojas came up with two down and Brandon Marsh on second after a double in the seventh and delivered an RBI single to right. Fun fact: Overall, Rojas is hitting .229. But with runners in scoring position he’s 15-for-49 (.306).

The Phillies, it seems, have cracked the code for winning baseball games. Score a lot of runs. Don’t give up many. It’s amazing that nobody figured this out sooner.

When: Friday June 7, from 6 PM to 8 PM
Where: Xfinity Live!

Get ready for a ton of giveaways — Phillies tickets, concert tickets, city connect swag, exclusive London-themed items and so much more! Plus, a huge surprise giveaway from Philly Sports Trips.

We’ll have a Live Q&A and meet and greet with Phillies experts Michael Barkann, Ricky Bottalico, Ruben Amaro Jr., Ben Davis and Ashlyn Sullivan. Get your questions ready about the hottest team in baseball. What are your expectations? Can they sustain this level of play for the long haul? Who is your surprise standout player through the first third of the season?

Did we mention there’s no entrance fee and parking is completely free? Because it is!

See you there!

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Choose the shortest line and the longer queue is sure to move faster.

If Taijuan Walker starts for the Phillies, they’re sure to score tons of runs.

These are the things we just know in our bones. Articles of faith, even if they can’t be proven. Well, except for maybe the one about Walker.

His turn came up Tuesday night. The Phillies pounded the Rangers, 11-4. Before 39,995 at Citizens Bank Park. Of course they did. This is such a safe bet by now that you could almost set your watch by it. Well, you could if people still wore watches that need to be set.

He’s made 36 starts in a Phillies uniform since signing that 4-year, $72 million free agent contract before the 2023 season. In 28 of them – 77.8 percent – the lineup has produced four or more runs. The numbers have been even more eye-popping to this point in 2024. Reading from left to right, his teammates have scored 8, 5, 8, 5 and now 11 times in his outings.

The pivotal hit was a three-run homer by Edmundo Sosa in the fourth, which padded the Phillies’ lead. Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto had solo homers. Realmuto added a two-run single in the sixth and has now hit in 12 straight games.

The Phils won their fifth straight, benefiting both from flexing their offensive muscles and taking advantage of an undefending-world-champion-like four errors committed by the defending world champions.

More impressively, since an 8-8 start, they’ve gone 28-6. That’s an almost unfathomable .824 winning percentage that’s been sustained for more than five weeks. They’re 22 games over .500. Yes, it’s not even June yet. But, as unimaginable as it seems at the moment, if they only played .500 the rest of the way they’d still win 92 games.

They’re off to the best start after 50 games in the 142-year history of this charter National League franchise. The last team to be 36-14 at this point was the 2001 Seattle Mariners, which led to this postgame exchange with manager Rob Thomson.

“This is the best 50-game start since the 2001 Mariners.”

“What did they do?”

“They won 116 games.”

“But what did they do at the end?”

“They did not win the championship.”

“That’s right. So you’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to keep pushing all the way through.”

He was speaking to the media, but left the clear impression that he was really addressing the clubhouse, warning against complacency and overconfidence.

The only ant in the sugar jar on this summery South Philadelphia evening was that Walker didn’t get the win. He didn’t get the win because he didn’t pitch the requisite five innings to qualify. Despite a 6-3 lead, needing only one more out in the bottom of the fifth, he was lifted in favor of lefthander Matt Strahm.

His final line: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 W, 5 SO. He threw 86 pitches, 52 for strikes.

The fast start allows the manager to have patience with the veteran righthander, but Walker’s 5.06 earned run average is by far the highest among the starters. If the race tightens, which is always a possibility, that could become an issue unless he picks up his game.

It’s not out of the question that Thomson was also sending a message to the pitcher both by taking him out of the game at that point and then saying pointedly: “He had a win sitting right there in front of him but I felt like that was just the time we needed to stop it.”

Said Realmuto: “His command’s a little off. He’s not quite throwing the ball where he wants to all the time. He’s falling behind some hitters. Too many 2-0, 2-1 counts. If you can’t flip those it can make a huge difference. For me it’s just being a little more aggressive with his pitches in the zone and getting ahead of guys.”

Walker, who had literally been knocked out of his previous start when struck by a line drive on his left big toe, did not mention that as a factor in his performance.

“I feel like I didn’t do my job,” he said. “Four walks isn’t going to cut it. It was a pretty good team win, but I’m frustrated with my performance.”

He added that it’s comforting to have one of baseball’s best offenses behind him. “I think the biggest thing is trying to limit how many runs you give up early,” he said. “If you give up two or three runs, any moment our team is going to break out. As a starting pitcher, it’s nice.

“I’ll be better next time out.”

NOTABLE: Lefthanded reliever Matt Strahm extended his scoreless streak to 20.1 innings Wednesday night. “He’s been a godsend,” Thomson said. . .Reliever Yunior Marte (shoulder inflammation) threw live batting practice Thursday. Rangers LHP Andrew Heaney (0-5, 4.43) will face RHP Zack Wheeler (5-3, 2.52) in the series finale Thursday at 1:05 p.m. . . .The Phillies will leave immediately after the game to play three-game series at Colorado and San Francisco. “He located really well,” Rob Thomson said. “Ball was jumping out of his hand. We’ve got to map it out, but I think he’s ready (for a rehab assignment).”

The remarkable run that lefthanded starter Rangers Suárez has been on, though, hasn’t gone unnoticed by the hitters.

Suárez pitched seven more strong innings in Tuesday night’s 5-2 win over the defending champion Texas Rangers at Citizens Bank Park. He allowed just one run on five hits in seven innings, striking out 10. He’s now 9-0.

Bryce Harper, who doubled and scored the tying run in the fourth led off the sixth with a majestic home run to dead center, giving his starter an insurance run.

It was Harper who, in Suárez’s previous start, came into the home dugout after the top of the fifth Wednesday night and exhorted his teammates, ‘Let’s get him a W.’ Suárez hadn’t given up an earned run but was trailing by a run because of some unsteady defense behind him.

As if on command, the Phillies scored four times to put the game away. Harper was right in the thick of the rally with a two-run double.

“The starting pitching has been great,” Harper said after Tuesday’s win. “Any time you have the confidence in your guy’s ability to go out and do his job, it just raises the confidence of the offense as well.

“We know on any given night our starter is going to go out there and do his job, and we’re going to do the best we can as an offense to help them out and get them the runs they need.”

Even with all that, though, the first baseman recognizes that what Suárez has been doing is special.

“You applaud him,” Harper said. “He goes out there every fifth day and does his job, man. He works hard. He knows what it takes to win games and he knows how to pitch and keep teams off balance.

“Obviously, as a team, we’re thinking about that. For a guy to go out there and be 9-0 we want him to get to 10-0, 11-0 and so forth.”    

IN HINDSIGHT: On March 31, 2014 the Phillies opened the regular season in Arlington, Texas by outslugging the Rangers for a 14-10 win.

Jimmy Rollins, Marlon Byrd and Cody Asche homered for manager Ryne Sandberg. Cliff Lee got the win despite allowing eight runs on 11 hits and a walk in his five innings.

And, by the way, it was the last time the Phillies beat the Rangers. At least, it was until they ended the streak Tuesday.

They had dropped 12 straight vs. Texas, the longest active losing streak of any team in baseball against any opponent. It also tied the longest streak ever between interleague opponents, matching the Angels 12 straight wins against – yes – the Phils from 2003-17. The last time the Phillies lost more consecutive games to the same opponent was 14 against the Pirates from August 6, 1990 to August 14, 1991.

CRAZY STAT OF THE NIGHT: Since opening the season 8-8, the Phillies have gone 27-6. That’s an .818 winning percentage. To put that into perspective, that would translate into 132 wins over a 162-game season.

The MLB record for wins in a season is 116, shared by the 1906 Cubs and 2001 Mariners.

P.S. This is the first time since at least 1901 that the Phillies have won 27 of 33 games.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: Alec Bohm has driven in 11 runs in his last seven games and leads the team with 44 for the season.

Bryce Harper on Bohm: “I love watching him hit. He’s got such a simple swing. I always tell him that if I’m going to teach my son how to hit, it’s going to be like that.”

NOTEWORTHY: RHP Taijuan Walker (3-0, 4.91), who came out of his last appearance after being struck on his left big toe by a line drive, has been confirmed to start Wednesday against the Rangers at 6:40 p.m. RHP Zack Wheeler (5-3, 2.52) will pitch the series finale Thursday at 1:05 p.m. Texas has yet to announce its starters. . .SS Trea Turner (left hamstring strain) hit in the field for the first time since going on the injured list on May 4 before Tuesday’s game.

“He said he felt great, didn’t feel a thing,” Rob Thomson reported, but added that Turner won’t be activated until he’s completely recovered. “Because if we don’t do it properly it can crop up for years, maybe the rest of his career. So we want to make sure we take care of it,” the manager explained.

There’s no timetable for his return but, based on the original prognosis, he’ll be out at least three more weeks.

That would have added some juice to Tuesday night’s proceeding at Citizens Bank Park.

If the defending world champion Rangers hadn’t suffered a run of buzzard’s luck with injuries this year, it probably would have been the first time since the opening series against Atlanta that the Phillies faced an opponent that would give themselves an opportunity to measure themselves against another one of the best teams in baseball. That would have been fun.

Then again, as former Phillies manager Jim Fregosi used to say, if my aunt had wheels she’d be a teacart. That’s the G-rated version anyway.

As it turned out, none of that mattered. Early National League Cy Young frontrunner Ranger Suárez is worth the price of admission all by himself.

Ranger beat the Rangers, 5-2.

He raised his record to 9-0. His earned run average is 1.36. He’s the first pitcher since Hall of Famer Juan Marichal in 1966 to win his first nine decisions with an ERA under 1.50.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling, you know,” manager Rob Thomson said. “The historic run that he’s been on. He’s just been pitching great. And, knock on wood, he keeps it going.”

He gave up his first earned run since May 4 against the Giants on Tuesday night. Earlier in the season he had a 32-inning scoreless streak.

His WHIP is 0.79. Opponents are batting .174 against him. He’s pitched at least seven innings five times, including Tuesday, when he matched his career-high with 10 strikeouts.

Not to get carried away, but if he maintains anything near this level of excellence, pretty soon even Roget will run out of superlatives to describe him.

And, outwardly at least, he comes across as the least impressed person in the world about what he’s been able to accomplish.

He was asked what he thought of being mentioned in the same sentence as pitchers with plaques in Cooperstown. “No, I just try to go do the best work I can.” He said through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “Keep the game close so the team can try to get a win. That’s the most important thing.”

Does he allow himself to reflect on the magnitude of what he’s accomplished so far? “Each time I go out on the mound, I enjoy my outings. I enjoy the results that we get. I enjoy the wins we get as a team. But the day after that, I forget about everything because I have to focus on my next start, the next thing I have to do.”

Is he starting to be recognized more off the field. “Just as always,” he said. Although his laugh suggested that, just maybe, he was beginning to attract more attention when he’s out and about.

The one thing he did brighten at was the mention of a fan group, the Power Rangers, who have nested in the third deck in right field when he pitches at home. It’s a throwback to the final days of the Vet when the (Vicente) Padilla Flotilla, (Robert) Person’s People and, of course, the (Randy) Wolf Pack became fixtures.

“I saw them during my warm-up,” he said. “I tried to look over and there they were. That brings a lot of joy to me. It’s really exciting and I try to give back that joy that they bring me.”

Suárez struck out five in the first two innings, He gave up that run in the third and a leadoff double to catcher Johnah Heim in the fourth, but after that didn’t allow another runner past first.

Texas starter Jon Gray, who entered the game with a 2.08 ERA, sailed into the third when he walked Brandon Marsh leading off. Johan Rojas was retired on a sharp comebacker to the mound, bringing the Rangers medical staff out to make sure he hadn’t been injured. After a few moments of discussion he stayed in the game, but wasn’t as effective for the rest of the night.

Marsh ended up scoring. The Phillies scored the go-ahead run in the fourth. Gray was gone after five. He allowed just the two runs but, had it not been for two good defensive plays by leftfielder Ezequiel Duran and a line drive hit right at first baseman Nathaniel Lowe that turned a potential RBI double into a double play, it could have been a lot of worse.

Then again, the way Ranger Suarez was pitching, it didn’t seem to matter.

Everybody knows what happened next. Arizona won Game 6. Arizona won Game 7. Suddenly, shockingly, the Phillies were left with an empty feeling and hard questions about a gift card that had gone uncashed.

The answer is both simple and complex. At the most elemental level, they were beaten because the lineup suddenly went ice cold. It happens. It especially happens to teams that rely too heavily on home runs to score. Power is notoriously fickle. It tends to come and go as it pleases.

In those final two games, the Phillies were a combined 11-for-63 (.174). They scored a total of three runs. And, significantly, they got just one homer, a solo shot from Alec Bohm in the final game. That from a team which, to that point, had blasted 17 homers in 11 games while averaging 5.6 runs per game.

That was last year.

This season, as the Phillies rest in preparation for a three-game series against the defending world champion Texas Rangers beginning Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, they’re mashing again and also getting excellent pitching. So it’s not surprising that they have the best record in baseball.

It’s a statistical jungle out there. It can be difficult to hack through all the undergrowth and figure out what really matters. But here are some number that seem interesting. With almost a third of the season completed, the Phils are first in all of baseball with 256 runs scored. . .and 35.5 percent of them have come on homers.

What’s really intriguing, though, is how this breaks down.

In March/April, that number was 46.3 percent. Their record was 20-11 (.645). That’s really, really good.

So far in May, it’s just 23.9 percent. Their record is 14-3 (.824). That’s off-the-charts crazy.

The quick assumption, then, is that this statistic is a hood ornament on a Rolls-Royce. Nice to look at, but with no real function. Except that the number is 39.5 percent in wins and just 22.0 percent in losses.

There are a lot of different ways to win. But one takeaway from all of the above could be this: Over the course of a long season, the percentage of runs that come from the long ball doesn’t matter nearly as much because a team has weeks or even months to get hot again.

The playoffs are different. (Playoffs? We’re talking playoffs? Well, yes. Feel free to insert your best sputtering-with-indignation Jim Mora impersonation here.)

Dave Smith, founder of retrosheet.org, put together a chart that showed the disconnect. In 2023, runs-on-homers ranged from 51.7 percent (104-win Braves) to 29.0 percent (Guardians). The MLB average was 41.04 percent. Seven teams above the line made the postseason, along with five teams under.

The Orioles ranked 22nd (37.2 percent) and still won 101 games. The Athletics were ninth (43.9 percent), but finished 50-112. The Yankees were second (48.9 percent) and missed the cut. You get the idea.

At the end of the day – or, more accurately, at the end of the season – teams that are overly-reliant on outslugging their opponent to win appear to be more at risk of sudden, unexpected elimination because even a short power outage in a short series can flip the script.

What’s happening with the Phillies in May at least suggests that they might not be as vulnerable to that sort of blip in the radar this autumn as they were last October.

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It’s been such a magic carpet ride to the best record in baseball that nobody in the throng of 38,267 saw the cruel plot twist coming.

Not after the Phillies clawed back to take a one-run lead in the eighth. Not with relievers Jeff Hoffman and Jose Alvarado fully rested and lined up to nail down the victory. Definitely not with almost everything breaking the Phillies way this season.

Except that, Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park, the script was flipped. The Mets went ahead with two unearned runs in the eighth. The Phillies tied the score in the bottom of the ninth, but the Mets won it, 6-5, by scoring twice against Alvarado in the 11^th.

The Phillies came back with one in the bottom of the inning but the game ended with the Phillies stranding the potential tying run on third and the winning run on second. Overall, the Phils were 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position.

This is a team that can absorb a May loss, as deflating and disappointing as it may have been. That’s one of the advantages of getting off to one of the best starts in franchise history.

How well they’ll be able to deal with the loss of one of their starting pitchers – or if they’ll even have to – remains to be seen.

Taijuan Walker wasn’t sharp early. Six of the first 15 batters he faced reached base. He’d already given up two runs and then limped into the clubhouse after being nailed on his left big toe by a shot up the middle off the bat of Mets rightfielder Starling Marte.

The initial diagnosis was that the veteran righthander had suffered a contusion but that he would undergo further evaluation. After the game it was revealed that x-rays were negative.

“It hit right off the end of his toe,” manager Rob Thomson reported. “We won’t know about his next start until he comes in (Friday).

Said Walker: “It feels better now (after the game) than when it first happened. I tried to walk it off a little bit but it got kind of hot and numb and started hurting. It’s definitely sore, bruised, starting to swell a little bit. But it could have been a lot worse.”

If Walker isn’t ready to pitch on his next turn, the Phillies have some flexibility because of an off day Monday. They also have Spencer Turnbull in the bullpen. When Walker opened the season on the injured list with shoulder soreness, Turnbull stepped in and went 2-0, 1.67 in six starts.

“That’s what depth is all about,” Thomson noted.

The bullpen was terrific again after Walker was forced from the game, with special kudos to Matt Strahm and José Ruiz, who pitched two scoreless innings apiece. Hoffman has been almost automatic all season, but couldn’t quite pitch around the fact that Tyrone Taylor reached on a throwing error by shortstop Bryson Stott to lead off the eighth and then stole second.

Hoffman walked Pete Alonso, who homered off Walker in the first, then struck out the next two batters. But Harrison Bader singled up the middle – the ball appeared to brush Hoffman’s back – and then a wild pitch allowed the second unearned run to score.

The game ended with Kyle Schwarber striking out with two runners in scoring position and flinging his bat away in frustration. He also whiffed with one out and a runner on second in the bottom of the ninth.

“You come up twice with the game on the line and you’re not able to come through, it gets frustrating,” he said. “You want to thrive in those spots, come through for the team. But we were resilient the whole night and just weren’t able to get that big one at the end.”

When it was over and the Mets started celebrating, there was a moment of stunned disbelief in the stands. Almost as if the fans couldn’t believe that a team that had found a way to win so often in the early going hadn’t been able to pull another one out.

Schwarber was asked if he, too, was almost surprised that the Phillies had come up short.

“Anytime you lose it’s frustrating,” he said. “Sometimes you’d rather just get beat 10-0 than keep finding a way to be one swing away, right? But I think it’s a good thing that we’re able to look at what was possible but also to use that frustration to show up tomorrow ready to rock and roll.”

After a few moments of discussion, Walker was escorted from the field. By the time he got to the dugout and headed up the tunnel to the clubhouse, he was limping noticeably. The team announced that his initial diagnosis was a “contusion” and added that he’ll undergo further evaluation.

The veteran righthander was making his fourth start of the year after opening the regular season on the injured list with shoulder soreness.

The Mets led 2-0 at the time on a first-inning home run by first baseman Pete Alonso and an RBI double in the second from third baseman Brett Baty after Marte singled and stole second.

Designated hitter J.D. Martinez walked to open the fourth and advanced to second with one out when the ball hit by Marte caromed toward second baseman Whit Merrifield, who had no play.

Matt Strahm finished the inning by stranding both runners.

Spencer Turnbull, who would almost certainly replace Walker in the rotation if he has to go on the DL, was not available Thursday night after pitching three innings of relief Wednesday. He made six starts in Walker’s place to open the season and went 2-0, 1.67 in those games.

Walker is in the second season of a 4-year, $72 million contract.

He responded with several highlight reel quality catches. The possibility of future Gold Gloves increasingly started to creep into the conversation.

Rojas was out of the Phillies starting lineup Thursday night against the Mets at Citizens Park. That came the day after the 23-year-old centerfielder dropped two fly balls, one off the bat of Brandon Nimmo that was scored an error and one by Jeff McNeil in the eighth that went down as a hit.

Manager Rob Thomson insisted nothing should be read into the fact that Cristian Pache was in center for the series finale. It was just a matter of spreading around enough playing time to keep everybody as sharp as possible, he said. And that could be the whole truth and nothing but.

But it’s also a fact that Rojas was challenged coming into spring training this year, told that he didn’t have to compete for a batting title but that he had to demonstrate that he could hold his own at the plate if he wanted to stay in the big leagues. That being a plus defender by itself wasn’t enough.

A quarter of the way into the season he’s hitting .233. More significantly, statistically at least, he hasn’t been nearly as effective in the field.

As a rookie his range factor – putouts and assists per nine innings – was 3.17, significantly above the league average of 2.42. So far this season it’s 2.15, well below the 2.64 league average.

There are many across baseball who doubt that defensive metrics can accurately reflect a player’s skill or contributions in the field. And Thomson is one of them.

“I’m not too confident in (those stats). I trust my eyes,” he said. “I think he’s played fine. There have been some plays where maybe he’s been a little bit too aggressive. But I think we have to take that with a grain of salt, because he gets to more baseball’s than 99 percent of the outfielders in the game. So there are going to be more chances for mistakes.

“He’s overrun a few balls but he’s a good defender and I trust him out there.”

The manager added that he’s comfortable with what he’s getting from Rojas offensively. “He’s getting his base hits. He’s walking a little bit. So he’s keeping his head above water,” Thomson said.

Having the best record in baseball gives the Phillies some breathing room to get at bats for bench players and be patient with regulars who might be slumping. But this is clearly a situation that bears watching.

Rojas addressed his miscues after Wednesday night’s game. “I just have to catch those balls. There are no excuses,” he said per interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “I’ll just come back and work on that to make those plays. The most important thing is to show up and give 100 percent every single day. That’s what I come here to do. I’m thankful to be here. I have to be better.”

Add lineup: Bryson Stott, who has been shuttling between second base and shortstop since Trea Turner went on the injured list with a strained left hamstring, has been the Phillies hottest hitter recently. In his last 14 games he’s hitting .405 with 16 runs scored, 16 RBI and a 1.319 OPS.

Despite that, Stott didn’t start Thursday night. Thomson said it had nothing to do with him being hit on the wrist by a pitch the night before. “It’s tough, but it’s beneficial to get some of these (regular) guys a day off here and there,” the manager said.

Stott ended up getting two plate appearances after entering the game as a pinch-hitter in the eighth. His first time up he walked and scored a run. In the ninth his one-out single drove in Brandon Marsh with the tying run, sending the game into extra innings.

Granted, said deadline is still two-and-a-half months away. But, hey, it’s never too early to start composing a wish list for your favorite local ballclub.

An extended slump here, a pivotal injury there, it’s a whole new ballgame. But, at the moment, the smoke signals from the fan base seem nearly unanimous. If only the Phillies could add another dependable bullpen arm or two, the puzzle would be pretty near complete.

It’s not difficult to see why the relievers might be singled out. Going into play Wednesday night against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park, the pen’s earned run average was a less-than-inspiring 4.30. That ranked 19^th in baseball.

Meh.

Considering that the starting pitching had the second-best era (2.65) and the offense was second in both runs scored (222) and OPS (.755), yeah, by comparison those relief numbers stick out like a catcher’s sore thumb after being hit by a foul tip.

Upon further review, though, there’s evidence to suggest that the Phillies relievers have been far more effective than the primary numbers indicate.

First impressions can be durable, and it’s hard to forget that the Phils bullpen was torched for 14 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings in the first two games of the season against the Braves.

But the composite ERA has dropped steadily ever since. In fact, as of Wednesday afternoon it was the lowest it’s been all season. The number for the eight currently active relievers (Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, Jose Alvarado, Jose Ruiz, Seranthony Dominguez, Gregory Soto, Spencer Turnbull) is even better: 3.38.

Also:

Since giving up six runs against the Reds at Great American Ball Park on April 24, the relievers had been charged with 13 earned runs in 54 2/3 innings over 18 games. That’s a 2.14 ERA.

And:

Rob Thomson has five relievers he appears to feel comfortable with in high leverage situations. Three of them were in the top 34 of all relievers in baseball with at least 10 innings pitched going into play Wednesday: Hoffman (1.00), Strahm (1.10) and Kerkering (1.54). Alvarado gave up five runs on Opening Day. . .and has posted a 1.06 ERA ever since. The fifth is Turnbull, recently parked in the bullpen while waiting for the need for a sixth starter to arise again.

That’s a full hand for any manager.

“We try to make the decisions as hard as possible for him,” Hoffman said with a smile. “Hopefully he has a nice plethora of arms to choose from at any given time.

“I don’t know what the league average is or anything but I think we’ve been good more than we’ve been bad. We strive to be good every night. It doesn’t always pan out that way but the guys we have and the work we have from person to person in the bullpen, I think that will show over the course of the season.

“We just try to get a little bit better every day. And hopefully at the end of the day we look up and we’re in a good spot.”

The Phillies can also hope that the best is still ahead for Dominguez and Soto, both of whom have been more productive in the past than they’ve been so far this season.

This is baseball, which means everything can change overnight. Certainly, the Phillies will be on the lookout for any opportunity to improve the roster. But, at the moment, anybody who thinks adding to the bullpen is a 5-alarm priority should probably take a deep breath.

That’s why Bryce Harper came into the home dugout at Citizens Bank Park after the top of the fifth Wednesday night and exhorted his teammates, ‘Let’s get him a W.’

Time was of the essence because Suárez was coming out of the game, matching his shortest outing of the season. He hadn’t given up an earned run but was trailing because of some sloppy defense behind him. That had also helped bump his pitch count up to 83. The Phillies, hyperaware that he’s doing something special, responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning enroute to an easy 10-5 win.

Suárez is 8-0. His earned run average is 1.37.

“All of our starting pitching has been great,” Harper said. “But 8-0 is pretty special, man. He never wavers. When you have starting pitching like that you’re going to win a lot of games. I’ve always said, pitching wins championships. And we have a really good chance with the guys that we have.

“Going into that fifth inning, we just wanted to get Ranger that win, right? You’re playing for that. You’re playing for your team. You’re playing for your guys.”

Suárez had to battle through the first three innings. Not because he lacked command or because cool, damp weather once again descended over Citizens Bank Park or even due to any particular challenge the Mets hitters were posing.

It was his own defense that was giving him a devil of a time.

Brandon Nimmo led off the top of the first with a routine fly to center. Which Johan Rojas, advertised as a future Gold Glove candidate, dropped for an error. Nimmo eventually scored an unearned run on a two-out double by third baseman Mark Vientos. It could have been worse, but third baseman Alec Bohm robbed Starling Marte with a diving catch of his line drive.

The Mets got their leadoff hitter on again in the second, and again it came on a play that probably should have been made. Centerfielder Harrison Bader hit a grounder to the left of shortstop Edmundo Sosa, who got to the ball in plenty of time but was unable to glove it cleanly. The official scorer ruled it a base hit, but the Mets were unable to advance the runner even though the Phillies were unable to complete a potential double play.

That came when the next batter, Jeff McNeil, hit a grounder to second baseman Bryson Stott. He flipped to Sosa for the force play, but the shortstop then juggled the ball allowing McNeil to reach safely.

Mets first baseman Pete Alonso started the third with a double to left, went to third on an off-line throw as leftfielder Cristian Pache tried to cut him down and scored on a wild pitch. That, too, ended up an unearned run.

Suárez, typically, shrugged it all off. “We all know it was a rainy night, so it was tough,” he said through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “But I don’t think (the defensive lapses) were because of that. We all know things like this are going to happen from time to time. There are some balls we could have played differently, but errors are a part of the game.”

Manager Rob Thomson said that he’d hoped to limit Suárez’s pitches Wednesday night because he’d already logged 54 innings coming into his start.

“I feel fine,” the 28-year-old lefthander said. “I just want to be 100 percent healthy at the end of the season. This was not a great game for me. But the important thing is that we got the win and that I was able to keep the game close so we had a chance to win.”

NOTABLE: In addition to his error in the first inning, Johan Rojas was unable to hold onto what appeared to be a catchable line drive hit by Jeff McNeil in the eighth. “I just have to catch those balls. No excuses,” he said through Diego D’Aniello. “I’ll just keep working to be able to make those plays. I’m thankful for being here and the important thing is to give 100 percent every day.”. . .Mets LHP Jose Quintana (1-4, 5.44) will face RHP Taijuan Walker (3-0, 4.82) in the finale of the abbreviated series Thursday night at 6:40 p.m.

Next man up has a nice ring to it. Having the stars in the lineup is almost always way better, though.

Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto had missed the last three games with a sore right knee. First baseman Bryce Harper didn’t play against the Mets Tuesday afternoon due to a migraine.

“It runs in my family,” Harper said. There are times when I get it. I got it 30 minutes before first pitch (Wednesday). It’s just not a good feeling. Not fun.” He added that they usually last two-and-a-half to three hours.

Both started Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park when the venue, but not the opponent, changed. Both played key roles in helping the Phillies rally in the fifth inning to win their third straight against their longtime division rival, 10-5. They’ve also won 16 of their last 19 games to capture, and retain, the best record in baseball.

The stat of the night comes courtesy of Tim Kelly from Phillies Nation: The Phils lead baseball with 31 wins through May 15. In 2015 they didn’t win their 31^st game until July 18.

Harper was 3-for-5 with a double, a homer and 3 RBI.

“It’s tough preparing for a guy you haven’t seen in awhile,” he said. “You’re kind of going off Triple-A stuff. He has a good sinker and I thought he kept us off balance for a little bit. But, obviously, we were able to get some pitches out over the plate and have some good at bats and get the lead right there.”

Realmuto delivered the bases-loaded single that put the Phillies ahead for good in the fifth. Manager Rob Thomson said after the game that he’s good to go Thursday.

Mets lefty Joey Lucchesi, making his first appearance against the Phillies in more than three years, stifled baseball’s second-best offense allowing one run on three hits through four.  

The run came on Harper’s 10^th home run of the year, a two-out, opposite-field solo shot that tied the score in the bottom of the first.

The Phillies were down by a run going into the fifth when the bottom of the order set the table for Realmuto and Harper to deliver the knockout punches in a four-run outburst.

It started with Lucchesi suddenly losing the strike zone and walking Edmundo Sosa and Cristian Pache. Johan Rojas bunted, loading the bases when Lucchesi made an ill-advised late throw to third trying to force Sosa. Kyle Schwarber then forced in a run by drawing the third base on balls of the inning.

With the score now tied, Realmuto singled to drive in Pache and Rojas, bringing Harper to the plate.

Lucchesi’s first pitch was up and in, knocking Harper off the plate. The crowd of 37,219 responded. Oooooooh. The next pitch was a sinker in the middle of the strike zone and Harper answered in the best way possible. This time the reaction from the stands was even louder – OOOOOOOH! – as he doubled in two more runs.  

With that, Lucchesi was gone and the rout was on against the Mets bullpen. Once the dam broke, Phillies runners flooded across the plate. Two more in the sixth. Three more in the seventh.

In a related note, shortstop Trea Turner (left hamstring strain) took grounders, hit in the cage, ran and threw before the game. There’s still no timetable for his return. “But he’s coming along fine,” Thomson said.

In the 11 games he’s been absent, the Phillies have averaged 7.2 runs per game. It was originally estimated he’d miss about six weeks. Until then, the Phillies can only imagine what their offense might accomplish once he’s back.

So, happy Tuesday!

Aaron Nola was lights out in his best start of the season, leading the Phillies to a 4-0 victory at Citi Field. Nola pitched the sixth complete game of his career in the shutout victory. He had eight strikeouts on the day and no walks with 109 pitches.

In a game where the offense was secondary, there was no slight from excitement. Nola was perfect through the first five innings before giving up a single to Tyrone Taylor. After a catcher’s interference call on Garrett Stubbs was overturned, Nola worked his way out of the inning unscathed.

“That’s what I train for,” Nola said on the complete game. “That’s what all of our staff trains for, too. That’s what we want to do. Everybody is on board with it. We know that getting to the postseason, how important the bullpen is because they throw a lot and they gotta be fresh.

“We want to put it on our back during the season to rack up those innings and we’ve got five guys that can do that.”

The Phillies are the first team in MLB to reach the 30-win benchmark this season. Their success has been split right down the middle between the home and road, having 15 wins for each.

Alec Bohm, who leads the team with 28 RBIs with runners in scoring position, tacked on another to open the scoring this afternoon. And it happened the same way he drew in a run the previous night … getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. This is only the second time a player has gotten hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in consecutive games since 1974 (Nate McLouth, PIT in 2008).

Bohm is now tied with Jimmy Rollins for the 2nd-most HBP with the bases loaded (4) during the regular season in franchise history. Chase Utley leads the way with five.

Brandon Marsh worked an eight-pitch walk directly after to bring in another run. It was the third walk of the inning for Mets’ starter José Buttó.

The score did not change until the ninth inning, when the top of the order got to work with a flurry of hits. Kyle Schwarber doubled, Nick Castellanos singled, Bryson Stott singled and Bohm doubled. The Phillies snagged two more insurance runs in the process.

Schwarber returned to the lineup after being out the past three games. In addition to his double, he drew two walks in his return. Moments before the game started, the Phillies announced that Bryce Harper was a last-minute scratch due to a migraine. The Phillies are now 3-2 this season when Harper does not play.

Now, sitting at a season-best 17 games over .500, the Phils head back to Citizens Bank Park as they continue on this stretch of NL East teams. They’ll face the Mets in another two-game slate and see the Nationals for the first time this year.

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Just minutes before the game started, the Phillies announced first baseman Bryce Harper would be a late scratch due to a migraine.

Kyle Schwarber, after missing three games due to back soreness, returned to the lineup in the leadoff spot.

Alec Bohm shifts over to first base in place of Harper and Whit Merrifield draws in at third. Here’s a look at the updated lineup:

DH Schwarber
RF Castellanos
SS Stott
1B Bohm
LF Marsh
3B Merrifield
2B Clemens
CF Rojas
C Stubbs

The Phillies are 2-2 this season when Harper does not play.

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Still, those among the gathering of 34,681 at Citizens Bank Park did witness something unusual. They saw the Phillies lose, 5-3, at home. It had been 24 days since that last happened. When they fell to the Pirates on April 14, the Phils were a .500 club still talking about the importance of getting off to a fast start.

Now, even with their home winning streak stopped at 11, tied for seventh-best in franchise history, they still have the best record in baseball at 26-12. And even with their overall streak halted at seven, they’ve tied or won each of their last 10 series. They haven’t done that since 1995.

So while the postgame mood was somber as the traveling party readied for its charter flight to Miami and a weekend series against the last-place Marlins, it wasn’t funereal.

“We were one swing away,” said designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, referring to the fact that the game ended with Phillies runners on second and third. “We’ve been playing some really good baseball. There are going to be times when you get beat. Straight up. That’s the beauty of this game, right? Obviously, we wish we’d gone out and executed a little bit more on the offensive side, especially against (Toronto starter Chris) Bassitt. But sometimes you have to tip your cap.

“A loss is a loss. We got beat.”

Phillies starter Aaron Nola allowed just one run through his first five innings, but didn’t survive the sixth.

With the score tied at one, his undoing started with an infield single by first baseman Valdimir Guerrero Jr., who was erased when Justin Turner grounded into a force play. Then the Jays strung together a double by catcher Danny Jansen and singles by shortstop Bo Bichette and second baseman Davis Schneider to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Matt Strahm came out of the bullpen to get the final out, ending Nola’s outing at 5 2/2 innings. He gave up nine hits and threw 96 pitches.

One of Nola’s virtues as a starter is that he usually fills innings while keeping his team in games. That sort of dependability and durability played a big part in the Phillies decision to give him a 7-year, $172 million contract when he became a free agent last offseason. But in his previous start he needed 89 pitches to get through his four innings.

Against the Blue Jays, Guerrero and Turner didn’t make hard contact; in fact, if Turner had struck the ball better it could have resulted in a double play. “Then I made a couple mistakes,” Nola said. “Jansen hit that ball hard down the (first base) line and Bichette hit that ball pretty hard right over (first baseman Bryce Harper) and then I missed a couple spots.”

Nola pointed at an inability to locate his fastball down in the zone as his biggest problem. “I was just battling out there,” he said. “Obviously, I’m trying to get the ball down. That’s what got me to this point.”

On another day, Nola and the Phillies still could have walked away with a win. But an offense that had been averaging almost seven runs per game came up short against Bassitt, who entered the game with a 2-5 record and a 5.45 earned run average.

“He was keeping us off balance,” said Rob Thomson. “Got to give him credit. He pitched well.”

The Phillies were pretty sure they weren’t going to go undefeated the rest of the season, so there’s no need to belabor one unsightly loss. The manager reflected how much different things look than the last time he sat at that podium and discussed a defeat.

“We’ve really played well,” he said. “We’ve played well on the road, too. This was one of those days, but I’m really happy where the club’s at right now.”

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And by some, I mean more than enough.

It wasn’t an offensive explosion (you can’t have those every night), but the long ball and Taijuan Walker’s outing was just enough for a 5-4 victory over the Giants.

The Phillies improve to 24-11, still holding the best record in baseball. Even during 2011, the best single-season record in franchise history with 102 wins, the Phillies didn’t reach 24 wins until May 11. They’ve now won five in a row, nine consecutive at home and are 9-1 in their last 10.

And as for being 13 games over .500? Last year they didn’t reach that mark until August 11, when they were 65-52 … and nearly 10 games out of first in the NL East.

“I think it gives them a lot of confidence, number one,” Manager Rob Thomson said on his club’s efficiency this early in the season. “Now, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish and we gotta make sure that we keep people healthy.

“I think that just the awareness of the last couple years, not really getting hot until June just motivates people. I think our guys have done a really good job.”

The most important takeaway from all of this? They continue finding ways to win.

The Giants struck early when Michael Conforto doubled in the first inning to score LaMonte Wade. This isn’t something that has happened often for the Phillies this season. It was just the third time in the past 15 games where the Phillies didn’t score first.

They soon erased the Giants’ lead after a flurry of peculiar events. A routine ground ball to shortstop Nick Ahmed turned into Alec Bohm reaching second base on a throwing error. Bohm made his way to third when Brandon Marsh grounded out and eventually scored on Edmundo Sosa’s infield single. While it was a soft ground ball, Sosa’s bat splintered across the infield and was a factor in the play. Sometimes that’s just how it goes.

After coming off paternity leave during the 10-game road trip and hitting home runs in back-to-back games in Cincinnati and San Diego, Bryce Harper went seven straight without going yard. That changed in the third inning when Harper launched a ball 410 ft. to deep right center for a three-run shot. It was Harper’s seventh of the season.

“As an offense, I think we had a pretty good plan tonight against [Logan] Webb,” Harper said following the win. “You know, he’s really good out there trying to keep the ball down and getting the ground balls that he does. So, thought as a team, collectively we had a really good plan.

“(Walker) went out there and threw the baseball really well. Our starting pitching has been obviously really, really good. So, anytime we can get some runs up there on the board for him, we have a really good chance to win.”

For as many runs as the Phillies scored Saturday, it was the perfect example of how small ball can also win them games. This roster, heavily constructed for long ball, can flip whatever switch they need, when they need it, to get the job done.

Walker allowed the one run in the first inning, then went five scoreless before letting up a two-run home run to Thairo Estrada. It’s the second consecutive start for Walker where he has allowed a home run after going six and a third innings.

Still, Walker punched out seven on the evening and did enough to earn his second win of the season during his 200th career game in the majors.

“Second time going through getting into the seventh inning,” Walker said. “Obviously, I really want to finish that one, especially after the last start. So, I really wanted it, but I feel like my location was really well today. All my pitches, my splitter was better today than my last start.

“It was nice. It makes it so much easier when the offense is putting up runs like that.”

And don’t worry, the streak lives to see another day. Alec Bohm doubled in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest of his career. He passes Braves’ Marcell Ozuna (17 games) for the longest hitting streak in MLB this season.

The Phillies will go for their fourth sweep of the season (Rockies, White Sox, Padres) Monday afternoon against the Giants. Zack Wheeler will take the mound on his regular five days rest and is set to face Mason Black in his MLB debut.

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But he probably could have. . .

Even with the start of the ballgame delayed an hour and 10 minutes by rain, by the time the puck dropped at TD Garden, the Phillies had already chased Giants starter Keaton Winn, batted around and scored five runs in the first and then added four more in the second.

Considering that the Phillies starter was lefthander Ranger Suarez, the reigning National League Pitcher of the Month, the Phillies had to feel pretty, pretty, pretty good about their chances at that point.

Of course, strange things can happen in sports. There was no guarantee that San Francisco wouldn’t mount a furious rally and score an epic come-from-behind win. Heck, nobody expected 18-to-1 longshot Mystik Dan to come from the back of the pack to win the Kentucky Derby.

Not this time. The Phillies coasted to a stress-free 14-3 victory. They’ve won four straight and 15 of their last 19 games. And when the standings were posted at the end of business, the top of the NL East Standings looked like this:

                  W     L     PCT    GB
Phillies    23    11   .676     --
Braves     20    11   .645    1.5

The Phillies felt comfortable enough to pinch-hit for Alec Bohm, who had already extended his career-high hitting streak to 17 games, in the third inning. It was announced as a precautionary move due to right hip tightness, a discomfort caused by slipping on an awkward swing in his previous at bat. He’s expected to be back in the lineup Sunday.

“I’m good. I’ve played through much worse,” Bohm said postgame. “It’s nothing I’m concerned about. With the (wet field) conditions and the score, I understand that there was no need (to stay in the game).”

No Trea Turner, no problem. Well, at least for one night. Over the next six weeks there will surely be times when his unavailability due to a strained left hamstring will be glaring. In their first game without him this season, though, they simply outscored his absence.

It was their most runs in a game since scoring 19 against the Tigers on July 1 last year. Every Phillies starter had at least one hit. Each scored at least one run except leftfielder Brandon Marsh. Each drove in a run except catcher J.T. Realmuto and first baseman Bryce Harper.

“We’re a deep team and we’re pretty confident with everyone who walks up to that box,” Bohm said.

The Giants officially hoisted the white flag in the bottom of the eighth, bringing leftfielder Tyler Fitzgerald in to pitch.

Suarez had given up a total of one earned run in his previous four starts. He wasn’t that effective Saturday night, but there were several factors that could have contributed to that. He was pitching with two extra days of rest. It can be difficult to maintain focus pitching with a huge early lead. Even the greatest pitchers in baseball history didn’t stay as hot as Suarez has been indefinitely.

But the biggest issue could have been the weather. The announced temperature at first pitch was 51 degrees and the game started in a steady drizzle that continued throughout the game. The grounds crew was on an off the field all night making sure the field remained playable.

In the second inning, Giants designated hitter Jorge Soler hit a pop up to first that Bryce Harper momentarily lost in the rain before making the catch with a last-second grab. Said Thomson: “The conditions were bad but playable, in my mind. But we’d rather get through the game, because doubleheaders concern me, too.”

Giants pitchers walked 10. Under those conditions, Suarez giving up three runs in six innings on seven hits and one walk while striking out six is even more impressive. Characteristically, he shrugged of anything that could have be considered an excuse.

“There was nothing that took my focus off the game,” he said. “It was raining throughout the whole game, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was just thinking about doing my job.”

Pitching for the first time in a week? “No, no, no,” he said. “That didn’t affect me in any way. Whatever day they tell me I’m going to pitch, that’s the day I’m going to pitch and do my job.”

Thomson mentioned that after long bottoms of the first and second innings that Suarez was able to come back out and throw strikes. “It’s really tough for a pitcher to sit down like he did for back-to-back innings and then go back out there and throw strikes. You don’t see that very often and he did it.”

Then the manager went back to the clubhouse where he saw the Leafs lose in overtime.

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The pitcher most impacted by all the machinations the unforgiving math created, is righthander Spencer Turnbull, even though he’s 2-0, 1.67 in six starts this season. He will be available out of the bullpen Sunday night and, if he isn’t needed in a long role, could piggyback with Sanchez on Tuesday.

The pitcher most impacted by all the machinations the unforgiving math created, is righthander Spencer Turnbull, even though he’s 2-0, 1.67 in six starts this season. He will be available out of the bullpen Sunday night and, if he isn’t needed in a long role, could piggyback with Sanchez on Tuesday.

“He can do a lot of different things,” Thomson said of the 31-year-old righthander. “He can give you length, obviously. He gives us another (reliever) to get on righthanded hitters, because we’ve struggled a little bit with that. And I have the confidence to put him into leverage (situations) so for the time being I think that’s the right way to go.

“He wants to start. But he said that at the end of the day he’ll do anything to help the team win.”

The manager conceded that he’s reluctant to mess with success, but sees this as the best option. “There is concern. He’s pitched so well,” he said. “But there’s always concern when you do something like that. That’s why it’s a tough situation.”

Turnbull has made just one relief appearance in his big league career, for the Tigers in 2018.

The ripple effect of all this is that Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola will both start on the fifth day in their next starts. Both had extra rest going into their last starts and struggled somewhat with command.

Everything is written in pencil right now. A 6-man rotation isn’t out of the question at some point in the future. Neither is having Turnbull start instead of Sanchez if starting a righthander against a certain lineup is deemed advantageous.

Giants RHP Logan Webb (3-2, 2.98) will face RHP Taijuan Walker (1-0, 8.53) in Sunday’s night’s ESPN game beginning at 7:10 p.m. It will be a to-be-announced San Francisco pitcher vs. Wheeler (3-3, 1.91) Monday at 4:05 p.m.

After that, stay tuned.

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The question is whether the Phillies manager’s traditional baseball prescription – extra rest – is producing unexpected side effects.

Wheeler got an extra day off before his start Wednesday in Anaheim, labored and had to leave the game after five innings. Afterward he was outspoken in his opinion that being off his normal schedule had left him out of whack.

Nola had an additional two days off before facing the Giants to kick off a four-game wraparound series Friday night at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies won, 4-3, but the starter was gone after four innings, largely because he required a staggering 46 pitches to get through the second while allowing two runs on four walks and a double to San Francisco second baseman Theiro Estrada.

That crept close enough to the upper limit that the Phillies will allow a pitcher to throw in a single inning that righthander Jose Ruiz began warming up.

To put this in perspective, Nola went almost three years – 80 starts between September 17, 2020 and August 16, 2023 – without walking more than three batters in a game.

He’s averaged 2.4 walks per nine innings for his career.

“Four walks in an inning. That’s pretty brutal for me,” he said.

The Phillies have openly stated that their goal this season is to end the Braves streak of National League East titles at six. There are still five months to play but, for what it’s worth, Friday night’s win coupled with Atlanta’s loss at Dodger Stadium puts them a half-game up on the Braves.

It’s the first time the Phillies have been ahead of Atlanta in the standings after the first week of the season since 2021. With Philadelphia at 22-11 and the Braves at 20-10, the rivals currently have the same .667 winning percentage.

Nola conceded he “didn’t feel too in synch” and didn’t deny that the extra rest could have been a factor. “But as the game went on, I started feeling a little bit better,” he said. “I just tried to slow things down.”

The turning point came with two outs and the bases loaded when he got Giants DH Jorge Soler to pop out. If Soler had reached, Thomson said, that very well could have been his last batter. And with Gregory Soto unavailable (he should be ready to go Saturday) that would have put a lot of pressure for the bullpen to cover the final 7 1/3 innings.

“That wouldn’t have been a good situation, so I’m glad I got out of that,” Nola said. “I’m glad I didn’t get pulled right there and was able to minimize the damage. All in all, I was lucky to keep the game to two runs.”

Nola allowed leadoff singles to leftfielder Michael Conforto and catcher Tom Murphy to open the third, but settled down after that to retire the next five batters he faced, three on strikeouts. 

Five relievers took it home from there, allowing just one run. That came when Orion Kerkering loaded the bases with nobody out but was able to avoid a big inning when Soler grounded into a double play and Conforto lined out to the base of the wall in right.

Next up for the Phillies is Suarez. Who, you guessed it, will start Saturday with two extra days of rest.

We have too much starting pitching, said no manager ever. And that includes Thomson, even as he tries to figure out how to fit six starters (RHPs Wheeler, Nolas, Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull plus LHPs Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez) into the five slots of a traditional rotation.

Organizations always talk about never having too much pitching, fully aware that it can be a fragile commodity and that a key injury or two can turn surplus into deficit almost overnight.

Still, Thomson admitted that he’s struggling with figuring out the best way to deploy his available arms. “It makes for very, very difficult decisions. As difficult a decision as I’ve had to make,” he said.

The most obvious logjam has occurred because Turnbull was supposed to be a stopgap solution when Walker went on the IL with an inflamed shoulder during spring training. In six starts, though, he’s 2-0, 1.67. At the same time, Walker isn’t going to lose his role because of an injury, especially after winning 15 games last season, the first of a 4-year, $72 million contract.

Adding to the degree of difficulty is the fact that Opening Day starter Wheeler has been outspoken about wanting to pitch every fifth day; the Phillies are off Thursday. And his wishes will factor into whatever happens going forward. “Absolutely,” the manager confirmed.

The fact that Nola wasn’t at his best Friday night doesn’t make that riddle any easier to solve.

So it will be Giants RHP Keaton Winn (3-3, 3.18) vs. NL Pitcher of the Month for April Suarez (5-0, 1.32) Saturday at 6:05 p.m., RHP Logan Webb (3-2, 2.98) vs. Walker (1-0, 8.53) Sunday at 7:10 p.m. on ESPN and TBA vs. Sanchez (1-3, 3.68) in the series finale Monday at 4:10 p.m.

Thomson has promised to reveal his answer to this conundrum Saturday. It seems likely that the Phillies will accommodate Wheeler by having him start against the Blue Jays Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, but there are no easy answers after that.

It was just the latest reminder of how much of an impact he can have.

But when the Phils went back on to the field in the top of the fifth, Edmundo Sosa came out of the dugout to play short. It turned out Turner had injured his left hamstring just before he tagged the plate.

Now the Phillies will have to figure out how to get by without him for what’s expected to be at least a few days while crossing their fingers that it’s not longer.

Rob Thomson admitted he’s at least a little concerned. “Sure,” he said. “Anytime it’s a hamstring, muscle, especially a guy like that. That play won us the ballgame.”

Turner made a spur of the moment decision to try to score when he saw that Murphy and pitcher Jordan Hicks were reacting in a way that indicated they expected him to stop at third. “I just felt like they were far from home plate and it would have taken a great play to get me out. That’s kind of how I saw it in my head,” he said.

If Turner is expected to miss a relatively short period of time, the manager said his inclination would be to plug Sosa into the lineup. If it’s going to be MIA long enough to require a roster move, that would be a different discussion. Thomson indicated he’s not considered moving second baseman Bryson Stott to shortstop, at least not now.

“It’s a huge loss (if he’s out for an extended time),” Thomson said. “He’s Trea Turner. He’s one of the best players in baseball. I don’t know what the results are going to be, but we’ll find out more (Saturday).”

Turner, who has played in every game this season, is resigned to missing at least some time.

“It was pretty sore,” he said. “I’ve never really had anything like this before. They seemed pretty positive in the training room. At least more positive than I thought. So I was pretty happy with that.

“It was kind of a freak thing. I think it will be at least a couple days. I hate being hurt and I promise it’s not going to be fun for the training staff. I’ll wear them out and they’ll want me on the field more than I’ll want to be on the field.”

Turner is hitting .343, second on the team to only third baseman Alec Bohm, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a third inning single. His 43 hits in March/April were a franchise record and his 25 runs scored were second only to Jimmy Rollins (26 in 2007).

Taking his spot on the roster and in the bullpen is 29-year-old Jose Ruiz, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Marte had a 2.70 earned run average in 12 appearances this season. But he opened the year with six consecutive scoreless outings. In his last six games his ERA was 5.40 and opponents batted .371 against him with a .903 OPS.

“He pitched in Cincinnati (on April 23) and then had (four) days off,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Then he pitched in San Diego and said he felt a little something after that game. Then it went away. Then when he pitched (and was charged with a blown save Tuesday in Anaheim), that’s when it flared up.

“We were wondering. His first pitch of that outing was like 92 or 93 miles an hour. We thought, ‘Maybe something’s going on here.’ And he was not available that last game. I don’t know how long (he’ll be out), but no surgery or anything like that.”

Ruiz leads the IronPigs with three saves. In 10 appearances he has a 1.64 ERA and has held opponents to a .179 batting average. He’s struck out 13 in 11 innings while walking three.

A case could be made, though, that that’s exactly what happened Thursday afternoon at Great American Ballpark.

Sure, Zack Wheeler was overpowering once again, striking out eight and allowing just one hit in six innings as he raised his record to 2-3 and lowered his earned run average to 1.93. In the big picture that obviously played a huge role in the Phillies 5-0 win over the Reds.

Yeah, the lineup pummeled Reds starter Nick Martinez for five runs on 11 hits in five innings. That had a lot to do with it, too.

But none of that pinpoints the precise moment when the series finale reached the fork in the road and veered onto the path that gave the Phillies a split of their four-game series against the Reds. That pin was dropped with two outs in the bottom of the third.

The Phillies had jumped out to a quick lead by scoring four against Martinez in the top of the third. Since they were 14-2 when putting up four or more runs, since they had Cy Young candidate Zack Wheeler on the mound and since Wheeler had mowed down the first six batters he faced, they had to like their chances at that point.

Then the focus began to narrow.

Third baseman Jeimer Candelario led off the bottom of the inning with a walk and went to third when second baseman Santiago Espinal singled to right. Wheeler battled back, striking out catcher Luke Maille and centerfielder Will Benson, which brought budding superstar shortstop Elly De La Cruz to the plate.

Pitching carefully to the one guy in the Reds lineup you don’t want to beat you – “He can change the game,” manager Rob Thomson noted a few hours earlier – Wheeler ran a full count and eventually walked De La Cruz to load the bases.

Narrower. . .

The count went 3-2 to leftfielder Spencer Steer.

Narrower. . .

Steer fouled off a pitch. Then he fouled another, a twisting line drive that landed just foul.

And then it happened.

Wheeler centered a 95.8 mile per hour fastball at the bottom of the strike zone and Steer barreled it, launching a long drive to right. Off the bat, it looked as though it could have been a game-tying grand slam. If it stayed in play, all three runners would have scored since they were off with the pitch and De La Cruz can fly.

Instead, rightfielder Nick Castellanos raced back onto the warning track, leaped, reached and made the catch before banging into the wall.

Look, maybe the Phillies would have gone on to win regardless. But the fact is that Wheeler survived that 34-pitch inning, settled in after that and didn’t allow another hit. In the process, he became the second Phillies pitcher in the modern era to pitch six innings while allowing allow no runs and one hit in back-to-back starts. The other: Marvin Freeman in 1986. (What, you were thinking Steve Carlton? Curt Schilling? Robin Roberts? Jim Bunning? Cole Hamels? Good guesses. Incorrect, however.)

“It was a great catch,” Thomson said. “I don’t know if the game turns out different [if he doesn’t make it], but it was a great catch. It got Wheels out of that inning and we were close to him having too many pitches in that inning and having to go get him.

“And then we would have been in trouble. So that’s a big catch.”

Said Wheeler: “I was scared off the bat and watching him go back. But he knew where he was on the field and made a great catch. That was big. That saved me.”

Castellanos said coach Paco Figueroa had him stationed in and over, protecting against a flare single. “Then Steer took a great swing and I saw it go up,” he recounted. “I just did the best I could to get to beat it to a spot and make the play.”

He added that he wouldn’t much focus on contemplating how the game may have turned out differently, how the mood on the long flight to San Diego Thursday evening could have been dampened if he hadn’t made the play.

“I guess maybe when people come up after the game,” he explained. “But I think more so if I would have just missed it or whatever. Then it would wear on me. But by catching it, I feel like, ‘All right, I did my job.’ And then on to the next.”

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Next, from every available shred of evidence, he’ll be taken out of the rotation despite a 1.33 earned run average in five starts.

The Phillies can only hope that the second decision works out better than the first.

Turnbull was figuratively signed off the baseball unemployment line as camps were opening, insurance against the possibility of needing a starter at some point this year. The Phils had to cash in that policy sooner than expected when Taijuan Walker was placed on the injured list with shoulder soreness before Opening Day. He’s healthy now, will start Sunday in San Diego and that’s just the way it goes. It may not seem fair, but them’s the breaks sometimes.

Rob Thomson had a more difficult call to make going into the bottom of the sixth against the Reds. Turnbull had thrown 89 pitches, but was coming off a 1-2-3 inning. The Phillies were up by two.

Turnbull got a congratulatory slap on the back. Reliever Seranthony Dominguez got the ball.

Oops.

“He was going back out, but then (the Reds) made two pitching changes,” the manager said. “It took like 25 minutes. That’s why we made the change. If he had been at a (lesser) number of pitches I would have sent him back out. But once you’re in that 90 range, that’s a little long to wait.”

Said Turnbull: “I was ready to go back out, but it’s their decision. They were just trying to take care of me. Play it safe.”

There’s no way of knowing, of course, what would have happened if Turnbull had been allowed to pitch one more inning. But we know for damn sure what happened when he didn’t.

Dominguez got only two outs. He gave up four runs. His earned run average for the season jumped to 9.72. The Reds went on to win, 7-4. The seven-game winning streak is fast-fading memory as the Phillies have now dropped back-to-back games to Cincinnati. The Reds have also clinched the season series (4-2 with the last meeting between the two teams Thursday), which means they’d prevail in any tie-breaker scenario. Hey, you never know.

And, in maybe the cruelest cut of all, Turnbull was deprived of a possible win as he presumably heads for the bullpen to become a long reliever for the foreseeable future.

Thomson, predictably, insisted he’s not concerned with Dominguez’s overall lack of effectiveness so far. “He’s been kind of hot and cold, you know, but I always have confidence in him. Because he’s got a great arm,” the manager said. “I think this is going to be a big year for him. He had a tough time finding the plate in this game. He just needs to throw strikes.”

He walked two in his two-thirds of an innings Wednesday night and threw 32 pitches, just 16 for strikes.

Dominguez was not available for comment after the game.

The Phillies also ran themselves into two outs on the bases. In both cases – Alec Bohm in the first and Trea Turner in the fifth – the runner assumed the Reds were going to throw through and were caught in brief rundowns when they didn’t.

Bohm continued his hot streak with three singles, a double, a walk and 2 RBI. In his last eight games he’s 16-for-30 (.533).

On a busy night with lots of moving pieces, though, the storyline that stood out was that a starting pitcher who has been wildly successful in his five starts this year will soon be informed that that’s not good enough to stay in the rotation. Not for nothing, his ERA is tied for the fourth-lowest in the big leagues among all qualifying pitchers.

“I try not to worry about it,” he said, standing at his locker afterward. “I’m just going to focus on getting ready for my next start. All the other stuff is just noise and I’ll deal with it however it comes.

“Obviously, I’m aware of things but it’s out of my control. If things change, they change. Hopefully I’ve pitched well enough to give myself a chance to stay in that conversation. I know there are other factors involved, but they haven’t said anything to me yet. So I’m just going to gear up for my next start and see how it goes.

“I’ll do whatever they tell me. Like I said, it’s not my decision. I want whatever’s going to give the team the best chance to win is what I want to do. So if they say they’re going in a different direction, I’ve enjoyed my five starts so far. I feel great. I feel strong. I feel healthy. I’m not worried about innings limit or anything like that.”

Said Thomson: “He’s been fantastic this year. We couldn’t have expected anything more. He’s really thrown the ball well. But we have a 15-game winner (Walker) coming back who threw the ball pretty well for us last year.”

It’s also possible, of course, that the Phillies could go to a 6-man rotation later in the season when they have fewer off days. Or, heaven forbid, that another injury strikes the rotation. No matter what, it’s almost certain that he’ll start again at some point this season.

There are no sure things in baseball. Nobody knows that better than Turnbull right now.

DULY NOTED

Spencer Turnbull became the latest pitcher to complain that the mound at Great American Ball is flatter and lower than regulation. The Reds say they’ve repeatedly measured and that it meets MLB standards. . .Nick Castellanos, who has been in a season-long slump, was moved up from sixth to clean-up in the batting order. “Just to give him a little confidence. At some point he’s going to get hot. With him you don’t know when it’s going to happen. But it’s going to happen,” Rob Thomson said. It didn’t happen Wednesday night. Castellanos went hitless in five at bats, dropping his season average to .174. . .Bryce Harper, who has missed the last three games while on paternity leave, was in the clubhouse after last night’s game.

COMING UP

RHP Zack Wheeler (1-3, 2.30) will face Reds RHP Nick Martinez (0-0, 4.76) at 1:10 p.m. in the series finale Thursday at Great American Ball Park. Then the Phillies will fly to San Diego for a weekend series against the Padres. Matchups for Petco Park: RHP Aaron Nola (3-1, 3.16) vs. RHP Joe Musgrove (3-2, 5.74) Friday at 9:40 p.m., LHP Ranger Suarez (4-0, 1.36) vs. RHP Dylan Cease (3-1, 1.82) Saturday at 8:40 p.m. and RHP Taijuan Walker, making his first start of the season, vs. TBA Sunday at 4:10 p.m.

Over here is designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, who historically scuffles the first two months before the fireworks start in June. Over there is Trea Turner, who was hitting some 65 points below his career average into August before going on a tear last year.

At the moment, the team has centerfielder Johan Rojas showing signs of coming out of his funk and Nick Castellanos trying to do the same.

Yes, this is the same Nick Castellanos who struggled in 2022, his first full year with the Phils, rebounded to make the All-Star team last season and is now hitting .184 with a .452 OPS after going hitless in Tuesday night’s 8-1 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park.

Castellanos was asked afterwards if being so streaky drives him nuts. “Of course it does,” he said. “Everything’s harder without results, man. Even bleeders that find holes, you’re helping the team. Results make everything easier. But I’m happy with my process right now.”

Manager Rob Thomson said he plans on continuing to write Castellanos into the lineup while he figures it out.

“It gives me confidence in myself to know that he has confidence in me to get out of it,” the rightfielder said. “Honestly, that’s all I can ask for, is to have the chance to go out and play and knowing that going out and doing the right things, the tide will turn. Just like it always has.

 “It’s like a puzzle you’re continuously trying to solve. Just something to get the juices going and then, all of a sudden, next thing you know, you’re rolling. Last year I was pretty much worthless in the month of July. I’ve gone through stretches when I’m out of whack. Then all of a sudden it clicks. And everybody’s like, ‘Holy cow, what did you figure out?’ Nothing. It’s just baseball. the highs and lows.”

To be more precise, he batted .162 with a .492 in June, 2023. He also put up .351/.954 in May and .293/.860 in July. It’s enough to give a person vertigo.

Rojas was called up straight from Double-A Reading last year and, in addition to a Gold Glove caliber defense, batted .302 for the rest of the regular season. But after going 4-for-43 (.093) in the postseason, his ability to contribute enough offensively to justify his defense was called into question. And when he was batting .148 after his first 10 games, the calls for him to be sent to Triple-A Lehigh Valley grew louder.

Since then, though, he’s 12-for-33 (.364). And he continues to catch just about everything that stays in the park. Tuesday night he made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Reds leftfielder Spencer Steer, then went down in a heap after bruising his hip on the metal fence post. He was able to stay in the game, though, and Thomson said he expects him to play Wednesday night.

Rojas credits hitting coach Kevin Long for his turnaround. . .with a big assist from Turner.

“Trea and I talked a couple things. He told me a couple things and I looked better and felt better as soon as we talked,” Rojas said through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “He was watching me in the cage and he started talking to me about something I was working on. Basically, leg rotation first and then following up with swing. In a game, it’s all one motion. But in cage work you can break it down.

“It’s something I’ve been working on but the way he explained it was so good that right away I understood. He showed me videos of other players, then he put it in slow motion so I could see what he was talking about. He also used himself as an example of last year when he was struggling and showed that was one of the reasons he was struggling as well.

“It’s incredible. We’re surrounded by star players. And for a star player like Trea Turner to take his time to talk to me and help me, I feel really grateful, for that.”

Hitting, it seems, is a little like the weather. If a good hitter doesn’t like what he’s seeing, he has to be patient. Because it’s bound to change.

What went wrong in the unsightly 8-1 loss to the Reds? Everything, everywhere, all at once. Which, come to think of it, would be a great title for a movie.

“We were due for one of those,” said manager Rob Thomson, stoic as always. “There were some things that were unfortunate. But we’ll move on.”

With lefthander Andrew Abbott on the mound for Cincinnati and first baseman Bryce Harper still away on paternity leave, Thomson packed his lineup with righthanded hitters. Since the 24-year-old Abbott’s L-R OPS splits were .484/.791 for his career and .438/.742 for the season, it made sense that DH Kyle Schwarber was the only lefty who started against him.

That had the added benefit of giving second baseman Bryson Stott and leftfielder Brandon Marsh a break while getting some much-needed playing time for Cristian Pache, Edmundo Sosa and Whit Merrifield.

On paper, it made a lot of sense.

On dirt and grass, it didn’t go anything like the plan.

Didn’t go as planned because Cristopher Sanchez turned in his shortest, least effective outing of the year.

He turned in his shortest, least effective outing in part because the alignment designed to optimize the offense meant fielding a significantly lesser defense than that to which the Phillies have recently become accustomed.

And, in a final cruel irony, all those righthanded hitters weren’t able to do much against Abbott.

The whole mishegas started with the first Reds batter. Stuart Fairchild, hit a grounder to third. Before the game, Thomson had talked about how much Alec Bohm had improved defensively at the hot corner. But Bohm was at first base Tuesday night so Sosa could play third. And Sosa muffed it.

That led to an unearned run that tied the score after the Phillies had taken a lead in the top of the first on back-to-back two-out doubles by J.T. Realmuto and Bohm.

Sanchez was charged with four more runs in the third, just one earned. The Phillies made two more errors by players either out of position (Bohm) or getting rare opportunity to play at all (Pache).

“We certainly didn’t help him on defense,” Thomson said, noting that Pache’s error came on a strong, accurate throw to the plate that bounced off the runner sliding home.

No, none of that helped Sanchez. But he didn’t help himself much, either. He gave up eight baserunners in three innings on five hits and three walks. He threw two wild pitches. And even beyond that he appeared uncomfortable, tentative on the mound. Even, at times, reluctant to throw to the plate, repeatedly throwing to first instead. In just three innings his pitch count was 74.

Sanchez rejected the notion that he was uncomfortable. Sort of. “I don’t like to bring up excuses. Everything was OK,” he said through interpreter Diego A’Aniello. “I come in here and give the best of myself. Sometimes things play out and sometimes they don’t, but that’s part of the game.”

He did admit that he didn’t have a great feel for his changeup. “When that happens, it’s very difficult for me,” he said.

One of the reasons the 27-year-old lefthander was successful after being called up last season was that he threw strikes, walking just 1.4 batters per nine innings. It’s early yet but right now that number has jumped to 4.1.

The Phillies might have been able to overcome even all of that, simply outslugged all their various missteps. This is, after all, an offense that had scored seven or more runs in each of its previous five games.

That box was also left unchecked. After that first inning run, Abbott didn’t allow another runner past first before walking the bases full with nobody out in the fifth and the top of the Phillies order coming up.

Reds manager David Bell left Abbott in just long enough to strike out Schwarber before bringing in righthander Fernando Cruz to get the final two outs and strand all three runners.

“We could have gotten back into the game right there,” Thomson said.

But on a night when everything that had been going so well for the Phillies – pitching, hitting, defense – turned sour, that didn’t happen, either. The only silver lining was that the bullpen, which had been largely sidelined as the starters were pitching deep into games, got an opportunity to get some work.

Which didn’t really make anybody in the clubhouse feel much better about everything else that happened.

He was 16 years old. And they quickly concluded he didn’t have much future. . .as an outfielder. So, with nothing to lose, they decided to try him as a pitcher.

“We stuck him on the mound and the rest is history,” Phillies senior adviser, international scouting Sal Agostinelli said by phone from the Phillies academy in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. “We (signed him for) his bat, but I give our scout credit. He said to me, ‘If this guy doesn’t hit enough, he can really, really pitch.’ We played him a couple games in the outfield and he just didn’t hit well. His bat was a little below average.

“He wound up being a pleasant surprise. He’s very athletic. He has a really loose arm. And he’s going to get better. He just gets better at everything he does. Every once in awhile you get lucky.”

Well, Hall of Fame executive Branch Rickey famously noted that luck is the residue of design. And Agostinelli was quick to mention Latin American coordinators Jesus Mendez and Carlos Salas for their roles in bringing Suárez into the organization.

Once in the right place at the right time, Suárez began working on his delivery. Finally, in his third year in the Venezuelan Summer League, everything began falling into place. He made 14 starts. His earned run average was 1.56. But those weren’t even his most impressive statistics.

He pitched 80.2 innings. He struck out 78. He held opponents to a .218 average. But those weren’t the most eye-popping, almost incomprehensible numbers, either. This was:

He walked just one batter all season. “Crazy,” Agostinelli said. Suárez’s days as an outfielder were officially over.

Monday night at Great American Ball Park, Suárez blanked the Reds on two singles for seven innings, extending his scoreless streak to 25 innings while lowering his ERA to 1.36 and his WHIP to 0.70. And he’s still just 28 years old.

“I liked playing the outfield because, growing up and playing with my friends, I was always an outfielder,” he said Tuesday through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. But when I went to the academy, they told me they wanted me as a pitcher. I told them, ‘Yeah, I’ll pitch. It was an opportunity that was given to me and I had to take advantage of that.”

And did he think he’d be in the big leagues now if he had stayed in the outfield? He grinned. “No, I don’t think so,” he said in perfect English.

CIRCLE THE DATE: After righthander Taijuan Walker threw in the bullpen before Tuesday night’s game against the Reds at Great American Ballpark, Phillies manager Rob Thomson announced that he’ll make his first start of the season Sunday against the Padres at Petco. He’s been on the injured list with shoulder soreness since spring training.

That allows the Phillies to split up their lefthanders, Ranger Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez, in the rotation. It also means that, almost certainly, righthander Spencer Turnbull will go to the bullpen despite being 2-0, 1.23 going into his Wednesday night start against Reds LHP Nick Lodolo (2-0, 0.75) beginning at 6:40.

Walker led the team with 15 wins last year but struggled enough in the second half to be the odd man out in the postseason, ultimately not getting into a single game.

It will be RHP Zack Wheeler (1-3, 2.30) vs. Reds RHP Nick Martinez (0-0, 4.76) in Thursday’s 1:10 p.m. series finale. That leaves Aaron Nola, Suárez and Walker lined up to start against the Padres over the weekend.

HE SAID IT: Third baseman Alec Bohm had a reputation for being a below average defender when the Phillies drafted him in the first round (third overall) in the 2018 draft. Rob Thomson believes that scouting report is outdated.

“His confidence, his ability to play third base, has gone from below average to above average,” the manager declared. “Throw all the numbers out the window. I don’t even understand the numbers, to tell you the truth. I just know what I see with my eyes, compared to other third basemen around the league, and he’s better than most of them.”

Scattered among the rubble were some high notes, though. Bryce Harper won his second National League MVP Award, first since signing with the Phillies. Even though an 82-80 record wasn’t scintillating, it ended a streak of nine consecutive losing series.

And, just maybe, the brightest ray of sunshine that emerged from the entire exercise was the performance of 25-year-old Venezuelan lefthander Ranger Suarez. In 39 appearances, 12 of them starts, his earned run average was 1.36. Opponent’s batted .194 against him. He had the longest scoreless streak (21 innings) of any Phillies starter. . .as well as any Phillies reliever (15.1 innings).

Baseball is, of course, the most humbling game. There were back spasms in 2022. A strained elbow after arriving in spring training following a stint in the World Baseball Classic. Hitters likely made adjustments as well.

Don’t look now. . .

It’s still April. So much can, and probably will, happen between now and the finish line. But right now, Suarez couldn’t pitch much better than he has. In fact, he’s pitching so well that he flubbed the pop quiz when jokingly asked if he could remember the last time he gave up a run.

Ha laughed. He indicated that, of course he knew. Then he confidently answered, through interpreter Diego D’Aniello that it was in the first series of the season against the Braves.

Wrong. It was in his second start, at Washington on April 6. More specifically, in the fourth inning. He’s pitched 25 innings since without being scored on after giving up two singles in seven innings of a 7-0 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park.

It was also the team’s seventh straight win and an invisible rebuke to the notion that they had built up their record by gleefully piling on two of the worst teams in baseball, the Rockies and White Sox. And they took the first game of a three-city road trip without Bryce Harper, who will miss three games while on paternity leave.

The Phillies have averaged 6.4 runs per game during the streak. That’s impressive but pales in comparison to the ludicrous 0.70 ERA the rotation has combined for in the same games.

“I don’t have the vocabulary to explain it,” Rob Thomson said. “These guys are throwing strikes and they’ve got great stuff. When you have both of those, you’ve got something. But we have to keep them healthy.”

As for Suarez, the manager said that he threw a little harder three years ago. “But he’s a pitcher. Old school,” Thomson said. “He changes speeds. He can locate. Throws strikes with all his pitches. He does all the little things. Holds runners. Fields his position. He’s a complete pitcher.”

Suarez was coming off a complete game in which he threw 112 pitches, and that’s always a concern in this era. Thomson told him before the game his pitch limit was 80; he ended up needing just 88 to complete seven innings. “I was thinking of taking him out after six but he had so few pitches it would have been ridiculous,” he said with a laugh.

There’s a synergy between offense and defense. Starting pitchers are more likely to throw shutouts when they don’t think they have to in order to win, that the lineup will put some big numbers up on the board. Conversely, hitters can be more relaxed at the plate not believing that they have to outslug the opposition.

“It’s awesome,” said third baseman Alec Bohm. “Every time you look up, it’s the sixth inning and (our starter) has between 60 and 70 pitches and they’re dealing. We know the type of talent they have and for them all to be putting it together at the same time, that’s how you go on a winning streak. Hat’s off to those guys. They’ve set us up for a lot of success.”

And the offense?

“Being able to build a lead and keep adding on – it was four innings in a row (second through fifth) that we scored a run. Sometimes that’s how you’ve got to do it, right?”

The reports looked at Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard. They looked at Cole Hamels, Shane Victorino and Jamie Moyer. They looked at each other. Clearly, come hell or high water, there were plenty of guys who had spots wrapped up no matter how they performed in the Grapefruit League.

With that in mind, Taijuan Walker threw 102 pitches in his final rehab start Sunday for the Triple-A Lehigh IronPigs. Barring an unforeseen setback, his next start will be for the Phillies, probably over the weekend in San Diego.

Time will tell whether or not that’s a wise decision but, really, manager Rob Thomson is wedged firmly between a rock and a hard place.

Under most circumstances, Walker would be reinstated to the rotation spot he occupied before going on the injured list (shoulder soreness) and that would be that. Veterans generally don’t lose their role because they got hurt. That’s especially true for a veteran in the second season of a 4-year, $72 million contract. Yes, sometimes there is gimme BS in baseball.

There are a couple factors that make this situation devilishly complicated, though.

The first and most obvious is that the pitcher he’ll almost certainly replace, righthander Spencer Turnbull, is 2-0 with a 1.23 earned run average in his first four starts. He’s allowed 10 hits in 22 innings. There’s also a long and honored tradition in baseball of riding the hot hand as long as possible.

The second is that several question marks hang over Walker’s head. He was hardly overpowering during his rehab. His ERA against minor leaguer competition was 4.20. His velocity was down.

“Adrenalin. Weather. I don’t know if that’s it. I’m just assuming when he gets into a Major League ballpark in a good setting it’s going to go up a little bit,” Thomson said before Monday night’s series against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. “Now we’re going to put him in the rotation.”

Walker declined an interview request before Monday’s game.

He’s scheduled to throw a bullpen Wednesday. He could make his first start of the season as early as Friday or be pushed back to Sunday to split up lefthanders Rangers Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez in the rotation. But the manager left no doubt that he’s coming back. Soon.

And, with scheduled off days on May 2 and May 9 precluding going to a 6-man rotation, there’s no realistic option that would allow Turnbull to continue starting as long as everyone else stays healthy.

That will require a tough conversation for Thomson. It doesn’t seem fair. He’s sure to mention to Turnbull that since he’s pitched so few innings over the last there years due to injuries, that closely monitoring his workload is in the pitcher’s best interest.

It’s also worth mentioning, though, that Walker’s attitude also has to be taken into account. He was seemingly disgruntled after not appearing in the postseason last year, so the Phillies have to at least consider his frame of mind if he doesn’t reclaim his spot now that he’s medically cleared to return.

Matchups for the remainder of the Reds series: Sanchez (1-2, 2.95) vs. LHP Andrew Abbott (1-2. 2.70) Tuesday at 6:40 p.m., Turnbull vs. LHP Nick Lodolo (2-0, 0.75) Wednesday at 6:40 p.m. and RHP Zack Wheeler (1-3, 2.30) vs. RHP Graham Ashcraft (3-1, 5.24) Thursday at 1:10 p.m.

TURNER TIME: Phillies shortstop Trea Turner has been named National League Player of the Week after batting .462 with five doubles, a homer, 10 runs scored and four RBI in six games.

When he stole home against the White Sox on Sunday it was his 40^th straight successful attempt. That ties Hall of Famer Tim Raines for the third longest streak in MLB history trailing only Ichiro Suzuki (45) and Vince Coleman (50).

The Phillies jumped out to another early lead, Alec Bohm had a monster night offensively, and once again, you couldn’t ask for a better outing from Spencer Turnbull.

The 7-0 win over the White Sox is now their fourth in a row, and for the first time this season, it’s starting to feel like the Phillies are clicking on both sides of the ball.

How does it start? Slugging early and often. The Phillies found themselves with a first-inning lead for the third consecutive game. Trea Turner hustled for an infield single, extending his hitting streak to eight games. After Bryce Harper drew a walk, Alec Bohm came up big with his second home run of the season.

Do you get Déjà vu?

Just two innings later, the Phils found themselves in a near identical situation. Turner doubled, extending yet another streak. He now has six straight games with an extra base hit. Harper once again worked a walk … and you guessed it, Bohm had his second three-run shot of the night.

It’s the first multi home run game from Bohm since July 1, 2023 against the Nationals. He ended the night with six runs batted in.

“Balanced approach,” Bohm said on his at bats against Chicago’s starting pitcher Garrett Crochet. “Not trying to do too much and just trying to shorten up with two strikes, put the ball in play and then get rewarded with a couple homers. Yeah, pretty cool.”

“He’s stronger than he was two years ago and he’s stronger than he was last year,” Manager Rob Thomson said on Bohm’s night. “So, if he’s gaining strength and getting ball up in the air, in theory, he’s going to hit more home runs. He had a great night, he really did.”

Thomson has also wanted to get Whit Merrifield more playing time and it finally paid off. In what can now be deemed a slug fest, the Phillies’ offseason utility acquisition homered for the first time this season.

“Finally,” Thomson said. “Maybe that let’s him breathe a little bit. Anytime you come to a new club, new fanbase, there’s a little bit of anxiety there. You want to get off on a good start and he can hit.”

The crowd of 39,069 at Citizens Bank Park was loving every minute of the big offensive evening … and when it came to the other side of the ball? They were just as receptive.

Turnbull, in his fourth start with the Phillies, no-hit the White Sox through the first six innings of the game. Gavin Sheets singled in the top of the seventh to put the no-no to rest. Fans rose to their feet for a standing ovation to acknowledge the Phils’ starter.

“I thought about it a couple times but try not to,” Turnbull said following the game. “Tried to keep it out of your head for a little while, at least until after the game. Yeah, I thought about it a few times.

“Still mad I gave up the hit but it’s alright. Still really happy with the outing. Still a lot of fun, team got the win, which is the most important thing. Maybe save a few bullets in the arm.”

The starting rotation has now gone a whopping 24.1 innings without allowing an earned run.

The Phillies are now four games over the .500 mark at 12-8. While it may not seem like much, it’s a feat they had not accomplished until June 18 last season (38-34) and June 17 in 2022 (35-31).

A goal put in place by the Phillies during spring training was to get off on the right foot, avoiding a slow start like the previous two seasons. Having back-to-back series against bottom-tier teams in the league, at home, is exactly something they’ve needed to take advantage of.

So far, they’ve won four of four against the Rockies and White Sox, improving to 6-2 on their longest homestand of the 2024 season.

(And hey, now we know the City Connect jerseys aren’t cursed!)

Coming up …

Zack Wheeler will take the mound for Saturday’s 6:05 p.m. start. He’s still on the hunt for his first win of the young season. He’ll go up against Michael Soroka, who has posted a 6.98 ERA through four games.

Then, Aaron Nola wraps up the series and 10-game homestand Sunday at 1:35 p.m. against righty Nick Nastrini.

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“Yeah. I mean, that’s what we always say, right?” noted Zack Wheeler after another what-might-have-been start in what ended up as an unsightly 9-2 loss to the Pirates on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.

It would have been preposterous to imagine on Opening Day that, at this point, Wheeler would have made four starts and that the Phillies would have lost all of them. Especially if that glimpse into the future included how well he’s pitched.

“It’s frustrating,” said manager Rob Thomson. “For the most part, he’s pitched really well. Even in that last inning.”

Added shortstop Trea Turner: “You never want to waste a start, especially when your ace is up there. It’s positive-negative because it feels like we’ve beat ourselves on those days. We were right in there for five innings [Sunday] and then let it get away.”

The last inning the manager referred to was the sixth, when Wheeler gave up a grand slam that not only erased a 2-1 Phillies lead but started the Pittsburgh rout.

Of the three-legged stool – offense-pitching-defense – that supports a successful baseball team, Wheeler has been a sturdy prop when he’s on the mound. The other two elements, not so much.

Your honor, we submit the following as evidence: Wheeler has held opponents to a .215 batting average. He’s struck out 30 while walking five. Even though he had a minor meltdown, his first of the season on Sunday, he cannot be found guilty of the team’s lack of success in games he’s on the clock.

The lack of run support is simple enough to identify. In his four starts, the lineup produced a total of six runs while he was on the mound.

Less obvious, but just as crucial, has been the number of times the defense has let him down. He had to pitch around errors in each of his first two starts; the second led to a pair of unearned runs. He was charged with his first earned run of the year on April 3 against the Reds when rightfielder Nick Castellanos pulled up on a two-out fly ball by Cincinnati’s Jake Fraley that probably should have ended the inning. Thomson explained afterward that Castellanos was still adjusting to the change in depth perception that resulted when the old out-of-town scoreboard in right was replaced. Regardless, it led to a run when Elly de la Cruz followed with another double.

It was more of the same early Sunday. Wheeler struck out 10 in the first five innings. In the fourth, though, the Pirates scored a run that tighter defense could have prevented.

After Rowdy Telez led off with a single, Andrew McCutchen hit a potential double play grounder to short but McCutchen beat the relay throw and moved up to second on Wheeler’s second wild pitch of the game.

Jack Suwinski walked and Jared Triolo followed with another could-have-been-a-DP grounder to third; again the throw to first was just a step late, leaving runners on first and third. The Phillies have turned just eight double plays this season.

“It’s something we went through last year,” Thomson said. “And as time went on we got better at it. I know [infield coach Bobby Dickerson] is really working hard on that and we’ll clean that up. We also gave up a lot of extra bases. You can’t do that. It was a weird game so we have to dust ourselves off and come back tomorrow and get going again.”

But the real problem occurred when Triolo attempted to steal second.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto came up firing. Second baseman Bryson Stott, conceding the bag, cut in front to intercept the throw when he saw McCutcheon break for the plate. But Realmuto’s throw sailed behind him and into center field. After at first charging the catcher with an error, the official scorer changed the call to a double steal, making the run earned.

“We had a return play on there, and the throw just got away from J.T.,” Thomson said. “If we play catch, he’s out.”

So maybe it was fitting that Wheeler’s undoing started with a fielding error by third baseman Alec Bohm that allowed Ke’Bryan Hayes to reach first leading off the sixth. After that, Wheeler crumbled for the first time this season.

Telez walked, McCutchen singled softly to load the bases and Suwinski launched a grand slam to right-center to knock the Cy Young Award candidate out of the game and put the Phillies in a hole they were unable to dig out of.

There were positive signs. Wheeler’s velocity was up, consistently in the 95-96 mile per hour range, and he was pleased with some mechanical adjustments he’d made.

“It was good, but it was frustrating at the same time,” he said. “The outcome wasn’t good. But personally I thought I made some good strides mechanically. Made an adjustment from last start to this start and the ball was coming out better. Something as simple as standing more upright rather than leaning over. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how the ball is moving. Next start I’ll be ready to go.”

And, heck, maybe even get a win. After all, his luck has to change. Unless it doesn’t.

Baseball history is littered with pitchers who, for whatever reason, always seem to start on days when they’re offense gets shut down. It happened to Cole Hamels more than once in his Phillies career. But that’s an exception, right? It can’t happen to Wheeler this season, right?

Right? Right?

NOTABLY

•Trea Turner’s homer in third inning was his first of the season. “It’s just nice to get it over with,” he said. “I was joking with everybody. You’re allowed to hit a home run. It’s not against the rules.” Despite a slow start in 2023, he ended up with 26 homers.
•Phillies pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts Sunday.
•Pirates DH Andrew McCutchen, who played for the Phillies from 2019-21, hit the 300th homer of his career off Ricardo Pinto in the ninth inning.
•Rob Thomson identified two reasons why righthander Nick Nelson was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley when righthander Orion Kerkering (strained forearm) was activated from the injured list before Sunday’s game. “[Ricardo] Pinto gives us a little bit more length. And one of the reasons we sent Nellie down at the start of the year was to get him more reps, so maybe his velocity will spike up again,” he explained.
•The Phillies concluded the third time through the rotation Saturday night with a combined 2.84 earned run average.
•Sunday’s sellout of 44,568 was the largest crowd of the year at Citizens Bank Park.

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Scene 2. The Bucs had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh, No. 3 hitter Ke’Bryan Hayes at the plate. Reliever Yunior Marte struck out Hayes on a nasty 97.9 mile an hour sinker that started outside and then tailed back to the plate. The problem was that catcher J.T. Realmuto was expecting something else and was shifting to his right on the delivery. The pitch nailed him on the left wrist. Realmuto crumpled to the ground in pain as catcher Henry Davis easily scored from third.

And that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the mishaps and missteps and things that went bump in the night Friday in the Phillies 5-2 loss to the Pirates at Citizens Bank Park, an unfortunate series of events that even Lemony Snicket would have found absurd. It was also a real buzz kill to the excitement that had been generated by the ballyhooed introduction of the franchise’s new City Connect uniforms.

The loss dropped the Phillies back to .500 after Thursday’s win put them a game over for the first time this season.

“Any time you play a game like that you’re not going to win, right?” Bryce Harper said. “We battled to the end but when you start a game like that it’s really tough to come back.”

Still haven’t had enough? A glutton for punishment? There’s more.

Harper came into play shouldering an 0-for-18 slump with just two extra base hits since his three-homer game on April 2. He singled his first time up. Flied out to the base of the wall in dead center in the fourth. “April in Philly. It’s tough. But I thought I hit it well enough,” he said with a shrug. Doubled in the sixth. And came up with a chance to do some real damage with two on and one out in the eighth.

In this situation, the sort of moment he plays for, he ripped a sinking line drive to right, only to see Bryan Reynolds make a shoestring catch. After he got back to the dugout, he screamed in frustration and banged his batting helmet against the bullpen phone.

“Just wanted to get a hit. Just want to be better, right?” he said. “I think whenever you hit a ball like that you’re going to be frustrated when you’re out. I’m pretty emotional.”

It wasn’t just bad juju that doomed the Phillies, either, Starter Cristopher Sanchez threw the ball well, but walked three in the second inning, uncorked a wild pitch and made a fielding error. He was fortunate that the Pirates were only able to turn that into a single unearned run. He also had to pitch around his own throwing error in the third.

Marte, unscored on in his first six outings of the season, needed 27 pitches to get through seven batters. He walked two and left the bases loaded or it could have been worse. He had two balls called on pitch clock violations.

A pregame story line was Sanchez facing former Phillie Bailey Falter. It would be even more dramatic if the Phillies had kicked Falter to the curb in order to make room for Sanchez last season, juicier if the two lefthanders had been competing head-to-head for the final vacancy in the rotation coming out of spring training in 2023, if Falter had won that battle but Sanchez eventually won the war.

It would also be enough of an exaggeration to alchemize fact into fiction.

The real skinny is that, almost certainly, Falter was the Phillies fifth starter when the ’23 season opened only because top-rated prospect Andrew Painter turned out to require Tommy John surgery. And Sanchez did not take his place in the rotation immediately after Falter was excised due to an 0-7 record and a 5.13 ERA in the middle of May. He did, however, step in a month later and lock the spot down.

Not exactly a grudge match, then, at least for Sanchez. “We were just teammates,” he said when asked to describe their relationship. By any measure, though, Falter outpitched him this time around.

The Phillies managed to get only one runner past first base against him. That was Brandon Marsh who doubled in the fifth, advanced when Nick Castellanos grounded out to the right side and scored when Bryson Stott topped a pitch in front of the plate that neither Falter or Davis could handle.

For all the talk of the Phillies lack of pop recently, their first scored on a single with an exit velocity of 28.1 miles an hour that traveled all of 34 feet. The only other came on a bases loaded walk by Alec Bohm in the eighth.

For the third time in the last four games they were held without a home run.

The only positive note for the Phils was that Realmuto, who had to leave Tuesday’s game in St. Louis after a foul tip bounced off the dirt and caromed up, striking him directly in the throat, was able to stay in the game Friday. Manager Rob Thomson said he didn’t think Realmuto was seriously injured and that he expected him to be available Saturday.

On a night like this, you take your silver linings where you find them.

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Which is to say, how he felt while he was on his way to winning the Paul Owens Award given annually to the top minor league pitcher in the organization. Which seems fair, considering that he had a 1.51 earned run average in 49 games before being called up and struck out 79 in 53 2/3 innings while walking just 12.

Which is to say, although manager Rob Thomson said no final decision has been made, there’s no apparent reason why Kerkering (forearm strain) won’t come off the injured list as early as Sunday after striking out the side in his most recent rehab appearance for Class A Clearwater on Thursday night.

“It’s not my decision. It’s up to the front office. But, body-wise, I feel great. I’m ready to go, whether it be here or [Triple-A] Lehigh Valley,” the 23-year-old righthander said before Friday night’s game against the Pirates at Citizens Bank Park.

He and righthander Taijuan Walker (shoulder soreness) who started the game Kerkering finished against the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, caught a 7 a.m. flight from Tampa to Philadelphia Friday morning.

Walker will make his next rehab start for Lehigh Valley on Tuesday night with a goal of throwing around 80 pitches.

Thomson said he’s happy with the reports he’s gotten on Walker’s stuff “and he’s trending up, which is a good sign.” The manager added that after Tuesday the veteran will likely need “one or two, maybe three” more starts before being activated.

Kerkering figures to be another weapon for a Phillies bullpen that has, for the most part, been an early season success story. The hope is to gradually ease him into more high-leverage roles as the season goes on. “His stuff’s ninth inning. The makeup is ninth inning,” Thomson said. “I don’t think we use him there right away. But all the tools are there.”

Resting Rojas

Centerfielder Johan Rojas, who had three hits Monday night in St. Louis but is batting .161 for the season, was out of the lineup for the second straight night Friday.

Rob Thomson said this is “just a little bit [of a re-set]. Just let him sit and watch for a minute. He’s been playing a lot, so it’s not going to hurt him to have a couple days off. He’ll be back in there [Saturday].”

The manager also wanted to get lefthanded-hitting Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott some at bats against lefthanders (Bailey Falter starts for the Bucs Friday night) and to try to help Whit Merrifield out of his early funk with some regular playing time.

Thomson said Rojas appears to be weathering his offensive struggles well. “He still has energy. He still comes out and does his work. But I know that when a young guy comes up to the big league, trying to hold his own and not having much to show for it, it can wear on you. But I think he’s handled it very well,” he said.

Up next

Pirates LHP Marco Gonzalez (0-0, 2.45) vs. RHP Spencer Turnbull (1-0, 0.00) Saturday at 4:05 p.m.

Pirates RHP Mitch Keller (1-1, 5.29) vs. RHP Zack Wheeler Sunday at 1:35 p.m.

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In 2023 the Phillies finished fifth in all of baseball with a .438 slugging percentage. Coming into play last night that number was .342, ahead of only the Mets and Marlins in the National League. And what did the Phillies manager plan to do about this sorry state of affairs?

Absolutely nothing.

Well, practically nothing. . .

“Just keep running them out there. Because we’re going to slug. And if you don’t think we’re going to slug, you ain’t watching the games,” he said calmly before Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott all went deep to pace the Phillies to a 5-1 win over the Pirates Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park.

“This team is built to slug. We’re waiting on it. And it’s coming.”

What had made this a bit of an issue was the fact that between Bohm’s game-winning double Monday night in St. Louis and his go-ahead homer in the bottom of the fourth Thursday, the Phillies had 19 hits, all of them singles.

“That’s news to me,” Bohm said. “That’s just kind of a testament to that there’s a bunch of different ways we can get it done.”

While Thomson’s equilibrium is always impressive, this blip on the radar had no chance to knock him off balance. For one thing, it’s still April. For another, power tends to be streaky. Most importantly, all big boppers from last season are back. Several have big money, long term contracts.

They’ll hit. And, if they don’t, well, there’s not much any manager can do to change that.

For Bohm and Stott, it was their first homer of the year.

“Getting that first one out of the way is always a good feeling,” Bohm said, adding that he thinks this will take some of the pressure off the entire lineup. “Much as I don’t want to make excuses for us, I don’t think we’ve had the best weather. The hands haven’t been warm, we haven’t been super comfortable in the box. But no excuse. Everybody’s got to play in it.

“But hitting is contagious. Confidence comes as a whole. Good at bats lead to more good at bats and guys kind of feed off each other, especially in this locker room. So the more we see success, the more success we’re going to have, I think.”

Stott and Marsh, whose home run to the notch in left-center was first ruled a double, a call that was overturned on appeal, both suggested that this is the sort of game that could produce a positive snowball effect.

“That’s the way baseball goes,” Stott said. “The beginning of the season is always amplified. If this happened in June to any of us, I don’t think it would be (considered) crazy. It’s part of baseball and we’ve just got to keep going.”

Said Marsh: “It was big for us to step up and get that lead for (starter Ranger Suarez). He was dealing. We needed to get him some runs. But we got dudes and dogs on dogs that show up and show out every night.

“We’re not really worried too, too much (about the lack of power). We’re just trying to win some ballgames. The slug will come. With the lineup we have, it’s just a matter of time.”

Suarez pitched six shutout innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out eight.

Marsh, who now leads the team with four homers, has been the team’s most consistent hitter through the first two weeks of the season.

Thomson didn’t take a victory lap after his pregame confidence was rewarded so quickly, but understands that the Phillies need more production like this to be where they want to be at the end of the season.

“That’s part of our game, and we really haven’t had it most of this year,” he said. “So, hopefully that continues. It’s going to come and go just like everything else. But it was good to see some guys hit it out of the ballpark. When guys hit the ball in the seats it’s like (and here he exhaled loudly) here we go.”

If past is prelude, the Phillies will hit a lot of homers and score a lot of runs this season. But don’t worry. Even that can be something to fret over.

The Phillies have scored 46 runs this season and 22 of them – 47.8 percent – have come on home runs. Are they too dependent on the long ball? Discuss.

Both would then fly back to Philadelphia to be reevaluated. Kerkering might be activated from the injured list as early as Sunday.

Those basic facts understated the intriguing possibility that the outlines of a difficult decision are starting to take form on the horizon. Walker is probably at least a few more starts away from being stretched out enough to rejoin the rotation. In the meantime, though, the guy who was picked to keep that seat warm until he returned has been phenomenal.

Spencer Turnbull, 31, cut loose by the Tigers after three-injury-plagued seasons during which he pitched a total of just 81 big league innings (including missing the entire 2022 season recovering from Tommy John surgery), picked up by the Phils just as training camp opened, has opened this season by allowing five hits and no runs in his first two starts.

His next start will be Saturday against the Pirates at Citizens Bank Park. And, if he keeps pitching anywhere near this level, it would be hard to justify moving him to the bullpen or sending him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

It’s at this point that a manager usually shrugs and says something about this being a good problem to have. “If he keeps putting up zeroes it’s tough to take him out of the rotation. But we’ll see,” manager Rob Thomson said, neatly side-stepping the issue.

The reality is more complicated.

On one hand, Thomson owes it to every player in the clubhouse as well as the fan base to try to give his team the best chance to win on any given night.

On the other, Walker is in the second season of a 4-year, $72 million contract. If he’s able to pitch, the organization certainly wants to get as much return as possible on its investment.

What kind of message would it send if Turnbull continues to pitch well but gets bumped just because Walker is ready? But what kind of message would it send if a veteran, who seemingly made it clear that he felt disrespected last October when he didn’t make a single postseason appearance, can’t reclaim his job when he’s fully healthy?

The solution could lie in Turnbull’s lack of work the last three years. Thomson pointed out that, normally, it’s considered unwise for a pitcher’s workload to increase by more than 40 or 50 innings from one year to the next. If the Phillies follow that formula, he’d be capped at around 105 innings in 2024. “That figures a lot in our thinking,” Thomson said.   

Other possibilities would include piggybacking two starters or going to a 6-man rotation, as the Phillies did for awhile last season. The latter would only be an option later in the season, the manager said.

FWIW, Walker pitched four innings for the Threshers against the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. He gave up two runs on two hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out four. He threw 47 pitches, 32 for strikes. Kerkering pitched a perfect ninth, striking out all three batters he faced.

LEFT-HANDED COMPLIMENT

The Phillies will face lefthanded starters, Bailey Falter and Marco Gonzalez, in each of the next two games and Rob Thomson indicated that Brandon Marsh is likely to start both. In order to become an everyday player, Marsh has to prove he can hit lefties. In order to prove he can do that, he has to get opportunities.

“We have to get him in the mix. I’m not shying him away from lefthanded pitching.” The manager said. So far this season, Marsh is 2-for-11 vs. lefties.

UP NEXT

Falter (0-0, 5.40) will start against LHP Cristopher Sanchez (0-1, 4.82) Friday night at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies will wear their City Connect uniforms for the first time beginning at 6:40 p.m.

Gonzalez (0-0, 2.45) will face Turnbill (1-0, 0.00) in a 4:05 game and the series will conclude beginning at 1:35 Sunday when RHP Mitch Keller (1-2, 5.29) opposes RHP Zack Wheeler (0-2, 1.89).  

Hoskins signed with the Brewers as a free agent in January and has already made headlines for Milwaukee in the early days of the season. (Mainly due to his Opening Day slide into second that caused a stir between him and Mets’ Jeff McNeil that ultimately led to the benches clearing.)

No matter where he plays, Hoskins owns the Mets. And the benches-clearing incident was one of the bigger topics across the Philadelphia area, even with the Phillies season underway as well.

It’s clear that Phillies fans are still rooting for Hoskins despite the hop to the NL Central team. So, it was a bit of a surprise to hear how he thinks Phillies fans will welcome him back when he visits Citizens Bank Park as an opponent or the first time in June.

The first baseman joined the folks on Foul Territory, where he was asked about the offseason process signing elsewhere.

“My time in Philly is something that I’ll always remember, I’ll always hold close to my heart,” Hoskins said. “I have really great relationships with a lot of people over there, within the clubhouse and just within the organization, that I’ll forward to continue on in a different fashion now.”

And how will fans respond when he returns? When asked if he thinks he’ll be booed, he shared his thoughts.

“My guess is yes, my guess is yes,” Hoskins said. “I’m hoping, I don’t know if hope is the right word, but if I’m getting booed, it probably means that the Brewers are doing something to be winning the game or to win the game. You know, so I’ll kind of root for that as a way to make sure that we the Brewers are coming out on top.

“I’m excited to go back, I’m excited to see all those guys, those relationships I’ve talked about. I’m excited to compete against them wearing a different uni.

“I said this when I signed, I hope the Brewers win at the end of the day.”

Now, while Hoskins may be partially correct, there was one thing he completely missed … that first mention of his name across the ballpark when the starting lineups are being announced.

There won’t be boos. In fact, it’ll be the exact opposite. Phillies’ PA announcer Dan Baker will have to hold as cheers flood the ballpark.

He’ll be met with a standing ovation. A thunderous roar to welcome him back to the city of his former club.

Hoskins may be repping the Brewers but in the minds of fans across Philadelphia, he’ll always be a Phillie at heart.

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