As spring turns to summer, the Phillies are heating up right with the weather, winning nine of their last 11 games and getting over .500 for the first time since mid-May.
With series wins over the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, plus a sweep of the Tigers, there's a number of reasons for their recent hot streak. Here is just a few:
Kyle Schwarber back where he belongs
Leading off, Kyle Schwarber. Maybe he doesn’t play like Rickey Henderson or look like Jimmy Rollins, but Kyle Schwarber is the best leadoff hitter on the Phillies. Don’t question it. It doesn’t make sense to me either.
But the Phillies are 10-3 since Rob Thomson put Schwarber back in the leadoff spot and the hefty leftfielder has an OPS of 1.007 in that span, walking 12 times and hitting five home runs.
And while Bryson Stott and Trea Turner have put together great at bats as of late, neither were productive at the top of the lineup. Stott posted a .650 OPS in 182 leadoff at bats and Turner wasn’t much better with a .286 OBP in his turn at the leadoff spot.
Schwarber’s recent hot streak might be attributed to the calendar flipping to June, but it isn’t a coincidence it also came when he got in the leadoff spot, where he is most comfortable.
Stars are playing like stars
The Phillies have five position players making at least $20 million this season, and with the exception of Nick Castellanos, none had a great start to the season.
Schwarber has picked up his production since the start of June—no surprise there—and JT Realmuto went nuclear in Arizona, raising his OPS by 85 points thanks to a 7-12 performance over three games that included six extra base hits and two home runs.
Meanwhile, Turner has hit .321 since tweaking his swing in Washington a few weeks ago and despite Bryce Harper still searching for his power, he’s collected eight RBIs in his last 12 games and posted an OBP of .382 in that span.
Dave Dombrowski is a big believer in building teams around stars and blue-chip talents. The Phillies’ current lineup boasts five different guys who have a Silver Slugger on their mantle. For the first time in 2023, the top of the order finally looks as dangerous on the field as it did on paper this offseason.
Getting contributions from all 26
While the Phillies high-priced stars might be what carries them through October, it will take contributions from everyone on the roster to get them there.
And with both Christian Pache and Darick Hall close to returning from their early-season injuries, there could be some tough decisions to make with the 26-man roster.
Kody Clemens has an OPS of .770 as a starter this season, hitting a walkoff against Detroit and coming inches away from a go-ahead home run in Arizona on Monday night.
Garrett Stubbs hasn’t come close to matching his 2023 numbers, but the Phillies are 7-4 in his 11 starts behind the plate and kicked off the Phillies comeback against the Diamondbacks on Thursday.
And who could forget Drew Ellis, who kicked off the winning with a pair of home runs against the Nationals and was DFA’d less than a week later.
Rotation getting deeper into games
Aaron Nola still has an ERA north of four and the fifth-starter spot in the rotation remains a black hole, but the Phillies starters have started to turn things around in recent weeks.
Nola’s 94.2 innings pitched lead all of baseball and he has gone at least six innings in every start since Opening Day. Zack Wheeler has gone at least six innings in eight of his last 10 starts and Ranger Suarez has taken down over 26 innings in his last four starts, pitching to a 1.35 ERA in that span.
As a team, the Phillies are sixth in the NL in quality start percentage and lead the league in starts with over 100 pitches thrown by the starter.
The recent winning streak has seen multiple no-hit bids extend into the seventh inning and even though Nola got touched up for four runs in Arizona on Thursday, he still completed seven innings and left with a lead.
Inning fatigue might still be a concern after the heavy workloads Nola and Wheeler undertook last season, but right now both rank in the top-10 in innings pitched and seem to be getting stronger as the season goes on.
With a bullpen that is still short on high-leverage guys, having the starting rotation consistently pitching deep into games can keep Craig Kimbrel, Seranthony Dominguez and Jose Alvarado fresh late into the season.
Rob Thomson’s steady hand
Speaking of Dominguez, an interesting thing happened in the eighth inning on Thursday when he came in to face Christian Walker.
Dominguez was coming off two-straight appearances where he allowed a home run, including a game-tying blast to Walker just the night before. But Thomson trusted him to go after Walker less than 24 hours later and Dominguez responded by striking out two batters to end the inning.
Thomson took a lot of flak early in the season when the Phillies were struggling and he didn’t react quickly to remedy things, but his belief in the roster since his promotion last summer paid off with the development of Stott and Alec Bohm getting regular at bats.
The confidence Thomson has instilled in the Phillies younger players paid off with some big moments in last year’s playoff run and with some big divisional series coming up next week, his steady hand on the wheel might have just steered the Phillies out of the storm.
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