Back After The Road Trip — Series Preview: Mariners at Phillies, August 18-20

After playing 10 consecutive road games, traveling to Texas, Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Phillies return home to Citizens Bank Park for a six-game homestead. They begin with an interleague matchup against the team that is currently a game and a half back for the lead in the AL West, as well as currently in the top wildcard spot in the AL in the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners were a struggling team at the beginning of the 2025 season, but over the last two months, they have begun to hit their stride. They made big moves at the trade deadline, acquiring Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez from the Arizona Diamondbacks to help bolster their inconsistent offense, and it worked in their favor. Since July 31st, the Mariners are 11-5, sitting at a 68-57 record overall, and are facing off against a Phillies team that nearly lost back-to-back series to end their road trip.

Adapting To No Zack Wheeler

The biggest issue with the Phillies moving forward is that the team is bracing to be without Wheeler for the foreseeable future. Wheeler has been diagnosed with an upper extremity blood clot in his right shoulder and will undergo more testing this week.

Blood clots are no joke, and an injury like this could not only put Wheeler out for weeks but months. The team won’t know more until further testing is done, but the Phillies could be without their No. 1 guy for the remainder of 2025.

Although Wheeler will miss time, the Phillies’ rotation has been one of its stronger pieces over the season, and despite a rough first outing back, Aaron Nola is back in the rotation moving forward. The Phillies will need him, along with Ranger Suarez, Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, and Taijuan Walker, to pick up the slack for no Wheeler moving forward.

Possible AL vs. NL MVP Matchup

This series brings us one of the more interesting matchups of the season: Kyle Schwarber vs. Cal Raleigh. Both Schwarber and Raleigh are in the running to win their respective leagues’ MVP honors, with both players having the second-best odds to win.

Raleigh has been unbelievable this season, launching 47 home runs, the most ever by a catcher in MLB history, and is on pace to potentially break Aaron Judge‘s AL home run record of 62 home runs in 2022. He currently leads Schwarber by four home runs for the most in all of baseball, and is tied with him in RBIs with 102.

It’s a battle between two of the best hitters in baseball this season, both of whom have some work to do if they want to take home their first-ever MVP.

The Offense Needs To Stay Hot

The Phillies’ offense has been its number one issue over not only the 10 games that they were on the road, but overall in August, as they’ve scored two or fewer runs in six of their 16 games this month, and have also been shut out twice.

Prior to Sunday’s 11-9 win over the Nationals, the Phillies’ offense as a whole had a .239 batting average, a .293 on-base percentage, and a .421 slugging percentage. While they still have 13 games to go before the end of the month, those would no doubt be the worst numbers from the team as a whole all year.

The team has not been good at the plate; you could call it just too much inconsistency. When this team hits, they’re one of the best in baseball, but when one of them struggles, nearly the whole team struggles. Bryce Harper was one of the leading culprits of the struggles as he was batting .203 in August before collecting two hits and two RBIs in Sunday’s win.

However, the biggest culprit is Nick Castellanos, who is 10 for his last 59, and is batting .169 over his last 15 games. He recorded two hits in Sunday’s game, but before that, he was 1-for-35, or for a batting average of .029. Castellanos has been unacceptable and has seen spurts of being benched in favor of lefty Max Kepler. Having a bat in the middle of your lineup that bad cannot happen, but things could be churning in the right direction.

Time will tell if this lineup continues to score, but it’s not going to be easy against the fantastic pitching staff that Seattle is bringing to South Philly this week.

Game Times and Broadcasts

Monday, August 18th, 6:40 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia, 94.1 WIP, WTTM 1680

Tuesday, August 19th, 6:45 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia, 94.1 WIP, WTTM 1680

Wednesday, August 20th, 1:05 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBC 10, 94.1 WIP, WTTM 1680

Probable Pitching

Game 1: Ranger Suarez (LHP, 8-6, 3.28 ERA) vs. Logan Gilbert (RHP, 3-4, 3.31 ERA)

Game 2:  Cristopher Sanchez (LHP, 11-4, 2.45 ERA) vs. Bryce Miller (RHP, 2-5, 5.73 ERA)

Game 3: Jesus Luzardo (LHP, 11-6, 4.21 ERA) vs. Luis Castillo (RHP, 8-6, 3.48 ERA)

By The Numbers

• Records
  • Phillies: 71-53
  • Mariners: 68-57
• Run Differential
  • Phillies: 83
  • Mariners: 31
• Runs Scored Per Game
  • Phillies: 4.59
  • Mariners: 4.56
• Runs Allowed Per Game
  • Phillies: 3.93
  • Mariners: 4.28

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