Offensive Burst Powers Phillies To 4-0 Record In Mattingly Era, Take Series Opener 6-5

The Phillies continue their march to get back to the top of the league with a four-game series against the Miami Marlins down in Miami. That march continues to be successful as the Phillies win their fourth straight with a 6-5 victory Friday night. While it got nerve-wracking at the end with the bullpen giving up four runs in the eighth and ninth innings, the team held on by taking advantage of good pitching from Zack Wheeler and solid offensive production to make sure a game that earlier in the year the team very well may have lost would end with victory.

The Marlins have been a sneakily solid team through the first month of the season, while only now holding a 15-17 record with Friday’s loss to Philly. The Miami lineup has had several strong performances, including leading the team to a series victory over the defending World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers right before the current series. The pitching staff also has several solid arms that can make hitting difficult. The talent the Marlins now have did not stop the Phillies from coming into Loan Depot Park and continue their hot streak.

Hittin’ Season Arriving Early

What has certainly not gone understated this season were the woes the offense had through a vast majority of the first month of the season. For some reason, this lineup could not do anything right, their at-bats were lousy, not competitive, and unsuccessful. All of that changed at the expense of former Manager Rob Thomson. Since Don Mattingly took over skipper duties on Tuesday, Apr. 28, the offense has taken off and become the successful deep lineup fans were hoping for.

For a lineup to be deep, the lower half of the lineup must produce, especially when the upper half doesn’t produce runs. Tonight that happened, while three of the top four hitters in Fridays lineup got on base at least once, it needed the lower part of the lineup to score them. The lower part did, in the fourth inning the lower part of the lineup gave the team the lead with an RBI single by Alec Bohm, who was batting seventh Friday night, and an RBI double by Justin Crawford, who was batting eighth. All six runs the Phillies scored Friday night came off the bats of hitters 5-8. The winning four runs came in the seventh, Edmundo Sosa scored Bryce Harper with a two-out single, followed up by Bryson Stott blasting a three-run homer into the Phillies bullpen to make it 6-1, against a lefty as well.

“[We can] not let anything get too big or dwell on stuff too long, eventually it will turn itself,” Bryson Stott told the media after hitting what ended up being the game-winning home run.

While his answer was referring to his performance and mindset, it’s a phrase that certainly can be applied to the whole roster. While this team has won four straight, there are certainly moments where it hasn’t looked good, especially offensively, but the team hasn’t let it get under their skin the way it did earlier in the year, and that has led the team to be able to bounce back. It happened Thursday with two walk-offs against the San Francisco Giants, and it happened Friday against a Marlins team that gave them chances, and while they didn’t always take advantage, they didn’t let any failures get to them and that allowed them to succeed more often, which helped lead them to victory.

The Wheels Are Turning

Zack Wheeler has been a major sigh of relief for this Phillies rotation. After struggling through most of the first month with Taijuan Walker manning Wheelers spot in the rotation, Wheeler returned to the rotation against the Atlanta Braves and helped lead the Phillies to snapping a 10-game losing streak. In Wheeler’s second start of the season, he showed that his arm is healthy and that teams ought to still fear him.

He held what is an underrated Miami Marlins offense at bay through the whole night. He got through 6 innings of work, only allowing 1 run in the 1st inning, and striking out 8 Marlins while only allowing 3 hits. Wheeler’s ERA now sits at 2.61, and while he is only two starts into the season, it’s an ERA that’s a lot prettier to see than an ERA near 10.

“He’s the kind of guy you can count on,” said manager Don Mattingly postgame.

The bullpen struggled tonight for the most part, but Orion Kerkering had a very successful night, getting through a scoreless seventh inning, but then Jonathan Bowlan and Jose Alvarado gave up three runs in the eighth, and Brad Keller gave up a run in the ninth before finally closing the door to give the Phillies the win and lower the blood pressure of all Phillies fans.

New Skipper, New Look

When Don Mattingly took over for Rob Thomson, the obvious question on everyone’s mind was whether the team could replicate a type of momentum shift that occurred when Rob Thomson replaced Joe Giardi in 2022. While the team is only four games into the new manager’s tenure, it seems to be the case early on that momentum is shifting. The offense and starting pitching have flipped the switch and showed an aspect of dominance that was expected out of them. And while the bullpen is a bit behind on flipping the switch, they also had to get used for a bullpen game the day before this series opener.

What is most important is the fact that the team as a whole seems to have a lot more confidence in their play, especially in high pressure situations, like the ninth innings of the last three games. They simply have just been playing better, and look to continue that as Andrew Painter (RHP, 1-2, 5.25 ERA) looks to make a switch himself against Noble Meyer (RHP, 1-0, 3.30 ERA) and bump the Phillies win streak to 5 games.

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