Offensive Explosion in 8th Leads Phillies to 6-3 Victory Over A’s

The Phillies are known to fight their way through games and are known to do it in a multitude of ways. Since Don Mattingly has taken over as the manager of this Phillies team, they’ve returned to that fighting style.

Wednesday night, the decision was a come-from-behind victory to steal the win out of the hands of the Athletics. The come-from-behind 6-3 win gave the Phillies the series victory, their 3rd straight series victory, and they are now 8-1 with Mattingly at the helm.

The Phillies spent the vast majority of Wednesday night trailing, including heading into the 8th down by 1. Entering the bottom half of the 8th, the Phillies had the heart of their lineup up, and they delivered. Kyle Schwarber led the inning off with a walk, Bryce Harper grounded to former New York Met Jeff McNeil, who made an errant throw to 2nd base to put 2 men on with no outs. Adolis Garcia loaded the bases with a single, then Edmundo Sosa put the Phils on top with a 2-run single to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead. They then added 2 more with a Brandon Marsh single and Justin Crawford groundout. The Phillies brought all 9 hitters to the plate en route to a 4-run inning.

“That middle of the order tonight kept pressure on them all night,” Mattingly said postgame.

That fact is part of why the Phillies have had such success since Mattingly has taken over; the middle of the order has been able to cause innings they come up in, especially during the later parts of games, to have such high stakes and opportunity to break games open. Marsh has become one of the most successful contact hitters in the league this year. Garcia has been heating up, including a 2-hit night with a homer on Wednesday. Those two men, including other hitters like Bryson Stott, Sosa, and Harper, are part of what led the 8th inning on Wednesday night to have such high stakes.

The 8th inning would not have had the stakes it had if it had not been for solid pitching throughout the night, leading up to the 8th. Zack Wheeler made his return to Citizens Bank Park, his first start since August 2, 2025. In his first start, he delivered just what was needed. He pitched into the 7th, and while he gave up 3 runs, he was able to keep an underrated offense at bay for the most part, outside of a few pitches that the A’s took advantage of. Wheeler finished his night with a line of 6.1 innings pitched, 3 runs allowed on 5 hits, and striking out 4. He was not perfect, but for his season still being in the early stages and getting back into a groove, he’s doing enough to make sure the offense stays in the game.

“I still feel like I’m not myself, but, you know, we’ll get there,” Wheeler said postgame. “It’s mostly just how I feel, honestly, then result-wise.”

Another part of what kept the offense in the game was how solid the bullpen performed. Tim Mayza closed the door on the 7th inning after Wheeler got the first out of the inning. In 7 pitches, Mayza got two solid young hitters in Lawrence Butler and Zack Gelof to ground out and strike out, respectively. Jose Alvarado came in and struggled getting the final out of the 8th, because of that, Orion Kerkering entered with 2 Athletics on the base paths. Coming in with runners on was a situation that Kerkering struggled with in 2025; overall, this season, he has done much better in those spots, including quickly the final out of the inning on the first batter he faced.

The 9th got scary once again. Brad Keller came in for the save, since Jhoan Duran spent so long on the mound in Tuesday night’s victory, he wasn’t available. Keller gave Phillies fans a mini heart attack by loading the bases, putting the tying run on base and the go-ahead run at the plate with one of the Athletics’ most dangerous hitters in front of him in Jacob Wilson. Keller got Wilson to get choked up on a high-inside sinker back to Keller, who tossed it to Harper to end the inning and game, unscathed.

The Phillies look to sweep the Athletics on Thursday as Andrew Painter takes the mound at 6:40 PM ET.

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