The Phils would have officially clinched a playoff berth if they won the series finale but the Magic Number remains one. The Phillies will clinch with their next win or the next loss by the Mets or Braves.

Their next series is against the Mets – four games Thursday through Sunday at Citi Field — giving the Phils a chance to also clinch their first NL East title since 2011 this weekend.

The Phillies scored in the second, the Brewers responded in the fifth with a Rhys Hoskins solo home run and walked off in the ninth when Jake Bauers singled off Carlos Estevez after a Jackson Chourio leadoff triple.

Aaron Nola did all he could, allowing just three hits and a run over seven innings with nine strikeouts. It was a terrific bounce-back performance after he gave up 11 runs and four homers in nine innings over his prior two starts.

“There are certain guys that are big-game guys and he’s one of ‘em,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I don’t worry too much about him having back-to-back poor performances.”

Two of the three hits belonged to Hoskins, who doubled in the bottom of the second and hit a solo shot in the fifth. The Brewers hit just two home runs in 54 innings against the Phillies this season and both belonged to Hoskins — Wednesday off Nola and June 3 off Zack Wheeler.

“Right when he hit it, just feel like I’ve seen it a lot from our side,” Nola said. “I’ve seen that guy hit curveballs out plenty of times. Honestly, it didn’t surprise me. He put a good swing on it. He’s a tough at-bat. I’ve seen it for many years.”

The Phils’ lineup went 3-for-23 with runners in scoring position in the series and struck out 40 times.

“I don’t think it’s anything to freak out about,” Alec Bohm said. “Obviously, we could put the ball in play a little more but we’re going up against a pretty good pitching staff over there. Would it be nice to put the ball in play a couple more times here and there? Sure. But I don’t think it’s anything that we’re gonna go bang our heads against the wall and figure out why we’re striking out so much or anything like that. 

“Running into a good pitching staff, you get down to the end of the year, things get amplified and people notice a little more. But I don’t think it’s a thing we’ll keep seeing.

“We take pride in being able to hit good pitching. Typically we do a pretty good job of it. Obviously a couple games in this series we did punch out a lot but we did put up five runs in a game punching out 17 times, so it doesn’t tell the whole story. But I think obviously we’re gonna want to not keep doing that.”

Bohm put the Phillies on the board with a one-out solo homer just over the wall in left-center vs. Freddy Peralta in the top of the third, a sweet line-drive swing on a slider low and over the middle. It was Bohm’s 14th home run, 90th RBI and first big knock since returning from the injured list on Sunday.

But the opportunities were scarce thereafter against Peralta and the Brewers’ top-tier bullpen. The Phillies’ only hits after the second inning were leadoff singles in the sixth and eighth by Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber.

The best chance was the sixth when Bryce Harper followed Turner’s single with a walk after a lengthy plate appearance against right-hander Joe Ross. The next hitter, Nick Castellanos, struck out on three pitches. The Phillies tried twice to execute a double steal with Bohm at the plate but he fouled off both pitches, so his eventual flyball to deep right-center advanced the runners to second and third rather than drive one in. A groundout later, the Brewers were out of the inning.

The Phillies still accomplished one of their goals in Milwaukee by winning at least once to secure the head-to-head tiebreaker. They’re 91-61 with 10 games left — four at the Mets, three with the Cubs, three at the Nationals. The Phils lead the Dodgers by two games for the top overall playoff seed and are four ahead of the Brewers.

They hand the ball to Taijuan Walker for Thursday’s series opener against the Mets after three weeks out of the rotation.

Start after start, month after month, year after year, Wheeler has shown up when the Phillies have needed him. Sometimes it’s been to stop a skid. Sometimes it’s to extend a winning streak. Sometimes it’s to set a tone for a series. Sometimes it’s to win a series.

“He’s the Cy Young, man,” Bryce Harper said Tuesday night. “I don’t think anybody in baseball is better than him at this point. People down in Atlanta probably think the same thing about the guy throwing down there. I think he got robbed of it three years ago and I believe he earned it this year.”

Wheeler led the Phillies to a 5-1 win Tuesday, a massive result because it was effectively two wins for the price of one, increasing their lead over the Brewers to five games — four plus the tiebreaker.

The victory clinched the Phillies the season series over Milwaukee. They’re 91-60 and lead the Brewers by five games with 11 to play, positioning the Phils tremendously well to earn at least a top-two seed and first-round playoff bye.

The Phils also picked up a game on the Dodgers, who surprisingly lost a slugfest in Miami. They lead the Dodgers by three games for the top overall playoff seed — two plus the tiebreaker.

Harper made Wheeler a winner with an opposite-field, two-run homer off Frankie Montas in the sixth inning of a tie game. It was Harper’s third in four games and 29th of the season.

“He’s been swinging well,” Wheeler said. “The home runs hadn’t been there but he doesn’t always need to hit home runs. As long as he’s getting hits and putting good at-bats together, home runs will come. I told him probably a week ago, just keep swinging and keep doing your thing, home runs will come.”

Nick Castellanos put the Phils on the board early with a first-pitch, leadoff homer to center in the top of the second, his 21st of the year. It was a welcome sign for a player who’d hit .178 over his last 13 games and .114 in September against starting pitchers.

The Brewers were held in check most of the night by Wheeler. He pitched seven innings of one-run ball, worked ahead, missed bats, threw his four-seamer just above the zone for called strikes and whiffs, froze hitters with two-seamers, induced weak contact … did all the things he usually does.

It’s mid-September and Wheeler reached back to hit 97 mph late in the win.

“He used his fastball more than probably any other start this year,” manager Rob Thomson said. “They just saw the life to it, it had ride up and sink down. They stayed with it and it was really effective. Just a great performance.”

The only inning Milwaukee posed a threat was the bottom of the fourth when William Contreras singled and Garrett Mitchell tripled him in with one out. Wheeler struck out the next hitter, Willy Adames, on three pitches and ended the inning with a flyout to right.

Wheeler is 16-6 with a 2.56 ERA and 0.95 WHIP through 30 starts. He’s allowed the lowest rate of hits and baserunners in the National League. He’s struck out 205 and walked 49 through 186⅔ innings. This has been his best regular season as a Phillie.

He’s still probably the Cy Young runner-up as of today to Chris Sale, who is 17-3 with a 2.35 ERA and 219 strikeouts, leading the NL in each category. But if Sale gets lit up once or twice in his final two starts and Wheeler gives the Phillies two more like this, the numbers and race will even out.

“He’s really something, man,” Thomson said. “He’s been so consistent ever since he’s gotten here. He’s earned every penny he’s made. He’s so huge to this club. He just takes the ball and can manhandle people when he wants to.”

Beyond having Wheeler on the hill, Thomson also knew he was working with a rested bullpen. Matt Strahm hadn’t pitched since last Wednesday, Carlos Estevez and Jeff Hoffman since Saturday or Orion Kerkering since Sunday. They’re the Phillies’ core four relievers, all boasting ERAs between 1.76 and 2.03.

Wheeler handed the ball off to the bullpen with a three-run lead after Kyle Schwarber added seventh-inning insurance by singling in the returning Edmundo Sosa. Trea Turner drove in another in the top of the ninth with a two-out single after Johan Rojas walked and stole second.

The Phillies are 9-2 this season against the Dodgers and the Brewers, the teams with the second- and third-best records. They’re 23-10 against the other five teams currently in NL playoff position, with the next-best record belonging to the Padres at 20-20.

“I think when you get done with the season, it’s over. You’ve got to keep going. The postseason’s a different animal,” Harper said. “It’s different. It excites me. I think every guy in this clubhouse has the same demeanor. I know as a team we just want to be healthy going in and try to do the job we can.”

Wednesday night offers a chance at a series win and for Aaron Nola to find a rhythm ahead of the playoffs after giving up 11 runs in his last nine innings.

“We needed a win here, for sure,” Thomson said. “Try and win the series tomorrow. Just getting the tiebreaker over these guys is gonna be huge coming down the stretch.”

Suarez was one of the most important parts of the Phillies’ tremendous first half, going 10-1 with a 1.75 ERA in his first 15 starts, but he hasn’t been nearly the same guy his last 10 times out. He has a 5.61 ERA since June 25, missing a month from July 27 to August 24 with lower back soreness.

He allowed three runs and needed 104 pitches to get through five innings. The decisive frame was the bottom of the third when leadoff man Jackson Chourio walked and Blake Perkins singled off Suarez with one out for Willson Contreras, who laced a two-run double to left-center on a full count. The Phillies looked up from that point forward.

“I think I was battling myself tonight,” he said. “That was the main reason why I left the game so early. A lot of pitches. A lot of two-strike counts. I just wasn’t as effective as I usually am with those.”

Suarez walked Rhys Hoskins to begin the bottom of the fourth and quickly found himself in a second-and-third, no-out jam. He rebounded with a flyout, groundout and strikeout but the Brewers added another run.

The lefty had a scare in the inning, slipping as he came off the mound to field a softly-hit groundball. Suarez’ left foot gave way and he landed on his right wrist, but he remained in the game and retired the final four hitters he faced.

It wasn’t a terrible night, but Suarez’ command wasn’t sharp. He walked three — two of which scored — and spent nearly as much of the night behind in the count as he did ahead.

“He had trouble finishing hitters off tonight,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I think he had 16 two-strike counts and only five punchouts. That’s a little bit low for him. You’ve got to give them credit, they put some good at-bats on him, but those walks hurt.”

As fantastic as he was through mid-June, Suarez probably lines up as the Phillies’ No. 4 starter in a playoff series at this point. He has been clearly out-pitched the last month by Cristopher Sanchez, and if the Phillies end up starting Sanchez in Game 2 of the NLDS, they’d likely split up the righties and lefties, using Aaron Nola in Game 3.

There are still more than two weeks until that decision has to be made. Game 1 of the NLDS is October 5.

“First of all, we have to get there,” Suarez said when asked about finding a rhythm ahead of the playoffs.

Thomson has referred to Suarez’ last few starts as basically rehab starts since he did not go on a rehab assignment after missing four weeks with his back injury. Suarez disputed that notion, though.

“No, I’m not calling it that,” he said. “I think there’s a reason why I didn’t go on a rehab assignment and it’s because I didn’t need it. I just think that I battled myself tonight more than usual.

“Executing those 0-2, 1-2 pitches better and finishing off counts, that’s gonna be one of the goals I set for myself.”

The series in Milwaukee this week is a potential playoff preview and carries great importance in the National League playoff field. The Phils are three games ahead of the Brewers with the head-to-head tiebreaker, making it a de facto four-game lead.

The Phillies are aiming for the top overall seed and their lead over the Dodgers is two games — one plus the tiebreaker. The top seed aside, beating up on the Brewers this week would get the Phils closer to guaranteeing themselves at least one of the top two playoff positions, both of which receive byes.

If the Phillies win the next two nights, they’ll head to New York with a six-game lead over the Brewers.

If they end up losing two of three in Milwaukee, they’ll head to New York with a four-game lead over the Brewers (three plus the tiebreaker).

And if they’re swept at American Family Field, the Phillies will be just two games ahead of the Brewers and no longer in possession of the tiebreaker since they’d have split the season’s six meetings. The next tiebreaker is record within your own division and the Brewers (30-19) have a decent advantage over the Phillies (27-18).

Kyle Schwarber appeared to homer on the first pitch of the game Monday but it was barely foul and he struck out looking two pitches later. Brewers right-hander Aaron Civale K’d seven over five innings, allowing just a solo homer to Brandon Marsh in the top of the fifth.

The Phillies didn’t help themselves by running into two outs in the third inning. Cal Stevenson walked but was thrown out at third on a Trea Turner single to right field. Then Turner mistimed Civale’s delivery and took off too early for second base, resulting in a caught stealing.

The sixth inning was a prime comeback opportunity when Schwarber and Turner opened with singles, down two, to chase Civale. But the Brewers turned to former Phillies lefty Hoby Milner and Bryce Harper lined out, Nick Castellanos struck out and Alec Bohm grounded out back to the mound.

The Phillies put their first two men on in the seventh against Milner but managed only one run. The Brewers’ bullpen has the lowest ERA in the National League at 3.17. The first two relievers the Phillies used — Jose Alvarado and Tanner Banks — were erratic and combined to allow three runs.

“We got enough hits to score some runs but it just didn’t happen,” Thomson said.

The Phils look to even the series on Tuesday night behind their ace, Zack Wheeler (15-6, 2.60). The Brewers will start Frankie Montas (7-10, 4.49).

This was the biggest game of his life.

Cal Stevenson delivered his second late game-winner of the week, hitting a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning Saturday, then leaping over the wall in center field to rob J.D. Martinez of a game-tying homer 10 minutes later.

Stevenson perfectly tracked and timed Martinez’ deep flyball to begin the top of the eighth, catching it in the palm of his glove to preserve the Phillies’ lead in a 6-4 win over the Mets.

“It kinda moves in slow motion just because when it’s up there, you know you have time,” he said. “Thank god I squeezed onto it. I think I almost over-jumped to catch it.”

The 28-year-old reserve outfielder was also the hero on Tuesday night, hitting the game-winning two-run double with one out in the eighth against the Rays. Stevenson was recalled last week from Triple A and is making the most of increased playing time with Austin Hays sidelined by a kidney infection.

“That one tops it, that one for sure tops it,” Stevenson said of Saturday compared to Tuesday. “It’s been a good (week). It feels good to contribute this late in the year to this team. We’re fighting for a 1-seed and the best record in baseball. Obviously, I don’t get a whole lot of opportunities, so when I do get in there, you want to make the most of them.”

The big guns like Bryce Harper and Trea Turner have come through for the Phillies this week but they’ve won four of five games largely because their depth pieces have stepped up. On Monday, Buddy Kennedy and Kody Clemens keyed the walk-off. On Tuesday and Saturday, Stevenson provided the late lead. On Wednesday, Weston Wilson had the game-winning infield hit and third-string catcher Aramis Garcia nailed a runner trying to steal second with nobody out in the ninth inning of a one-run game.

“I said to (Cal) today, I said to Buddy the other day, I said if you can take those at-bats in that situation, you can take any at-bat in your career,” Harper relayed. “In that moment, 40,000-plus people, big situation, I think that’s why we rely so heavily on our young guys, on guys like that, because we know that they can come through. I don’t think the moment was too big at all.”

Saturday’s win evened the Phillies’ series with the Mets and improved them to 89-59 with 14 games to play. It looked for a while like a loss before Harper provided two huge jolts of energy to the dugout and sellout crowd of 44,563, finally ending a five-week personal home run drought with two in the span of two innings.

Harper went 128 plate appearances from August 9 through Saturday without a homer. He’s been ripping the ball all week at Citizens Bank Park but settling for doubles (and a single) off the wall.

“I don’t think I missed anything. I don’t understand how the ball’s not going,” he said on Tuesday after doubling three times. “You hit it at 108 (mph) at 20 or 22 (degrees) and it’s not going outta the yard. I’ve never seen that at The Bank.”

It all ended in the bottom of the fourth Saturday when Harper sent a solo shot over the wall in left-center against Luis Severino. Batting in the bottom of the sixth, he cracked a no-doubter to right field, a two-run shot and his 28th of the year.

Excluding Harper, the Phillies had been 1-for-18 over the first six innings but put two men on base quickly in the seventh with consecutive singles by Bryson Stott and J.T. Realmuto. Brandon Marsh bunted foul for strike one but then laid a nice one down the third-base line to advance both runners. The successful sacrifice bunt has eluded the Phillies much of the year, and players like Marsh and Johan Rojas could find themselves in an important sacrifice opportunity in the postseason.

Wilson struck out looking for the second out of the seventh and Stevenson fell behind in the count 1-2 against 99 mph-throwing righty Reid Garrett before lacing his double off the wall in right. He received a massive ovation when catching the final out of the eighth, three batters after robbing Martinez. Realmuto provided insurance with a two-out RBI double in the bottom half.

The Phillies are 21-9 against the other five teams in National League playoff position, far better than any of the rest. The Padres are 20-20, the Diamondbacks are 18-21, the Dodgers are 19-23, the Mets are 14-17 and the Brewers are 10-12.

The Phils go for the series win on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. Cristopher Sanchez (10-9, 3.33) starts opposite left-hander David Peterson (9-2, 2.98).

“We’re ahead of them eight games but there’s still some time left and we’re trying to create some space between them,” Stevenson said. “That one felt good just to come through for the guys, especially with two outs late in the game.”

Wilson started at third base after Kyle Schwarber was scratched from the initial lineup with the elbow contusion he suffered Tuesday night. Bryce Harper moved to DH and Kody Clemens slid across the diamond to first base. Batting with two outs and runners on the corners in the sixth inning of a tie game, Wilson made soft contact on a 97 mph sinker in on his hands and it reached no man’s land between the mound and third base. He beat out the infield single and the Phillies beat the Rays, 3-2.

The Phils have won nine of 11 games, 14 of their last 18, and at 88-58 are farther over .500 than they’ve been all season.

“What can I say? It all seems like the best thing in the world when you’re on the best team in baseball with the best record in baseball and best teammates in baseball,” said Jose Alvarado, who pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, his third in a row. “It all feels so nice. I’m just proud of everything we’ve been doing and the results we’ve been getting.”

By retaking the lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Phillies’ offense helped Zack Wheeler to his 15th win. Wheeler is 15-6 with a 2.60 ERA and National League-best 0.97 WHIP through 29 starts.

The Phillies’ ace has, at most, three more starts in the regular season but the final one lines up for Game 161 or 162, which would be meaningless if the Phillies clinch their playoff position prior. If they do, Wheeler is more likely to make an abbreviated start that final weekend.

Unfortunately for Wheeler, it could be another Cy Young runner-up season, just like 2021 when he lost out to Corbin Burnes despite pitching 46 more innings. Chris Sale (16-3, 2.38) has been every bit as dominant as Wheeler, going 16 straight starts without allowing more than two runs. He also has the lifetime achievement narrative on his side as a 35-year-old who finished in the top five of Cy Young voting six straight seasons from 2013-18 without ever winning one. Wheeler will need Sale to get lit up to jump him in the race.

Both Sale and Wheeler should also receive mid-ballot MVP votes. Shohei Ohtani, Francisco Lindor and Marcell Ozuna will likely finish 1-2-3 but the whole field is open beyond them, and both starting pitchers rank inside the Top 10 in the National League in Wins Above Replacement (hitters included).

Nick Castellanos staked the Phillies to an early lead with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first, his 20th. A few hours earlier, Rays manager Kevin Cash walked over to him during batting practice to apologize for Edwin Uceta intentionally hitting him with a pitch after the Phillies scored five runs on Uceta in the eighth inning Tuesday night. Uceta was suspended three games by MLB and immediately began serving it Wednesday. Castellanos was hit again in the eighth inning Wednesday by Rays reliever Kevin Kelly but there didn’t appear to be any intent and there was no more drama.

“Cash came over to me when I was hitting with (son) Liam and apologized for it, said all the right things and sounded sincere about it,” Castellanos said. “I think it’s awesome that they recognized there was foul play, not just the cliche, ‘Oh, I don’t know why he’s upset.’ I have respect for Cash for being honest and sticking up. There’s a right way to play the game and there’s a wrong way to play the game. Just admitting that is all I can ask for, and now it’s just moving forward.”

Pitching with the early lead built by Castellanos, Wheeler wiggled his way out of trouble in the second, third and fourth innings.

Eight of his first nine pitches in the second were outside the strike zone, leading to two walks and a run. He nearly got through the inning without allowing a run but nine-hole hitter Taylor Walls singled one in with two outs. Wheeler then allowed a leadoff triple and leadoff double in the third and fourth but neither scored, nor did Brandon Lowe after a one-out walk in the fifth.

Bryson Stott had a lot to do with that. He made a quick transition from glove to throwing hand to nail Jonathan Aranda at the plate with one out and the infield in during the fourth inning. Everything about the play was textbook and Stott needed to be as efficient as he was because Aranda still nearly beat the tag. Aranda gave Wheeler more trouble than anyone else Wednesday, walking, doubling and homering. Carlos Estevez retired him on one pitch to start the top of the ninth.

Matt Strahm pitched a scoreless seventh inning, lowering his ERA to 2.06. Alvarado has gone seven in a row without allowing a run. He’s trending up at an important time in a bullpen that already has four others — Strahm, Jeff Hoffman, Orion Kerkering and Estevez — pitching lights-out.

The Phillies are off Thursday and should have both Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto back Friday to begin a three-game home series against the Mets, who have moved a half-game ahead of the Braves for the final NL wild-card spot. The Phils play the Mets seven times in their final 16 games and all of them will be huge.

“I thought we played three very complete baseball games,” Castellanos said. “I also liked how everybody did something to contribute each night, it wasn’t one guy that carried the torch, we won as a team.”

The first pitch Uceta threw was a 96 mph sinker, his fastest pitch of the entire season, directly at Castellanos’ front hip.

“I got into the box and I wasn’t even swinging because I thought there was a chance that could happen. I think that he was just pissed off that his numbers got messed up,” Castellanos said postgame.

“An overwhelming sense that I was about to get drilled. I can’t explain it. I know that he had pretty good numbers going into that. Just watching him, I could see him getting frustrated, and I was digging in, I’m like, I’m gonna take this pitch to see if he’s around the plate and it wasn’t anywhere near the plate.”

Castellanos reacted instantly, pointing at Uceta and calling BS. He was restrained by home plate umpire John Libka, but Bryce Harper was just as peeved at second base. He rapidly approached the mound and at one point was surrounded by Rays as both benches cleared.

Uceta was ejected after the situation died down.

“We all kinda got a sense of what it was, that he was just pissed off that he got hit around and his ERA shot through the roof,” Castellanos said. “I think Bryce kinda felt the same thing that I did. That wasn’t even close.”

Uceta is Tampa Bay’s best healthy reliever and he entered with the game tied. Brandon Marsh worked a walk and Kody Clemens doubled him over to third. Pinch-hitter Cal Stevenson delivered the game-winning hit, a two-run double off Uceta. Buddy Kennedy singled him in and Trea Turner capped off the rally with his second two-run homer of the game.

Uceta’s ERA doubled and Castellanos and Harper enjoyed getting a few jabs in postgame.

“I just told him that was bull****,” Castellanos said. “You’re throwing a baseball over 90 mph and you’re frustrated and you’re gonna throw at somebody? That’s like my two-year-old throwing a fit because I take away his dessert before he’s finished.”

Harper was just as direct.

“He hit him on purpose,” he said. “It’s not the game that we play, it shouldn’t be, guys throw too hard nowadays. You’re getting mad because a guy hits a homer off you or you blow the lead. Walk the guy and come out of the game. I mean, what are you gonna do? The whole thing really fired me up, really upset me. Just not something that you should accept as Major League Baseball.

“The guy’s got a 0.74. There’s just no reason to drill a guy because you give up some runs. It’s just not right.”

These sorts of situations can sometimes be galvanizing moments for a team, but the Phillies are rolling anyway. They’ve won 18 of 25 games and have the best record in baseball at 87-58.

“We don’t really need moments like that because we are that type of team,” Harper said. “If we’re going to dinner or hanging out, watching football in here, we’re a very close-knit team. When something like that happens, you just get upset because it’s not right. We don’t need moments like that to bring us together. We know what we need to do, we understand what the goal is, we’ve just got to keep going.”

On Tuesday, it was Cal Stevenson.

These Lehigh Valley IronPigs are sure making an impact on the National League playoff race.

Stevenson came off the bench with runners on second and third and one out in an eventful bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night against the Rays and smashed a game-winning two-run double on a 2-2 count against Edwin Uceta.

It propelled the Phillies to a 9-4 win, their second late victory in a row over the Rays. They won via walk-off Monday night when Kennedy walked with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to load the bases and Clemens singled in the winning run.

Kennedy had another big plate appearance Tuesday, singling in Stevenson with two outs for additional insurance. It extended the inning for Trea Turner, who hit his second two-run homer of the game to break it open.

The inning got even crazier from there. Bryce Harper doubled to the opposite field and Uceta’s first pitch to Nick Castellanos was a 96 mph sinker to the left hip.

Castellanos immediately pointed and walked toward Uceta, removed his elbow guard and had to be held back by home plate umpire John Libka. From the other side, Harper also took exception and approached the mound from second base. The benches cleared and at one point a fuming Harper was surrounded by a handful of Rays, but no punches were thrown by either side.

Uceta was ejected.

Just 10 days ago, all three of Clemens, Stevenson and Kennedy were at Triple A Lehigh Valley. Clemens was called up on September 1 when rosters expanded from 26 to 28, Stevenson came up on September 5 when Austin Hays was placed on the injured list with a kidney infection and Kennedy came up a day later when Alec Bohm went on the IL with a left hand strain.

All the pieces matter and they’ve sure mattered this week for a banged-up team without Bohm, Hays, J.T. Realmuto, Edmundo Sosa and maybe now Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber set the major-league record in the first inning with his 14th leadoff home run of the season but exited in the fourth with elbow discomfort. The injury may have occurred on a dive back to first base on a pickoff attempt after his third-inning walk.

The top three spots in the Phillies’ order — Schwarber (then Kennedy), Turner and Harper — combined to go 9-for-14 with three homers and three doubles.

Harper’s home run drought has reached 119 plate appearances but he’s been extremely productive during it, hitting .337/.410/.471.

The Phillies took leads in each of the first three innings but starter Ranger Suarez was unable to protect all three. He was knocked around, allowing a career-high 12 hits over 5⅓ innings. He also allowed eight balls in play over 100 mph. These weren’t cheapies.

Suarez has pitched with diminished velocity in his last two starts. His sinker has averaged 90.9 mph for the season but was 89.9 on Tuesday and 88.9 last Thursday in Miami. It matters because it’s the pitch he throws the most. Suarez threw 45% sinkers against the Rays.

The sound of the contact increased by the batter in the top of the sixth but manager Rob Thomson tried to get his lefty through two more hitters atop Tampa Bay’s lineup. It didn’t work out with Cristopher Morel tripling and Jonathan Aranda walking on a full count.

Cristopher Sanchez has excelled over his last five starts, has a 3.33 ERA for the year and if the season ended today, he might start ahead of Suarez in a playoff series. There are still three weeks before that will come into play but Suarez’ velocity and the overall crispness of his stuff will be closely monitored by the Phillies all month. He has three starts left.

Orion Kerkering relieved Suarez with one out and a man on third base in a tie game and continued his stellar season with a strikeout and dribbler in front of the plate fielded by Garrett Stubbs. Kerkering has a 2.06 ERA on the season. Matt Strahm (2.10) pitched a scoreless seventh. Their stinginess kept the game where it was ahead of the fateful bottom of the eighth.

The Phillies are 87-58 with 17 games to play. They’ve won 18 of their last 25 and will end the night with the best record in baseball since they have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. All of these wins are crucial for home-field advantage because the Dodgers’ remaining schedule is mostly a cakewalk with nine of their final 12 against the Marlins and Rockies.

With two outs and two on in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game Monday night, Phillies manager Rob Thomson called the number of Buddy Kennedy, a reserve infielder from nearby Millville, NJ who grew up a Phils fan along with childhood buddy Mike Trout. 

Kennedy had taken all of two plate appearances as a Phillie, striking out and walking at the end of Sunday’s blowout loss in Miami. Despite being a local kid, he’s not exactly a familiar face or household name. 

Yet spontaneously, almost in unison, a Citizens Bank Park crowd of 39,511 began a chant as Kennedy stepped to the plate. 

“BUDDY, BUDDY, BUDDY…”

Ball one. 

“BUDDY, BUDDY, BUDDY…”

Strike one. 

When ball three wasn’t particularly close, the chant grew louder. Nick Castellanos said two weeks ago that it felt like October was around the corner and the decibel level Monday night matched. 

Kennedy drew a full-count walk and the crowd erupted, almost an anticipatory celebration a la Brett Myers vs. CC Sabathia. 

Up came Kody Clemens. 

And the chant followed. 

“KODY, KODY, KODY…”

Line-drive, lefty-on-lefty base-hit between first and second to walk the Phillies off, 2-1 over the Rays. 

“Growing up a Phillies fan, being on the fan side of it and chanting all my life, and then being in the box,” Kennedy began, “I was calm and collected when I got in there and then I heard the Buddy chants and was like, ‘OK, dude, you just gotta relax, be in the moment.’ 

“It was something very special and I’ll always remember it for the rest of my life.”

Clemens and Kennedy picked up three of their teammates. 

Closer Carlos Estevez has been lights out but allowed a game-tying leadoff homer in the top of the ninth to Brandon Lowe. 

Johan Rojas nearly made a spectacular robbery but, despite a perfect reaction and timely jump, the ball plopped out of his glove and over the wall. 

And then in the bottom of the ninth, Bryce Harper thought he’d walked the Phillies off with a leadoff homer and admired his work. Problem was, it didn’t have enough height and caromed off the wall in right field. Not hustling out of the box, Harper was held to a single. Thomson said that before he could approach the face of the franchise, Harper walked over to him to apologize. 

“Down here on the field it’s like, yeah it’s a win, but it’s a huge party, everybody’s so excited,” Kennedy said. “Harper came to me after, all the guys said ‘Great at-bat, you did your job.’ I passed the bat to Kody and he came through.“

Clemens has had a flair for the dramatic in the 79 games he’s played as a Phillie with multiple walk-off hits and a game-tying ninth-inning homer. Ironically, he’s been perhaps more impactful than since-traded reliever Gregory Soto, the headliner of the January 2023 deal that brought Clemens to Philadelphia from Detroit. 

Thomson and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski have consistently called Clemens a big-leaguer who’s been a victim of circumstance on a crowded roster. He’s an extra man, but one who has demonstrated value. He was recalled on September 1 when rosters expanded from 26 to 28.

“It was awesome being on deck hearing Buddy’s name,” Clemens said. “I was getting chills for him. And for them to just roll it over to me was really cool, too. 

“There’s been plenty of times when I’ve gotten the short end of the stick. If you pout or go down to Triple A and sulk, you’re not gonna be able to come back up here. I stayed straight, had a good mindset, grinded my way and hoped for another opportunity where I can slide in here. Obviously the team is stacked and there’s a ton of guys on the roster who aren’t going to be moving anywhere but I’m just super happy to be here. I love playing for the Phillies, this team, this fanbase.”

The Phils’ other run came on a solo shot from Kyle Schwarber to open the bottom of the sixth inning. The Phillies had been no-hit to that point. It was Schwarber’s 34th of the year and sixth in seven September games. 

Cristopher Sanchez made another terrific start with six scoreless innings. He has established himself over the last year and change as one of the best and most consistent pitchers in the National League. His 3.33 ERA ranks fifth. He’s pitched a career-high 165 innings and projects to finish north of 180. 

“I’ve been preparing for this. This is not a coincidence, it’s a product of hard work,” he said Monday night.

The Phillies are 86-58, up seven games on the Mets and eight on the Braves with 18 to play. 

With a Dodgers loss, they’ll wake up Tuesday morning back atop MLB’s overall standings. 

Kennedy expects to wake up to a text from Trout. 

“I’ll probably get something from him either tonight or tomorrow,” he said. “He’s definitely gonna see it and be like oh, let’s go!

“Just a moment you can never take back or write.”

He timed his leap perfectly.

Brandon Lowe’s loud, dangerous fly ball found its way into the centerfielder’s glove, but only for a split-second before popping out and over the short wall for a game-tying, ninth-inning home run.

Rojas, who appeared to think he made the play, gazed at his glove in shock. The crowd of 39,511 quickly transitioned from cheers to groans. Second baseman Bryson Stott put his hands on his head and closer Carlos Estevez crouched in disbelief.

A half-inning later, none of it mattered. Kody Clemens picked up Estevez and Rojas and walked the Phillies off with a lefty-on-lefty, bases-loaded single in a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Phillies filled the sacks on a single by Bryce Harper, a two-out infield single from Bryson Stott and a full-count walk by reserve infielder Buddy Kennedy in just his third plate appearance with the team.

The Phillies improved to 86-58 with 18 games left. They entered the night a game behind the Dodgers for the top record in the National League and continued to apply pressure. They also extended their lead to 3½ games over the idle Brewers for the 2-seed, which comes with a bye in the wild-card round. The teams meet next Monday through Wednesday and the Phillies would love to land in Milwaukee with a lead greater than the length of that three-game series.

It was a stellar night for the Phils’ pitching staff. Cristopher Sanchez, Orion Kerkering and Jeff Hoffman kept the Rays off the board through eight innings with no Tampa Bay player reaching scoring position until the top of the eighth.

Sanchez, who came up through the Rays’ system before the Phillies acquired him in November 2019, has a 3.33 ERA in a career-high 165 innings.

Despite the heavy workload, he’s shown no signs of fatigue, pitching to a 2.14 ERA in his last five starts. The Rays were no match for his changeup on Monday night.

The Phillies needed that sort of performance from Sanchez because the offensive futility from Sunday’s 10-1 clunker in Miami carried into the first game of this week’s homestand. The Phils had no hits until Kyle Schwarber blasted a solo home run to right-center to begin the bottom of the sixth. It was Schwarber’s 34th of the season and six in seven games this month.

The Phillies’ lineup is depleted without Alec Bohm, J.T. Realmuto, Austin Hays and Edmundo Sosa. Realmuto might be back this weekend and Sosa might be back Monday, but Bohm and Hays could remain on the injured list even when they’re eligible to return. Bohm still hasn’t been able to swing without pain and the Phillies need him to do so on consecutive days before bringing him back. Realmuto is still dealing with fluid in his left knee after fouling a pitch off it on Friday. Hays has a kidney infection that could sideline him throughout most of September. Sosa is experiencing back spasms.

Without them, the Phillies started six left-handed hitters on Monday: Schwarber, Harper, Stott, Brandon Marsh, Clemens and Garrett Stubbs. It makes them more susceptible against southpaws with Weston Wilson the lone threat off the bench, only increasing the importance of Clemens’ huge at-bat against the Rays.

“There’s been a bunch of pitchers who have had good years,” he said Friday at loanDepot Park. “But Zack Wheeler, to me — and I’m obviously biased — has been so consistent over the years I’ve been here. His ability to come through in big games. Not just playoff games. When we’ve needed a win, or we needed to get a lot of innings to help the bullpen out, he’s done it. He’s done it every time.”

Not every time, maybe, but consistently enough that the conventional wisdom at the moment is that there are two top contenders for that particular piece of hardware, neck-and-neck, coming around the final turn and into the home stretch: Wheeler and Atlanta’s Chris Sale.

Sale might hold a razor-thin edge at the moment but there are three weeks and change left in the season and anything can still happen.

Wheeler continued to make his case Friday night in the Phillies’ 16-2 win over the Marlins. He allowed just two soft hits in six innings, striking out seven with one walk.

“He looked like he was on cruise control out there,” said shortstop Trea Turner.

The only run Wheeler allowed came in the fourth on an infield hit by Connor Norby, a walk to Jake Burger and a two-out grounder up the middle by Otto Lopez that caromed off second base and rolled into left for one of the stranger doubles you’ll ever see.

“He could have gone more,” Thomson said. “But I thought it was kind of silly to run him out for a seventh inning with that big of a lead.”

Wheeler’s now 14-6 with a 2.59 ERA in 28 starts. His WHIP is 0.96 and opponents are hitting .193 against him. He’s pitched 173⅔ innings, striking out 190.

Sale, whose next scheduled turn is against the Blue Jays on Sunday, is 16-3, 2.46 in 26 starts. His WHIP is 1.01 with a .218 opponent’s batting average. He’s struck out 206 in 160⅔ innings.

“It (winning a Cy Young) would mean a lot,” said Wheeler, who was edged out for the honor by Corbin Burns in 2021. “There’s some good competition that I’m going up against. At the same time, I’m just going out there trying to put up zeroes and hope for the best. And that’s all I can do. So I’m just going out there to compete every time and hopefully put our team in a spot to win.”

The Phillies have now won six straight and 11 of their last 13. They lead the second-place Braves and Mets in the National League East by 8 games. Their magic number is 14.

Less than two hours before the first pitch, the Marlins announced a pitching change. Their scheduled starter, righthander Edward Cabrera, had been scratched with “migraine-like symptoms.” Lefty Austin Kitchen got the ball instead.

That, uh, didn’t work out so well.

Five of the first six batters he faced in the top of the first reached base: Kyle Schwarber on a throwing error by first baseman Burger, Turner and Bryson Stott on grounders that barely eluded the glove of shortstop Xavier Edwards; J.T. Realmuto on a grounder that third baseman Norby couldn’t quite corral and a clean single by Bryce Harper.

Three scored.

In the second, it was more of the same. A double by Johan Rojas, an RBI single by Schwarber, a two-run homer by Turner, another double by Harper and a two-out base hit by Realmuto.

Four more scored. Or, to put it another way, in the middle of the second inning, the Marlins were only a run away from being allowed to use a position player to pitch because the score was so out of hand with 21 outs still to go.

That meant Wheeler had to work to stay in rhythm early.

“Those types of games are tough, but at the same time you’ve got to pitch and do well and figure it out,” he said. “I was just throwing the ball against the wall a few times. A little work with the weighted ball trying to stay loose. But I’ll take all the run support I can get.”

Before it was over, every Phillies position player got into the game. Every starter had a hit, including three each for Turner, Harper, Kody Clemens and Rojas. Turner and Schwarber homered. The 16 runs were the most the Phillies have scored all season, eclipsing the 14 they put up against the Giants on May 4.

And, yes, outfielder David Hensley made his pitching debut and mopped up the last two innings for the Marlins.

NEXT MAN DOWN

Realmuto left Friday night’s game in the fourth inning after fouling a pitch off his left knee in his previous at-bat. It was announced that he had suffered a contusion and would undergo further evaluation.

“He’s fine,” Thomson said postgame. “We’ll check him out (Saturday) but Stubby (Garrett Stubbs) was starting anyway. That was planned.”

That came hours after the announcement that third baseman Alec Bohm had been placed on the injured list with a strained left hand and a day after outfielder Austin Hays went on the IL with a kidney infection.

UP NEXT

The Marlins series continues Saturday with Phillies RHP Aaron Nola (12-6, 3.29) facing RHP Darren McCaughan (0-0, 8.74) at 4:10 p.m. and RHP Seth Johnson (making his major-league debut) vs. RHP Max Meyer (3-5, 5.68) in Sunday’s 1:40 p.m. finale.

Schwarber homered three times as part of a five-hit night Tuesday and hit another bomb on the second pitch of Wednesday’s 4-2 win. He’s tied with Alfonso Soriano in 2003 for the most leadoff home runs (13) ever in a season.

Kody Clemens, who had two important at-bats off the bench Tuesday night with an RBI groundout and double ahead of Schwarber’s game-winning homer, gave the Phillies a lead that lasted Wednesday with a two-run homer in the second inning off Bowden Francis.

The Blue Jays jumped on Sanchez with four doubles in their first eight at-bats but did nothing against him thereafter. The lefty delivered seven walk-free innings of two-run ball with seven strikeouts to improve to 10-9 with a 3.45 ERA in 159 innings.

The seven innings from Sanchez were crucial because the Phillies used six relievers to get from the bottom of the first to the bottom of the ninth Tuesday after Tyler Phillips recorded only two outs. They needed only Jeff Hoffman (1.82 ERA) and Carlos Estevez (2.17), who did what they usually do by throwing up goose eggs.

The Phillies are 83-56 and rolling. They’ve won four consecutive series over the Royals, Astros, Braves and Blue Jays, going 9-3 in the process. They continue to maintain a nearly insurmountable division lead over the Braves, stay ahead of the Brewers for the 2-seed and keep pace with the Dodgers for the top overall record.

A sour note in the win was Bryce Harper’s early exit. Harper was hit by a pitch on the left elbow in his first and only plate appearance. He was clearly in pain but remained in the game until his second at-bat when Edmundo Sosa pinch-hit.

Harper is more than a little banged up. He’s dealing with a wrist injury that has lingered for three-plus months, soreness in his right elbow and now pain in the left elbow. It would not be at all surprising to see manager Rob Thomson play it safe with him against the Marlins, even if it means sitting one game.

The Phillies have also played five in a row without Alec Bohm, who strained his left hand on a swing last Thursday. The team is hopeful to have Bohm back for the four-game series in Miami Thursday through Sunday and Thomson reiterated in Toronto that it’s not an IL situation.

The Phils will start Ranger Suarez, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola in their first three games at loanDepot Park. Sunday is TBD after Phillips was optioned to Triple A on Wednesday.

It was without a doubt their most dramatic. 

They inched back into the game by taking good at-bats in nearly every inning after falling behind by five runs in the first and finally went ahead on a three-run blast in the top of the ninth from Kyle Schwarber, who had the best night of his major-league career in an epic 10-9 Phillies win. 

Schwarber went 5-for-6 with three home runs, a double and six RBI against the Blue Jays. He led off the game with a no-doubter off Chris Bassitt, took Bassitt out again in the top of the fourth to make it a two-run game and capped off a tense nine-pitch at-bat against Chad Green in the ninth with his third of the game. 

Schwarber had not homered since hitting a grand slam against the Marlins on August 14. A week earlier, he hit three home runs and drove in seven at Dodger Stadium. 

Schwarber is the only Phillie in the modern era with two three-homer games in the same season. He’s hitting .245/.379/.474 with 31 homers, 88 RBI, 92 runs scored and a National League-leading 94 walks. He’s also struck out 47 fewer times than last season. 

Schwarber’s ninth-inning plate appearance was far from the only long, professional at-bat worked by the Phillies. They had 18 hits, six walks and a hit batsman. They went just 4-for-19 with runners in scoring position but made them count. 

September call-up Kody Clemens came off the bench and had enormous at-bats, an 11-pitch RBI groundout in the seventh that brought the Phillies within two runs, and a ninth-inning double down the first-base line to put two runners in scoring position ahead of Schwarber’s game-winner. 

The Phillies needed all the offense because Tyler Phillips was blown up for six runs in the first inning. He recorded only two outs and put eight men on base before being lifted for Tanner Banks. Phillips was tentatively in line to start again Sunday in Miami but that’s likely TBD now. Kolby Allard is not eligible to be recalled from Triple A again until next Tuesday, September 10. 

Rob Thomson used Banks, a returning Jose Alvarado, Taijuan Walker in his bullpen debut, Jose Ruiz, Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm to cover the final seven innings. They’ll need innings out of Cristopher Sanchez on Wednesday afternoon. 

Castellanos came out of the game after being hit by a pitch, and Bryce Harper appeared to tweak something in his final at-bat, wincing in pain and dropping the bat as he struck out. Their statuses should be updated ahead of Wednesday’s game. 

The Phillies are on a real roll. They won two of three in Kansas City, two of three over the Astros, three of four over the Braves and started their six-game road trip with one of their most triumphant nights of the year. 

They came back Tuesday from deficits of 6-1 and 8-4. Last week, the Phillies trailed by multiple runs in the fifth inning or later in five of the seven games of their homestand yet went 5-2. 

The Phils are 82-56 with 24 games to play.

Nick Castellanos tied the game with a two-out double on an 0-2 count in the bottom of the sixth and walked the Phils off with a two-out single in the 11th after again starting the count 0-2.

It sent the sellout crowd of 43,249 home deliriously happy, just like after Bryce Harper’s walk-off hit Monday, Castellanos’ huge game Tuesday, the four-run comeback Thursday and the Zack Wheeler-led shutout Saturday.

“It definitely feels like October’s around the corner,” Castellanos said.

The Phillies took three of four from the Braves after winning two of three over the Astros. It was their best week in months. They’re seven games ahead of Atlanta without a head-to-head matchup the rest of the season, which will make closing the gap extremely difficult for the Braves.

“We don’t get cold feet, that’s what it looks like and that’s what it feels like,” Carlos Estevez said when asked his first impressions on the Phillies-Braves rivalry.

“Really important. We were kind of struggling, and stepping on the gas and doing this, taking a bigger lead, that’s more insurance and feels really good.”

The Phils are 81-56 with 25 games to play. They’re a game behind the Dodgers for the 1-seed in the National League and lead the Brewers by a game for the 2-seed.

Aaron Nola and Spencer Schwellenbach engaged in a pitchers’ duel for most of the first six innings and the back of the Phillies’ bullpen locked things down from there.

Orion Kerkering, Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm and Estevez followed with five zeroes and combined for 15⅓ scoreless innings this week. Estevez retired all six hitters he faced with the auto-runner in scoring position in the 10th and 11th. It was a stellar homestand for the Phillies’ top four relievers against high-caliber competition.

“Unbelievable,” manager Rob Thomson said of Estevez’ performance. “He’s landing his slider and throwing strikes, going right after people. He was a big pickup.

“We’re not to October yet, we’ve still got a long ways to go but we’ve got to keep those guys healthy and as fresh as we can.”

The first run of the game scored on a Michael Harris II home run off Nola with two strikes and two outs in the top of the third. To that point, Nola had retired eight of the first nine with five strikeouts.

Nola then threw 31 pitches in a plodding, stressful fourth inning but allowed only one run, nearly wiggling his way out without damage. With one away and runners on the corners, Whit Merrifield grounded a ball softly to shortstop. The Phillies initially appeared to turn an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play but Merrifield was ruled safe after Brian Snitker challenged.

Nola found his rhythm thereafter, retiring the final seven hitters he faced. It was a strong outing in his 38th career start against the Braves — 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 9 K. He kept the game close enough for his lineup to finally strike the third time through.

Nola and Zack Wheeler started four of the seven games on the Phillies’ homestand and pitched like aces with a 1.38 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 28 strikeouts in 26 innings. Pitching led the way in the first half and it was there all week for the Phillies, minus Wednesday’s forgettable 10-run loss.

The Phils are off Monday ahead of a six-game road trip through Toronto and Miami. Tyler Phillips and Cristopher Sanchez will face the Blue Jays, with Ranger Suarez, Wheeler, Nola and Phillips set to start in Miami.

“Now we’ve got to keep going,” Thomson said. “You see a lot of times, you have a big series like this and then there’s a letdown. You can’t let down, you’ve got to keep going, keep fighting.”

The Phillies’ ace delivered seven scoreless innings in a 3-0 win. He is 13-6 with a 2.63 ERA and 0.98 WHIP and continues to keep pace with Atlanta’s Chris Sale (15-3, 2.58, 1.02) in the National League Cy Young race.

“Yeah, I hope so,” Wheeler said when asked if he feels he’s positioned himself well to win the award. “You come into the season and that’s one of your personal goals and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with personal goals because if you set them and accomplish them or come even close to it, you’re helping the team a lot and that’s all I try to do every year, be the best I possibly can.”

By winning at least two of their four meetings with the Braves this weekend, the Phillies are guaranteed a division lead of either five or seven games after Sept. 1. With no remaining head-to-head matchups, the Braves will have a difficult time catching up.

Wheeler retired the first six hitters he faced, just like Ranger Suarez on Friday night. But while Suarez unraveled in the third and fourth innings, Wheeler kept hitting spots.

The Phillies’ infield made it tough on him in the top of the third with a Weston Wilson error at third base and a poorly executed double-play try by shortstop Trea Turner and second baseman Edmundo Sosa that resulted in only one out. Wheeler navigated his way out of the inning without damage by popping up Whit Merrifield and rolling Jorge Soler over on a grounder to third.

Sosa, who was honored before the game with the Phillies’ 2024 Heart and Hustle Award, more than made up for his defensive miscue with a 450-foot home run to left-center off Max Fried in the bottom of the third. It was the Phillies’ second-longest homer of the season behind only a Turner 459-footer (also off Fried) in July. Sosa was fired up, flipping his bat and gesturing toward the dugout to hype up his teammates, then hulking up as he crossed home plate.

“The truth is, I felt really good about it, to contribute so early in the game and give us a headstart,” Sosa said. “I connected with the ball and looked at the dugout just to give them that hype, that energy, just to hopefully keep the rally going and score more runs.”

That one run was all Wheeler needed because he had everything working. He allowed only four hits, all of them singles. There might be others on his level but no one better.

Since joining the Phillies before the 2020 season, Wheeler has faced the Braves 16 times in the regular season and has a 2.07 ERA, allowing two earned runs or fewer in 13 of them.

“I think that the brighter the lights, the better the command gets, the better the stuff gets, the better the execution gets,” manager Rob Thomson said. “”You can tell when he’s locked in and he was locked in tonight. He’s a big-game pitcher. These types of games, you feel like you’re gonna get six, seven, eight innings out of him because he just gets locked in and he pounds the zone like he did tonight.”

The most dangerous at-bat of the night for Atlanta belonged to the hottest hitter in baseball, Matt Olson, with one out in the top of the sixth. He clobbered a ball 401 feet to straightaway center that looked like a home run off the bat but was robbed by Johan Rojas, who raced to the wall in time and calmly reached over without leaping. It wasn’t even the most impressive robbery of the night as Michael Harris II went full Spiderman to take one away from Austin Hays in the seventh.

Wheeler responded after the Olson near-homer with a three-pitch strikeout of Travis d’Arnaud, that whipped the sellout crowd of 42,730 into a frenzy. Turner kept the momentum in the home dugout with a leadoff home run in the bottom half of the inning. It was his first homer since Aug. 18 and just his second in 32 games dating back to July 24.

“I just pride myself on big games and big moments,” Wheeler said. “The crowd was electric out there tonight and I was feeling it. Every time they’re out there and I’m out there, it’s pretty cool to be a part of. They brought the electricity tonight and I just tried to match it.

Sosa provided more insurance with an RBI double to the right-center gap in the bottom of the seventh. Third-base coach Dusty Wathan aggressively sent the fast and athletic Wilson all the way from first base despite Wilson getting a late start and it barely worked.

The Phillies are 80-56 with 26 games left. They all count because the Phils entered Saturday tied with the Brewers for the 2-seed in the National League playoffs and the difference between finishing second or third is having to play an extra round, likely against these Braves.

The win was also the 100th of Wheeler’s career, a milestone made even sweeter because it came against his hometown team.

“It was special. Number one was against these guys and number 100,” he said. “Number one was back home in Atlanta where I’m from and it was really cool to make my debut against that team. I just remember Jason Heyward was my first strikeout and I worked out with him every offseason. Number 100 against these guys, it’s been a long road. Just believing in myself, just work hard and get wins.”

Suarez struck out the first five batters he faced and retired the first six in order. But after the Phillies stranded a runner in scoring position in each of the first two innings, Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia and catcher Sean Murphy greeted Suarez with back-to-back homers in the top of the third.

The lefty then quickly found himself in a first-and-third, no-out jam in the fourth inning and both runners scored. Suarez’ night ended after four innings and 78 pitches, 24 of them in a high-stress fourth. He never had command of his secondary pitches, notably the changeup that has held hitters to a .193 batting average this season.

Suarez has made two starts since returning from a month-long absence with lower back soreness. He allowed one run over five innings in a win last Saturday in Kansas City, throwing 72 pitches. The Phillies had a limit in mind for him Friday and it was likely reduced slightly by the number of pitches he threw in the third and fourth. They wanted his pitch count to remain in the same range before extending him by 15 or so pitches in his next start next Thursday in Miami.

The Phillies have trailed by multiple runs entering the fifth inning in four of the five games of this week’s homestand. They didn’t score Friday until Bryson Stott pulled a solo homer off Reynaldo Lopez to lead off the bottom of the fifth. Stott has slumped most of the summer but walked three times in the series opener and is hitting .327 with a .404 on-base percentage over his last 15 games. The Phils’ only other run came on a solo homer by J.T. Realmuto in the seventh.

Alec Bohm did not play because of swelling and inflammation in his left hand. He suffered the injury on an awkward swing against Charlie Morton in his only at-bat Thursday. Bohm stayed in the game and played another inning before exiting. He underwent treatment on Friday but it was unlikely he’d have been used anyway and the Phillies will obviously exercise caution with their All-Star third baseman.

The series is even with the only two remaining regular-season meetings between the Phillies and Braves on Saturday and Sunday. The Phils are 79-56, five games ahead of the 74-61 Braves. The weekend will conclude with the Phillies leading the division by either three, five or seven games.

They’d love to win the series but simply splitting these final two games would leave the Phillies in great shape to win the NL East. They’d lead Atlanta by five games with 25 to go. The 2007 Phillies famously made up seven games on the Mets with 17 to play but that included a three-game head-to-head sweep. The Braves won’t have the ability to make up that kind of direct ground after Sept. 1.

For the second time in three games, Nick Castellanos delivered the game-changing swing. On Tuesday, it was a three-run homer off Justin Verlander. On Thursday, it was a game-winning two-run homer off right-handed reliever Grant Holmes with two outs in the seventh inning.

Castellanos has been money since the All-Star break. Over his last 40 games, he’s hit .293 with 12 doubles, a triple, seven homers and 30 RBI. Take it even farther back to Memorial Day and he’s hit .286 with an OPS well over .800.

The Phillies came into Thursday with a five-game lead over the Braves and knew that their advantage would be either one, three, five, seven or nine games depending on the result of the series. They now know that, at worst, they’ll end the weekend with a three-game lead.

“Down 4-0 in this type of series and the guys just kept coming,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I thought the at-bats were pretty good all night. We got (Charlie) Morton’s pitch count up pretty good, I don’t think we chased that much, six walks. They just kept battling.”

Brandon Marsh was just as instrumental in the win as Castellanos. The Phillies’ offense was lifeless for five innings, stranding four leadoff baserunners, three of whom reached scoring position. When Marsh stepped to the plate in the sixth inning, the Phils had gone 63 straight plate appearances without an extra-base hit and 14 straight innings without a run.

But after a brief mound visit, Charlie Morton finally paid for a lack of command. He walked four and hit a batter earlier in the game and left them all on base until Marsh finally broke through with a three-run homer to trim Atlanta’s lead to one and make it a game again.

“There wasn’t a lot of life at all, really, and that kinda jump-started everything,” Castellanos said.

Marsh homered and doubled, both to the opposite field. Thomson has talked all season about that being the key for him when he’s in a rut.

“He’s just using the field,” Thomson said. “I know he’s swinging and missing a little bit but he’s using the field and that’s his bread and butter. When he does that, he’s really good. It was huge, it got us back in the game, it got the stadium back in the game.”

Orion Kerkering picked up four important outs to maintain the momentum after Marsh’s longball and before Castellanos’. Kerkering retired the final batter of the sixth inning with two men on base, then went 1-2-3 through the top of the Braves’ order in the seventh.

The Phils moved Cristopher Sanchez back a day to start Thursday’s series opener. Sanchez matched up well with the Braves last week, delivering a quality start at Truist Park, and the team also wanted to give him extra time since he’s already exceeded his career-high in innings with at least a month of baseball left.

Starting after a full week off, Sanchez had a crisp fastball and his best changeup against the first seven hitters he faced but allowed a two-out RBI double in the top of the second and a monstrous 450-foot home run over the ivy wall in center field to Matt Olson in the third.

The runs were unearned because Trea Turner opened the inning with an error on a hard-hit groundball right to him from Whit Merrifield. Two games in a row, middle-infield defense cost the Phillies multiple runs. On Wednesday, Bryson Stott bobbled a sure-fire 4-6-3 double-play ball, extending the inning for a Yordan Alvarez homer.

Olson homered again off Sanchez to start the sixth. He had more homers in the span of three innings than lefties had vs. Sanchez in his entire major-league career (1) entering the night.

But Kerkering, Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman didn’t let the Braves generate anything else, retiring 10 of the 11 batters they faced.

The Phils are 79-55 with 28 games to go. The Braves are 73-61. Ranger Suarez, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are in line to start the next three nights opposite Reynaldo Lopez, lefty Max Fried and Spencer Schwellenbach.

Thanks to the positive shift in momentum midway through Thursday’s series opener, the Phillies have a chance to bury the Braves if they take care of business this weekend.

“It’s fun, man. It’s a high,” Castellanos said about the feeling of hitting a late go-ahead homer in front of a frenzied Citizens Bank Park crowd. “It’s a cool feeling when you have everybody stand up and show you love.”

The Phillies lost 16 of their first 27 games out of the All-Star break but it was no fault of his — Castellanos hit .310 in 100 at-bats over that span with 11 doubles, a triple, three home runs and 15 RBI.

The lineup is now rounding back into form with 22 combined runs Saturday and Sunday, then Bryce Harper’s best game in over a month in Monday’s walk-off.

Castellanos kept it going Tuesday night with a three-run homer off Justin Verlander in the third inning of a 5-0 Phillies win. With two outs, Verlander threw Castellanos an 0-1 curveball that stayed in the zone the entire time and was launched over the left-field wall, changing the game with one swing.

“I had a pretty good idea I was going to see an offspeed pitch at some point in the at-bat, I saw that curveball pretty early and hit it well,” Castellanos said. 

“Just trying to do less almost because of the way the game is attacking me. I see more offspeed pitches than anyone in baseball. Taking what the game gives me, right?”

Castellanos has indeed seen a higher rate of non-fastballs than any hitter in baseball this season. It shouldn’t be a surprise because the low-and-away breaking ball has long been his weakness. But even when Castellanos was at his lowest point this season, flailing at unhittable pitches, manager Rob Thomson stuck with him. Castellanos has started every game this season.

“We were in Cincinnati and I think I was probably hitting under .100 at that time and the question was do you need a couple days off to clear your head?” Castellanos recalled. “Topper told me on Opening Day after our batting practice, he said 162? And I just pointed back at him and nodded my head. Then for me to get off to a slow start and for him to stick to his word, as a player, now I know where he’s at.

“For a coaching staff, trust is the biggest thing you can have from your players. If you don’t feel like a manager has your back, that’s kinda uninspiring to lace up your cleats for.”

The Phils scored their first run just before Castellanos’ homer when Trea Turner singled in Austin Hays, who opened things with a double. It was a big at-bat by Hays to put a runner in scoring position for the top of the order and it was the kind of swing he needed. The Phillies are giving Hays a chance to play every day but he hasn’t hit righties this season before or after arriving from Baltimore at the trade deadline. This was a step in the right direction.

Harper, who reached base four times on Monday, singled in each of his first two at-bats Tuesday. His prolonged slump appears to be over. He’s 8-for-20 with four doubles and two walks over his last five games.

The Phillies have won four straight games, nine of 13 and claimed back-to-back series over the Royals and Astros. With 30 games left, they’re 78-54, as far over .500 as they’ve been since July 29.

They knew they’d be a bit short-handed in the bullpen Tuesday with Jose Alvarado on the restricted list and Carlos Estevez and Matt Strahm having appeared in back-to-back games. It heightened the need for Aaron Nola to go deep into a game and he did with seven scoreless innings in one of the Phillies’ best starts of the year. The Phillies’ lead had grown to five by the time he exited, enabling Thomson to rest his four best healthy relievers in Estevez, Strahm, Jeff Hoffman and Orion Kerkering.

Nola did a great job handling the Astros’ top two threats, Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman. Alvarez grounded out weakly to the right side twice and lined out, while Bregman struck out swinging twice and stranded two runners with a flyball. They’re a combined 2-for-20 off him without an extra-base hit.

Nola’s diciest spot was the top of the fifth when Ben Gamel and Jake Meyers singled out of the 7- and 8-spots. Nola navigated his way out of it with a flyout from Mauricio Dubon, a humpback liner to short from Jose Altuve and flyout from Bregman.

Turner had to jump to catch Altuve’s liner and, dramatic as it may sound, it might have been the difference between a win and a loss. If he missed it, the Astros would have either scored their first run or loaded the bases, still with one out, for the most dangerous section of their lineup with Bregman and Alvarez.

Nola is 12-6 with a 3.30 ERA and 17 of his 27 starts have been quality starts.

The Phillies go for the sweep Wednesday at 4:05 p.m. with Taijuan Walker (3-5, 6.26) opposing rookie right-hander Spencer Arrighetti (6-11, 4.94).

“Anytime you win it’s nice. Everybody relaxes a little bit, the media chills out, the coaching staff relaxes a little bit,” Castellanos said. “Everybody’s grip loosens up a little bit and it’s easier to drive a car when you’re not squeezing onto the steering wheel with all your might.”

Harper was partially responsible for keeping the game tied to set up his own heroics. He fielded a Yordan Alvarez chopper over the first-base bag and raced to retire him with a runner in scoring position and one out in the top of the 10th.

Johan Rojas, who had just entered as a defensive replacement after Edmundo Sosa pinch-hit for Brandon Marsh against Hader in the bottom of the ninth, dove to catch a sinking liner to end the inning. His read was perfect and he needed every bit of it to barely keep the ball from finding grass and scoring the go-ahead run.

For the sixth time this season, the Astros sent their top-shelf closer, Hader, out for a second inning of work and the Phillies made him pay. Trea Turner worked a walk and Harper capped off one of his best games in a month with the game-winning single between first and second base.

“Rolled the ball over again, I’m pretty good at that right now,” Harper said. “I was able to put good wood on it and win a game. It’s a big win against a really good team.”

The difference between this rollover and his 4-6-3 double play in the first inning was the walk-off came off his bat at 105 mph, leaving Jose Altuve little time to get a glove on it.

Harper reached base his final four times, walking twice, doubling and singling. It was his 12th-career walk-off hit and he needed it badly. He’d been 5-for-32 (.156) over the last eight games with one walk and 10 strikeouts. Typically, even when Harper slumps, he walks, but that hasn’t been the case since the All-Star break. Monday was just the second time in his last 35 games with multiple walks.

“I don’t think he gets down on himself too much,” said Zack Wheeler, who allowed two runs over six innings. “I’m sure it’s pretty hard when you’re that good and you expect that much out of yourself. Hopefully that starts something for him and he can continue off that.”

Wheeler battled through his six innings, particularly the first three. He was at 61 pitches and the Astros had fouled off 17 by the end of the third inning. Alvarez was responsible for 10 himself. But after Shay Whitcomb’s softly-hit double to no-man’s land in the top of the fourth, Wheeler locked in to retire seven in a row.

“I think that changed the momentum a little bit,” manager Rob Thomson said, “because it got (Astros starter Ronel) Blanco back out on the mound really quick and that’s when we scored.”

It was an important response after Houston scored the game’s first two runs. The Phillies didn’t want to begin this homestand against the Astros and Braves with a loss behind their ace. They’ve won three in a row after taking the final two in Kansas City and emerge from Monday with a 77-54 record.

The Phils are a game behind the Dodgers for the best record in the National League. If the teams finish with the same record, the Phillies hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Phils are currently the 2-seed with a 1½-game lead over the Brewers.

“It’s a great win right there,” Harper said. “Really good team over there and obviously wanted to start this week off good. Wheels threw the crap out of it, the bullpen did their job. Just a really good, hard-fought win right there.”

The crowd of 40,677 was bumping before Taijuan Walker threw his first pitch, and it looked after the Phillies took another early lead like they’d be able to finish off a four-game weekend sweep of the Nationals, but no such luck.

Walker was bitten by the home-run bug in each of his final two innings, and though the Phillies tied the game by going back-to-back in the bottom of the sixth, Matt Strahm allowed the game-winning run, a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the eighth inning of a 6-4 loss.

The Phillies put the tying run on base to start the bottom of the ninth and had Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto on the bench but manager Rob Thomson chose to stick with Cal Stevenson in the eight-hole. Stevenson hit into a 1-2-3 double play and Garrett Stubbs grounded out to second to end the game.

Thomson does this often when resting a regular. He usually wants to give the player a full day off. He’s done it this season with Trea Turner, Realmuto and Harper, leaving them on the bench in spots when you’d ordinarily expect to see a big bat enter as a pinch-hitter.

Thomson said Sunday that the rationale was getting Harper and Realmuto two full days off their feet before beginning a difficult stretch of 13 games against the Braves, Royals and Astros.

“That’s what I’m thinking about is that this is going to be a tough stretch, no doubt, and we’ve got to be able to handle it,” Thomson said. “We want healthy bodies and rested bodies so we give ourselves every chance to play well.”

Could that mindset of leaning toward rest rather than an advantageous matchup shift at some point for a team that cares infinitely more about October than August or September?

“No doubt,” Thomson said. “It just depends on the day and where we’re at, how many games they’ve played in a row, how their bodies are feeling. There’s a lot of factors in there.”

In his second start back after missing nearly two months with a blister, Walker labored his way through the first three innings but held the Nationals off the board until the fourth, when Keibert Ruiz pulled an 0-2 pitch above his eyes to right field for a two-run homer to tie the game. Only one other pitch in the majors since 2015 that was as high and as far outside to a lefty has been pulled for a home run.

Walker picked up the first two outs of the fifth before Alex Call blasted a solo shot to left. The Nats extended their lead in the sixth off lefty Tanner Banks with a pair of two-out hits.

“I’m still not throwing enough strikes,” Walker said. “Three walks, just way too many pitches for five innings.

“It’s just getting comfortable throwing the splitter a lot more now. I want to throw it down, I want to throw it under the zone, but I just have to trust that the splitter is back and I can throw it up in the zone and get weak contact with it.”

The Phillies’ two struggling lefties, Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh, finally came through in the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back home runs. They were probably aided by the weather on an afternoon with near 90% humidity, but they’ll take ’em. Aside from that one inning, they’ve combined to hit .152 in August with one home run.

“I just feel like the game can do that for you sometimes,” Marsh said when asked if he’d gotten into his own head during his slump. “Just getting lost in it a little bit. But just dialing back, going back to spring training, going back to the basics.”

Strahm allowed a softly-hit infield single on the first pitch of the eighth inning but the killer was the ensuing walk which put runners on first and second ahead of a bunt single. After a force-out at home, Jacob Young hit a ball to medium-deep right-center to send home the deciding run. Rookie James Wood tacked on with a solo homer off Jeff Hoffman in the eighth.

The Phillies took three of four from the Nationals and went 4-2 this week at home. They fly to Atlanta at 73-51 and will begin a series with the Braves Tuesday no less than seven games up in the NL East.

Several of their key hitters appeared to find something this week. Trea Turner homered Sunday and went 10-for-17 in the Nats series with four extra-base hits and four RBI. Stott hit two balls hard on Sunday and has been making better quality contact over the last week even if the results haven’t followed consistently. Realmuto has a six-game hitting streak.

“We’re playing better baseball, that’s for sure,” Thomson said. “They got their energy back, they’re playing hard and for the most part playing well.”

Staked to a two-run lead in the first inning, Sanchez allowed one in the first, four in the third and two in the fifth, encountering trouble and traffic every step of the way. He missed often over the plate with his sinker and changeup and gave up 12 hits — four more than his previous career-high.

“Left a lot of pitches in the middle of the plate and created a lot of foul balls which created a lot of pitches,” manager Rob Thomson said. “They didn’t really hit his changeup but they did a good job of fouling it off and when they hit it, it found a hole some place.”

Sanchez stranded two runners with nobody out in the second inning, punching out Jake McCarthy on a changeup to end the threat, but the bottom of the third was his undoing. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. started the rally by singling on a 0-2 pitch at his ankles. Josh Bell crushed a single up the middle, Eugenio Suarez hit an RBI double just as hard and the biggest play of the inning was a multi-hop groundball from rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo that went just past a diving Bryce Harper’s glove for two more runs.

McCarthy later laced another ball just past Harper for a three-run triple.

“Just felt like all of them were kinda out of my reach,” Harper said. “I don’t know, positioning-wise, what happened this series but I thought all of their hits went through. Sometimes that happens.”

The Phillies lost the four-game series and the seven-game season series to the Diamondbacks. They went 4-6 on their longest road trip of the year, one that Thomson said felt even longer than London-Boston-Baltimore in mid-June. They return home with a 69-49 record.

“Not our best, obviously,” Harper said. “Not playing the way we need to be playing right now. Just gotta get home, flush this road trip, take the good things that we can and get ready for Tuesday.”

There’s a decent chance the Phillies see the Diamondbacks again in October after losing to them in the 2023 NLCS. Arizona occupies the 5-seed in the National League, and since the playoffs do not reseed, the team with the top record is locked into playing the winner of the 4 vs. 5 matchup in the NLDS.

The D-backs are the hottest team in baseball, having won 15 of 18 with an average of 7.2 runs per game.

“They ain’t scared,” Harper said. “They go about it the right way, they play the game hard. They’ve got guys that walk, guys that hit, good pitching, good bullpen. They’re a good team. They’re gonna show up and play the game the right way and they’re gonna win a lot of games because of that.”

The afternoon started well for the Phillies with Trea Turner and Harper reaching base in the top of the first ahead of a two-run double by Alec Bohm, his 43rd. Bohm is on pace for 59 doubles. No player since 1936 has reached 60.

It looked like they had another run when Harper ripped a Merrill Kelly pitch deep to the opposite field in the top of the third. It was to a similar spot where Harper homered earlier in the series but this one drifted toward the deepest part of an angled left field wall and Gurriel leaped like Spiderman to rob him. It would have been a home run in 20 of 30 ballparks.

The Phils left plenty of meat on the bone against Kelly, who was making his first start since April 15 because of a shoulder injury. Kelly faced 20 batters and started seven of them with 2-0 counts but only one resulted in a hit.

The D-backs’ lead had grown to seven by the time the Phils made it a game with three runs on four straight hits in the top of the seventh and immediately responded with three more runs off Jose Alvarado in the bottom half.

The Phillies played well in the middle of their 10-game road trip but started and finished poorly. They were blown out, then blew a lead in a walk-off loss the first two nights in Seattle. They rebounded to win four of five over the Mariners, Dodgers and Diamondbacks and then ended with three consecutive losses.

It’s no one player’s fault. The Phillies’ lineup, starting pitching and bullpen work hasn’t been nearly as consistent since the All-Star break. They’re searching for answers at the moment and made a lineup change Sunday, flip-flopping Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh. Both lefties are mired in slumps, with Stott going 3-for-31 in August and Marsh snapping an 0-for-20 in the seventh inning Sunday.

The steps forward last season from all three of Bohm, Stott and Marsh helped the Phillies level up as a team, but in 2024 only Bohm has continued to ascend.

A portion of the fanbase won’t want to hear it, but Sunday briefly ended a difficult portion of the schedule, perhaps the Phillies’ most challenging of the year. From July 22 through August 11, the Phillies went 6-12 facing the Twins, Guardians, Yankees, Mariners, Dodgers and D-backs — six teams who would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

The week ahead at home is much lighter with two meetings with the Marlins and four with the Nationals.

“I mean, everything,” Harper said of what the Phillies must improve back home against lesser teams. “It’s still the big leagues so still got to go in and play the game the right way. We’ve just got to be better, both sides of the ball.”

National League MVP candidate Ketel Marte hit a towering solo home run on a hanging curveball two batters into the bottom of the first, then after the Phillies halved Arizona’s lead, Jake McCarthy drilled a two-run homer on a middle-in Nola cutter in the fifth.

McCarthy is 5-for-11 off Nola with two homers, a triple, double and seven RBI. Marte is 5-for-13 with two homers, a triple, double and five RBI. Already a Phillie-killer through and through, McCarthy went deep again in his final at-bat for his third two-run homer of the series, two of seven runs Arizona scored off Marte in the seventh.

The Phillies won the first game of the series but have dropped the last two to a surging D-backs club that has won 14 of 17, averaging 6.94 runs.

“They’re a good team. We know that,” catcher Garrett Stubbs said. “They’re pretty disciplined. They can hit the homer but it’s not necessarily their M.O. or anything. They have plenty of guys who can pop a homer when they need it.

“Everyone over there seems to be playing really well right now. We know what that’s like in here, too. Obviously, we’ve had some games the last couple of weeks that haven’t gone so great. Fully expect for us to turn it around and feel like they’ve been feeling the last few weeks.”

Saturday’s giveaway to the enormous crowd at Chase Field was a replica ring from the 2023 NLCS, a series that ended with the Diamondbacks shocking the Phillies on back-to-back nights in their own park. The D-backs remain a challenging matchup with so many left-handed hitters who can alter a game and the switch-hitting Marte, who destroys lefties. There’s a decent chance the Phillies see them again in the NLDS since they’re currently the 1-seed and Arizona is the 5-seed.

The Phils are 69-48 with one more game to go on a grueling 10-game West Coast trip that comes to its merciful end on Sunday afternoon. If they can win Sunday, they would split their series with the Diamondbacks, win the season series and split their road trip at 5-5.

The Phillies had their chances early against Zac Gallen, who exited in the fifth inning after appearing to injure his groin. It was a painful win for the D-backs as Marte also left in the fourth inning after Stubbs unintentionally slid into his ankle.

There was a prime run-scoring opportunity in the top of the first with runners on the corners and one out but Brandon Marsh’s slump continued with a called strikeout. Marsh stranded five baserunners in his first two at-bats, is 0-for-his-last-18 and has the second-highest strikeout rate in the NL among players with as many plate appearances, ahead of only St. Louis’ Nolan Gorman.

Nick Castellanos is having much better at-bats than Marsh at the moment but manager Rob Thomson likes to split up his lefties, which is why Marsh is still hitting fifth and Castellanos sixth. Bryson Stott, who’s in an even deeper slump, hit seventh on Saturday.

“At any given time, there’s gonna be two or three people that aren’t swinging the bat,” Thomson said. “I’ve never seen a lineup that has all nine guys going good. We just have to make up for it with the other guys.”

The top of the fifth was a chance for the Phillies to turn the game around with Kyle Schwarber walking and Trea Turner doubling him to third with nobody out and the Phils down two. The inning ended with an RBI groundout by Bryce Harper, an Alec Bohm strikeout and Castellanos lineout.

Bohm has struck out twice with a runner on third and less than two outs on the road trip, notable only because it happens so rarely. He’s done so only five times the last two seasons. Part of what makes him such a productive hitter with runners in scoring position is the ability to constantly put the ball in play.

Cristopher Sanchez starts Sunday’s series finale for the Phillies. The Diamondbacks are expected to welcome back Merrill Kelly, their No. 2 starter who’s pitched in just four games this season because of a shoulder injury. The Phils can’t wait to get home.

“End the trip .500, win the season series against these guys, that’s the goal tomorrow,” Thomson said.

Jeff Hoffman allowed a walk-off homer on the first pitch he threw Friday night to Diamondbacks catcher Adrian Del Castillo, a lefty bat with huge minor-league numbers who made his major-league debut earlier in the week.

The Phillies’ 3-2 loss was a fast-paced, competitive pitchers’ duel between Zack Wheeler and D-backs right-hander Ryne Nelson, who didn’t allow a baserunner until the fifth inning and threw first-pitch strikes to the first 17 hitters he faced.

Nelson entered with a 4.65 ERA and modest strikeout numbers but has been on a roll the last month, along with a D-backs team that has won 13 of 16.

The Phillies are 69-47 with a 7½-game lead over the Mets and an 8½-game lead over the Braves, whose season is slipping away after six straight losses.

The D-backs, meanwhile, appear poised to make another second-half run to the playoffs after toiling in mediocrity most of the first half.

“They have a good group over there, they’ve been together a while now,” Wheeler said. “I’ve pitched against them a few times in big games and regular season. They’ve seen me, they know what I’ve got, I know what they’ve got. It’s always fun when you know each other well and have to really pitch and compete.”

It speaks to Wheeler’s excellence that an outing like this — two runs over six innings — felt somehow below his standard. He dealt with bad luck in the first inning with a run scoring on a jam-job and allowed a solo homer to Joc Pederson with one out in the third.

Pederson is one of the most dangerous matchups in baseball for a right-handed pitcher but Wheeler had dominated him previously, holding him to two hits in 19 at-bats with eight strikeouts.

“First inning, three hits weren’t hit very hard,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Even the pitch to Pederson wasn’t all that bad, he just beat him to the spot. He was struggling to find his split which would have helped him against lefties, but he was effective.”

Wheeler added the splitter this season to better combat left-handed hitters. It’s been a high-quality pitch most of the year, especially for someone’s sixth offering. The Diamondbacks had six lefty bats in Friday’s lineup capable of changing a game with one swing in Corbin Carroll, Pederson, Josh Bell, Jake McCarthy, Del Castillo and Alek Thomas, so the split sure would have been helpful.

“I think I threw one not in the dirt tonight,” Wheeler said. “It was kinda frustrating but also keep in the back of my head that it’s still a new pitch for me so just trying to fix it as I go. The last one I threw was the one I threw that had the best chance tonight. I feel like it’s kinda start to start. I went on probably five or six games now where I can count on it and know what it’s going to do, but tonight was a little off.

“It was a mixed bag. Didn’t feel all the way there but kinda got through it. The first inning killed me a little bit with hits getting through. And then Joc, it was thigh-high but it was in and he did a nice job of hitting that. Not my best.”

The Phillies trailed 2-0 to begin the seventh before finally got to Nelson with an opposite-field solo home run from Bryce Harper, who is locking in. He has three multi-hit games in his last six, homered in another and has lined out to the opposite field four times this week, an indication he’s right on the ball.

Johan Rojas tied the game in the top of the eighth, ripping a 96 mph, middle-middle A.J. Puk fastball off the wall in left for a two-out RBI double. Kyle Schwarber struck out looking to end the threat.

The game ended on Hoffman’s first pitch of the bottom of the ninth and the series is tied with two more games this weekend. On paper, Saturday night should be another strong pitching matchup between Aaron Nola and Zac Gallen. Cristopher Sanchez starts Sunday’s series finale as the D-backs welcome back Merrill Kelly, one of their most important players who has made just four starts this season because of a shoulder injury.

The only thing hotter than the 108-degree temperatures when they arrived in Arizona was the Diamondbacks’ offense and the Phils cooled them off in a 6-4 win, batting around in the top of the sixth and maintaining the lead with four different relievers.

They scored all four of their runs in the sixth inning with two outs, working quality plate appearance after quality plate appearance. And once the Diamondbacks answered back with two in the bottom half, the Phillies offered a response of their own in the seventh for insurance.

“We kinda lost ourselves for a little bit,” Trea Turner said. “We had a stretch the last 15 games or so where we faced a lot of good teams. I think the last three, four, five games we played better, competed harder and the results are showing.”

Their two coldest hitters, Turner and J.T. Realmuto, were able to take deep breaths after finally coming through in big spots.

Turner singled between short and third with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth to untie the game.

Realmuto ended a seven-pitch at-bat in the seventh with a no-doubt homer to left-center, his first extra-base hit in 13 games since returning from the injured list. He picked up his second the next time up, doubling and scoring on a two-bagger from Edmundo Sosa in the top of the ninth.

“It felt good to barrel a couple of balls up finally,” Realmuto said. “I was watching video with (hitting coach Kevin Long) yesterday and we found some things mechanically. My bat just wasn’t staying in the zone very long, kinda losing my barrel. I was late on fastballs, early on off-speed so just kinda in between. I just tried to work on cleaning my bat path up.”

It was timely, too. Realmuto officially reached 10 years of major-league service time on Thursday, a milestone for any player. There were balloons in his locker postgame.

“He is one of the finest catchers I’ve ever been around and his toughness physically, mentally, emotionally is second to none,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He cares about his pitching staff, he prepares like nobody else. He’s just, he does everything. He’s a complete catcher.”

Johan Rojas stranded five baserunners in his first two at-bats out of the nine-hole but for the second straight night, his patience paid off. He worked a walk with two outs in the sixth and Kyle Schwarber was just as selective, doing the same to load the bases for Turner’s knock.

Rojas and Weston Wilson will see an uptick in playing time with Austin Hays sidelined by a hamstring injury. The Phillies were still awaiting the results of testing on Hays’ hamstring when Thursday’s game began. Wilson had a productive night, singling off Jordan Montgomery in the second inning, missing a three-run double by a literal centimeter in the fourth and doubling in the Phillies’ first run in the sixth.

The game was on the brink of slipping away after the Phillies took their three-run lead when Orion Kerkering went walk, two-run homer, single, walk to the first four batters he faced in the sixth. But Kerkering dug deep and navigated his way out of the jam, inducing a groundout and striking out the next two.

What began as a worrisome inning might be a building block.

“Kerk’s a perfectionist. He was a little down after giving up those two runs but that’s gonna happen, especially when you’re pitching in high-leverage situations like he’s gonna be his whole career,” Realmuto said. “Being able to get through that and then end up having a really clean inning after that, getting in some more trouble but being able to get out of it and knowing he can pitch that deep into an inning and be successful, I thought that was encouraging.”

Jeff Hoffman, Jose Alvarado and Carlos Estevez closed out the win against a D-backs offense that had scored 99 runs over a 12-2 stretch. The Estevez addition has been doubly beneficial in allowing both Kerkering and Hoffman to appear earlier in games. Without him, the Phillies might have used someone like Jose Ruiz when they used Kerkering and Kerkering when they used Hoffman.

Left-hander Kolby Allard pitched the first five innings and did his job, holding the D-backs to one run on a solo homer by Eugenio Suarez. Allard has pitched 13 innings as a Phillie and 10 have been scoreless. This might have been his last start with Taijuan Walker potentially back on Tuesday.

“Great poise. He throws strikes, he’s not afraid of contact,” Thomson said of Allard. “His strike-throwing ability, his command is really good. He’s shown us something during this time.”

The Phillies are 69-46. They’ve won four of five games after losing 13 of 17. Their division lead is eight games over the Mets and 8½ over the Braves. They’re 2½ games ahead of the Dodgers for the best record in the NL and 1½ ahead of the Guardians for the best record overall.

Thursday’s series opener was the first the Phils won since July 9 against the Dodgers. They’re building momentum again and will look to keep it rolling Friday night behind their ace, Zack Wheeler.

“We’re feeling a lot better right now than we did a week ago because we’re playing a better brand of baseball, we’re putting together better at-bats, our starters are giving us a chance to win every game,” Realmuto said. “We’re feeling good right now.”

Schwarber homered to lead off the game, doubled in two runs in the fifth, fired a missile into the seats in right-center for a three-run homer in the sixth and capped it off with another solo homer to center in the ninth.

Three homers, seven RBI.

The Phillies won, 9-4, after entering the fifth inning with a three-run deficit. They lost Monday’s series opener but rebounded to win Tuesday and Wednesday to take the series. They’ve won three of four games and appear to be rounding back into form after losing 14 of 19.

“It seems like there are times we’re in a bit of a slump and he’ll inject energy into the club with a leadoff home run or big home run somewhere,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s a lot like Harp (Bryce Harper) that way.”

The Phillies are 68-46 with a 2½-game lead over the Dodgers for the best record in the National League, and they again own the best record in the majors.

“It was pretty cool, it was pretty cool,” starting pitcher Tyler Phillips said of Schwarber’s night. “After the second home run, he was telling me, dude, that was huge what you did, you kept us in the game. I was like, dude, you just gave us the lead, it was huge what you did. He was like no, you don’t understand. We were almost getting into an argument. I was like, you’re having an unbelievable night. It was really cool to put a lot of faith in him, and the rest of the bats did their job.”

Schwarber, perhaps quietly, is having a career year. He has not hit for quite as much power but has made significantly more contact and turned himself into a more complete hitter. He’s hitting .260/.390/.504 on the season with 27 home runs, 73 RBI and a National League-leading 82 walks. The only other major-leaguers who’ve matched or exceeded his OBP and home run total are Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.

Schwarber’s also hit .340 against left-handed pitching to raise his career mark vs. lefties from .183 to .223 in less than one season.

“Just the fact that he wanted to cut down on his strikeouts this year cleared up all of that,” Thomson said. “Now he’s staying on the ball, he’s cut down his swing with two strikes, there’s a little bit of a two-strike approach there. The average goes up, he’s putting the ball in play more and the on-base goes up because he’s getting more hits. It all works hand in hand.

“The fact that he’d do this at this part of his career is really smart. It shows me how much he cares and how much he can adjust.”

He didn’t have nearly as big a night as Schwarber but Johan Rojas’ fingerprints were all over Wednesday’s win. Rojas entered in the third inning after Austin Hays suffered a hamstring injury and ended the fourth with one of the Phillies’ best defensive plays of the season, a 64-foot gallop and leap at the wall in right-center to rob Teoscar Hernandez of extra bases.

The next half-inning, Rojas beat out an infield single to turn over the lineup and send the tying run to the plate with one out. He stole second and scored when Schwarber ripped a double.

When he came up again, Rojas worked a walk from Joe Kelly to load the bases for Schwarber in a tie game. Kelly threw a wild pitch which scored Brandon Marsh, and a few pitches later Schwarber added his exclamation point.

The Phillies’ huge inning was facilitated by an obstruction call from third-base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, who ruled that Kiké Hernandez interfered with Alec Bohm’s slide into third on a bunt by Marsh. Hernandez did so unintentionally as he ran to the bag to make the tag. Such a call is not reviewable, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was ejected after a passionate argument.

Nick Castellanos stayed hot with two doubles, a walk and hit by pitch. He had multiple hits in all three games of the series and is batting .288 with 20 doubles, two triples and nine homers in 242 plate appearances since May 29.

All the offense was necessary to overcome an early hole, but Phillips also held up his end of the bargain by settling in after two shaky innings. The Dodgers got to him for two runs in a long first inning and scored two more in the second on a bloop single by Freddie Freeman, but Phillips allowed just one baserunner over his final three innings. He also retired Ohtani quietly in the infield all three times he faced him.

It was a big bounce-back after Phillips served up three homers and eight runs without making it out of the second inning Friday night in Seattle.

“There are some adjustments you need to make,” he said. “Obviously, the first two innings weren’t ideal for me. But there’s conversations with J.T. (Realmuto) and (pitching coach Caleb Cotham) as the game progressed and we just started finding certain pitches that worked.

“And there was a conversation I had with Casty in between one of the innings where he just came over and helped try to settle me down. We’ve had plenty of talks about it, it’s just competing and throwing the ball over the plate. Just, ‘Go out there, man, compete, you’re getting weak contact, you’re making pitches, just make sure you get ahead and keep competing.'”

The Phillies now move on to Chase Field, a venue with painful memories from the 2023 NLCS. The Diamondbacks are the hottest team in baseball, 12-2 over the last two weeks with an average of more than 7.0 runs per game.

“Even in Seattle I thought we played pretty well, at the end of the series anyway,” Thomson said. “Hopefully we’re going to get back to where we were.”

He was facing National League MVP frontrunner Shohei Ohtani with a three-run lead, two on and two outs in the seventh inning. It was the third Strahm-Ohtani matchup since July 10 and Strahm beat him both times last month with sliders that resulted in a strikeout and groundout.

On a 1-1 count to Ohtani, it wasn’t the fastball or slider Strahm turned to, it was a 90 mph cutter — the first Strahm has thrown to a left-handed hitter since spring training 2023, when he was trying to deepen his mix of pitches in a transition from relieving to starting.

Ohtani swung through it before working the count full and flying out on a slider just off the outside corner that was too close to take.

Crisis averted. Lead maintained. The Phillies went on to win, 6-2, to even their series with the Dodgers, clinch the head-to-head matchup for the season and give themselves a chance Wednesday night to end a streak of six straight series losses.

“The last one I threw was last spring training to Oneil Cruz and he hit it about 470 feet foul,” Strahm said.

So what made the seventh inning against the most dangerous hitter in baseball the right time to try it again?

“I trust J.T. (Realmuto),” he said.

Relieving Cristopher Sanchez, Strahm popped up Nick Ahmed and struck out Kevin Kiermaier leading into the Ohtani at-bat. The first and only slider he threw Ohtani was the final pitch of a full count.

And for the third time in a month, he won the battle.

“Just thinking along with J.T. there, I can just feel, sense that he’s looking for my fastball up,” Strahm said. “That is my bread and butter and (Ohtani’s) very good at hitting those. I kinda went to my 1B and tried to stick one down-and-away.

“I watched Sanchy get him inside all three times and J.T. uses my strengths and my deception. It just sets everything up and J.T.’s unbelievable at doing his homework.”

The Phillies pounded out 14 hits, hit two homers, stole three bases and added crucial insurance in the top of the ninth to win for the second time in three games. It’s a small step in the right direction for a team that entered Tuesday with 14 losses in 19 games.

Edmundo Sosa drove in three runs, Kyle Schwarber hit a towering homer off the foul pole in right field, Bryce Harper singled twice, Nick Castellanos did the same and Alec Bohm went 3-for-5.

“It would be nice to get a winning streak going, would feel a lot better about that,” Strahm said. “This game is really hard and none of it matters unless we do what we need to do at the end.”

The Phillies made things slightly easier for themselves by beating the Dodgers at least once this week. If the teams finish the regular season with the same record, the Phils own the tiebreaker.

“That’s a good thing, really good club over there,” manager Rob Thomson said. “That can be huge coming down the stretch.”

The rest of the night was smooth for Cristopher Sanchez, Matt Strahm and the Phillies in a 6-2 win.

A much-needed 6-2 win. It clinched them the season series and first tiebreaker over the Dodgers should the teams finish with the same record, and it ensured the Phils will leave town still possessing the best record in the National League, which they’ve held since the first week of May.

Sanchez was named to the NL All-Star team as an injury replacement on July 13, three days after solidifying his candidacy with six impressive innings in a win over the Dodgers. That was also the last time the Phillies won a series. It’s been nearly a month.

The lefty did it again on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, stifling Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Teoscar Hernandez and the rest. He exited with a three-run lead, two aboard and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh and Strahm kept the game right where it was, retiring Nick Ahmed, Kevin Kiermaier and Ohtani in order.

The two biggest plate appearances of a 14-hit night for the Phillies were Strahm vs. Ohtani in the seventh and Edmundo Sosa’s bases-loaded at-bat the prior inning. Sosa delivered a two-out, two-run single off Freddie Freeman’s glove into right field to double the Phillies’ lead, and given they were 4-5 in the second half when scoring first, it was necessary insurance.

Sosa added a second layer of insurance in the top of the ninth with an opposite-field solo home run. He started at second base in place of Bryson Stott, who has been out of the lineup the last six times the Phillies faced a left-handed starter who was not an opener. Brandon Marsh, who has sat most of the season against lefties, did start against Clayton Kershaw. Marsh flied out to right and was hit by a pitch the two times he faced Kershaw, later walking to set up Sosa’s key two-run knock.

The game was scoreless until the top of the fifth when Austin Hays doubled and came around on a two-out single by Kyle Schwarber, who later added a towering homer off the foul pole in right.

Nick Castellanos singled twice and drove in a run. He was hitting .199 with a .572 OPS in 231 plate appearances through May 28 and has hit .281 with an .820 OPS in 238 plate appearances since.

The Phillies found something in the running game in the middle innings against Smith and the Dodgers’ bullpen. Schwarber, Castellanos and Sosa all swiped second base in the Phillies’ third turn through the batting order, which produced all of their runs until the ninth.

The only run Sanchez allowed came in the bottom of the sixth when Teoscar Hernandez hit a leadoff double and advanced twice on groundouts. Ohtani singled off him twice last month in Philly but Sanchez won all three matchups Tuesday, twice retiring the NL MVP frontrunner on the first pitch. He’s also held Freeman to one hit in eight career at-bats.

The Phillies are 67-46 and have a chance Wednesday night to snap a streak of six consecutive series losses. Tyler Phillips (3-1, 4.39) is opposed by right-hander Gavin Stone (9-5, 3.63).

After taking a two-run lead in the top of the second, the Phils gave it back and more in the bottom of the third as Aaron Nola allowed hits to the Dodgers’ 7-8-9 hitters and was victimized by the top en route to four runs. He missed over the middle with his fastball, hung a couple of breaking balls and the Dodgers made loud contact. A two-run advantage became a two-run deficit and the Dodgers led the rest of the way, beating the Phillies, 5-3.

There are still 50 games to play but this is an important three-game set with potentially long-term ramifications. The Phils have held the National League’s top record all summer but are now just a half-game ahead of the Dodgers for home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs.

There was no “just another series” talk pregame.

“It’s a big series. It’s the best record, could be,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Also head-to-head could be in effect. Certainly want to win this series.”

The Phillies, with three wins already over the Dodgers, cannot lose the head-to-head tiebreaker. They’d win it with just one victory in L.A. this week. If the Dodgers sweep, the teams will have split the six meetings and the second tiebreaker — record against teams in your league outside your division — could come into play.

The Phillies have lost 14 of 19 and are 66-46. The Dodgers are 66-47.

“Am I? No, I’m not aware of the standings,” Nick Castellanos said. “I can’t speak on behalf of the team but the way I go about it is tomorrow we have a baseball game, and if we do the best we can to prepare, that puts us in the best position to win.

“We’re grinding right now. I think we’re just in a funk. But I will say our dugout was very good today. All our attention was more on the field than it was on our iPads. I think that we were more in the competition. It was a good baseball game. A couple things here, a couple things there and it changes. But I feel like they beat us today, we didn’t beat ourselves. We played a good baseball game and you also have to realize that’s a good baseball team over there.”

These are the Phils’ last seven series openers:

· 6-2 loss to the A’s at home after scoring first

· 8-7 loss to the Pirates after holding two different three-run leads

· 7-2 loss to the Twins after scoring the first two runs

· 3-1 loss to the Guardians on a silent offensive night

· 14-4 throttling by the Yankees

· 10-2 throttling by the Mariners

· 5-3 loss to the Dodgers after scoring the first two runs

Monday was the fifth time in 16 games since the All-Star break that the Phillies scored first but lost. They went 45-15 in the first half when taking the game’s first lead and are just 4-5 since the break.

“There’s a lot of weird stuff happening that wasn’t happening at the start of the year and you’ve just got to fight through it,” Thomson said.

They appeared to create their own momentum in the top of the second when Castellanos tripled off the wall in straightaway center with two outs and Bryson Stott followed by creating two runs with his legs. Stott beat out a chopper back to the mound, then aggressively took third base on a single to left field by Austin Hays, enabling Hays to advance to second. Stott scored and Hays moved up a base two pitches later when the NL’s leader in wild pitches, Tyler Glasnow, uncorked one.

Glasnow was sharp outside of that minor stumble. He retired 10 in a row after Hays’ single and struck out nine over six innings.

“His fastball’s heavy,” Castellanos said. “He’s big at you coming down the mound and he had pretty good command of his offspeed stuff. He held that down-and-away corner pretty well and to lefties, it looked like he had that down-and-in pitch working nicely. … You’ve got less time to react just because of how big he is and how electric his stuff is.”

Trea Turner, who was locked in for a solid month from mid-June through mid-July, is really scuffling. He went 0-for-4 Monday, striking out in his first two at-bats then stranding a runner with nobody out in the sixth and eighth innings of a tight game. Turner is 9-for-60 over his last 14 games, falling from .347 to .308.

Shohei Ohtani hit a solo home run off Tanner Banks in the bottom of the eighth to give the Dodgers an extra run of insurance, and after Castellanos started the ninth with an opposite-field single, Stott, Hays and Garrett Stubbs hit cans of corn to the middle infield for game-ending popups. J.T. Realmuto was on the bench but Thomson did not turn to him for a pinch-hit appearance with the game on the line. He rarely does when giving a player a day off.

“You think about it, sure, but I still want to keep him healthy and give him a day,” Thomson said.

The Phillies still haven’t won two straight games since July 10-11 (against the Dodgers) and will need to do so to avoid their seventh straight series loss. It took them 93 games to lose their seventh series of the season, but a loss Tuesday night would make it seven more in the span of just 20 games.

Protecting leads has gone from one of the Phillies’ greatest strengths to their biggest weakness since the All-Star break and the ominous trend continued Saturday in a 6-5, walk-off loss that was once a 5-0 advantage.

The Phils scored four times in the fifth inning, all with two outs, to build what looked like a safe lead in one of their most promising nights of the last two weeks. But no lead is safe right now.

Jeff Hoffman had his worst outing as a Phillie — appearing as early in a game as he had since April 1 — and Carlos Estevez walked in the winning run in extras.

Hoffman entered in the sixth inning because the Mariners had their 2-3-4 hitters due up and Phillies manager Rob Thomson again feels comfortable using him in earlier high-leverage situations with Estevez aboard. Everything was off for Hoffman in this one as he allowed four runs and six baserunners in an inning to even the score.

The Phils haven’t hit much since the All-Star break, and when they have, the pitching staff has faltered. Over their last 13 games, the Phillies have blown six leads of at least three runs, which is more than they blew in their first 71 games of the season.

It’s hit every member of the ‘pen, from Hoffman to Jose Alvarado to Matt Strahm to Orion Kerkering to Seranthony Dominguez and Gregory Soto, who have since been traded and upgraded to Estevez and Tanner Banks.

Strahm struck out the side and roared in celebration in the seventh, Alvarado stranded a runner in scoring position in the eighth and Estevez went 1-2-3 in the ninth, but he came out for a second inning in the 10th and lost the feel for his slider with two outs, walking in the winning run.

The Phillies are 65-45. They’ve lost six straight series, six straight games and 13 of 17.

They played great all-around baseball in the first half but the strongest unit was a pitching staff that included six All-Stars and could have had seven or eight. Aside from the bullpen’s recent regression, the rotation hasn’t been the same because of injuries. Rookie Tyler Phillips gave up eight runs in less than two innings on Friday, and Saturday was an opener-follower arrangement with Kerkering and left-hander Kolby Allard.

Allard pitched well, allowing just a run over four innings. The Phillies built a five-run lead with one in the first and four in the fifth on two-out, two-run singles from Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh.

There were deep breaths all over the dugout, but the lead didn’t last and the frustration continues.

Bryce Harper reached base twice with a double and a walk but had another difficult night, stranding two runners in scoring position with one out in the first inning, the bases loaded with one out in the fifth and striking out looking with the go-ahead run aboard in the ninth. Home plate umpire Ryan Wills cost Harper the ninth-inning at-bat, calling a pitch well above the zone a strike and also missing the 3-2 pitch, which was close but inside. Wills had a shaky strike zone all night, particularly in the final three innings.

J.T. Realmuto stranded seven, going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. He’s hit .206 without an extra-base hit or RBI in nine games since returning from meniscus surgery.

The Phillies now look to salvage the series Sunday behind their ace, Zack Wheeler, to avoid a second straight sweep.

The Phillies’ rookie allowed a leadoff home run in the first inning, then a three-run homer and grand slam in the second. He was removed by manager Rob Thomson after recording just five outs as his ERA ballooned from 1.80 to 4.39.

The Phillies lost, 10-2. They’ve dropped five in a row, seven of eight and 12 of 16. It’s not quite a freefall yet … but it’s not good.

“The thing that bothers me the most is that I let the team down,” Phillips said. “I’ve got all these guys in here relying on me. I’ve got an entire fanbase relying on me to go out there and do my job. I’ve got my family relying on me. And it doesn’t feel very good.”

Beyond their starting pitcher getting hammered, the Phillies’ lineup is still scuffling in a major way. Bryce Harper has one hit in his last eight games. Trea Turner is hitting .149 in his last 11.

The Phillies have lost six consecutive series openers and are in danger of losing their sixth consecutive series. They’ve also used backup catcher Garrett Stubbs to pitch the final inning of a blowout in three of those last six series.

They have left-hander Kolby Allard, more of a Triple A depth piece, serving as the bulk pitcher behind opener Orion Kerkering on Saturday night with ace Zack Wheeler going on Sunday.

At 65-44, the Phillies’ winning percentage is as low as it’s been since May 29 in San Francisco to end their most recent West Coast trip. Their lead over the Braves is down to five games. It hasn’t been below five games since May 18.

The schedule gets no easier from here. The Phillies see Logan Gilbert, one of the American League’s top starting pitchers, on Sunday. From there, they go to Dodger Stadium to face the team with the second-best record in the NL. Then they finish up out West with four games in Arizona against a surging Diamondbacks offense.

To end their current skid, the Phillies need the big-money players to step up. Sometimes it’s that simple. The top three hitters in their order are a combined 6-for-61 (.098) during the five-game losing streak.

“I thought I gave a pretty good speech before the game,” Thomson said, “but I guess it wasn’t good enough.”

The superstars showed up on Monday night, they just belonged to the Yankees.

Aaron Judge homered in the first inning off of Zack Wheeler, and after the Phillies pulled to within one run, Juan Soto hit a bases-loaded two-run double to end a lengthy fifth-inning at-bat to keep the Phils at bay.

The Yankees then obliterated every pitcher the Phillies trotted out, scoring all five times through the lineup in a 14-4 Phillies loss.

Wheeler (10-5, 2.94 ERA) was clearly off in this one. He was taken deep three times in the first two innings by Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice. He faced the minimum in the third and fourth before a problematic fifth-inning rally that began with one-out singles by the eight- and nine-hole hitters. Not the recipe you want with Soto and Judge looming in the two- and three-spots. The duo went 5-for-10 with two homers, two doubles, six RBI and four runs scored.

The Phillies ended with backup catcher Garrett Stubbs on the mound for the second time in 11 games. It’s the fifth consecutive series opener they’ve dropped and they’re in danger of losing their fifth consecutive series overall if they don’t respond Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We’re up pretty good right now,” Wheeler said, “we’ve just got to figure it out and play a little bit better all around. We’re a really good team and you can’t be good every time out. You’re gonna go through these stretches in a season. We don’t like it, fans don’t like it, nobody likes it, but it’s part of the game. It’s a long season and you’re gonna go through these parts. We’ve just got to figure it out.”

There was a great chance to change the game in the bottom of the third but a bases-loaded situation yielded only one run. Kyle Schwarber walked to load ’em up with one out, but Trea Turner hit into a run-scoring fielder’s choice and Harper flied out to the warning track in left-center.

Harper was in good spirits Monday afternoon but has been visibly frustrated during the last couple of games. He holds himself to an incredibly high standard and feels personally responsible for the Phillies’ recent skid. He’s 1-for-20 over his last five games.

Turner, too, has cooled off after a torrid first three weeks of July, going 1-for-17 since the beginning of the Cleveland series.

The Phillies are 65-41 after losing 12 of 20.

Aaron Nola takes the ball Tuesday night opposite Gerrit Cole, who has struggled in four of seven starts since debuting on June 19 after a bout of elbow inflammation.

The Phils blew an early three-run lead and fell to the Cleveland Guardians, 4-3. It’s their fourth consecutive series loss and they’ve dropped eight of 12 games. It hasn’t made any impact in the NL East standings as the Braves continue to lose games and key players, but there’s no question this has been the Phillies’ coldest stretch of the season.

They’re 65-40 ahead of a three-game home series against the Yankees.

“We’ve got to straighten some things out for sure,” manager Rob Thomson said. “It seems like the days we hit, we don’t pitch. When we pitch, we don’t hit. You’ve got to play clean games on all three sides of the ball and get back to winning series, get back to winning the first game of a series, which is critical.”

Jose Alvarado took the loss Sunday, allowing a missile to right field by Steven Kwan for a game-winning solo home run in the top of the seventh. The Phillies have tried to use Alvarado in lower-leverage situations of late because of his struggles the last six weeks, and he had retired eight of nine hitters across three outings when Kwan came to the plate with two outs.

Alvarado is 1-5 with a 4.25 ERA on the season and has been charged with 12 runs in his last 15 innings. The homer was the first he allowed to a left-handed hitter since Yordan Alvarez in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series.

The Guardians called up a left-hander to face the Phillies, as teams are prone to do against a lineup featuring Bryce Harper and Schwarber, and it took the Phils’ leadoff man all of three pitches to welcome debuting Joey Cantillo to the big leagues.

Schwarber, on Kyle Schwarber beach towel giveaway day, crushed a center-cut 91 mph fastball over the wall in left-center for a leadoff home run, then hit a two-run shot off Cantillo two innings later on a slider that caught too much plate. The Phillies entered the day 18-4 when he goes deep to lead off a game.

Schwarber went 10 games without a home run — a drought by his standards — from the Oakland series through Saturday night but has hit three in less than 24 hours. He’s up to 22 homers on the season and on pace for 37. He hit 46 and 47 in his first two regular seasons as a Phillie but has been more productive this year than either of those two because he’s made contact more consistently. Schwarber ended the weekend hitting .248 with a .372 on-base percentage after hitting .207 with a .333 OBP his first two seasons with the Phils.

The lineup was silent after the third inning. Offensive consistency has been an issue since the All-Star break.

“Just hasn’t been good, obviously myself, haven’t been good at all,” Harper said. “Just got to get better, turn the page and try to have a better series against the Yankees.”

The face of the franchise was asked his thoughts on the Phillies’ acquisitions this weekend of outfielder Austin Hays and reliever Carlos Estévez.

“Estevez, he’s been one of the best closers in baseball this season so that’ll be good for us,” Harper said. “Austin Hays coming from a winning organization with the Orioles, he hits lefties really well and has a chance to play every day here. Not really sure if Dave (Dombrowski) is done or not, so we’ll see.”

And what if that was it ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline? Do the Phillies have enough to win it all?

“Superstars are gonna show up,” Harper said when asked that question directly.

Kolby Allard, in his first start with the Phillies in place of the injured Ranger Suarez, was unable to maintain the three-run lead. He located well to begin his afternoon with three scoreless innings and a helping of soft contact but the middle of the Guardians’ order got to him in the top of the fourth. Superstar Jose Ramirez singled, as did David Fry to set up a three-run home run from hulking right-handed-hitting outfielder Jhonkensy Noel.

Allard retired the next three hitters he faced but his afternoon ended after four innings. He is in the Phillies’ rotation temporarily as they await the return of Suarez, who was placed on the 15-day IL Saturday with lower back spasms. The Phillies hope to have Suarez for their series in Arizona Aug. 8-11 and won’t have Taijuan Walker back by then, so Allard could make two more starts. He had been in rhythm at Triple A with a 2.84 ERA over his last eight starts, but the level of competition is obviously much different. Allard throws his fastball in the upper-80s and low-90s so he needs to rely on pinpoint command and effective use of his secondary pitches.

Next up for the Phillies are the Yankees, who are struggling far worse than they are. The Yankees opened the season 50-22 but had lost 23 of 34 entering Sunday night. The Phillies have Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sanchez going in the series.

“Just got to get back to keeping it simple, using the field and staying on pitches,” Thomson said. “I think at times guys try to do too much and get away from the other side of the field. You’ve got to stay on it, that’s what good hitters do.”

Kerkering struck out the leadoff batter in the home seventh before walking the next two and hitting a batter to load the bases. Matt Strahm relieved him and induced a run-scoring groundout, but Brandon Marsh was unable to corral Carlos Santana’s deep flyball with two outs and it resulted in a two-run double rather than an inning-ending flyout. It was hit hard and far, but Marsh simply misread it and whiffed trying to catch it on the warning track.

Gregory Soto hit the first batter he faced in the ninth, advanced him to scoring position with a wild pitch and allowed the game-winning single Max Kepler.

The Phillies (64-38) went 2-4 on their road trip to Pittsburgh and Minnesota and have lost three consecutive series dating back to the final weekend of the first half. This is the first time all season they’ve lost six of nine games.

Wednesday was shaping up to be a good win that would have ended a .500 trip. Aaron Nola painted corners en route to six innings of one-run ball, and after the Phillies began the day 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, Kyle Schwarber finally came through with a two-out, two-run single up the middle in the sixth to untie the game.

The Phils scored again in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Nick Castellanos, who went 3-for-4 and ended the day with his highest batting average (.242) and OPS (.711) since the opening weekend of the season.

Nola exited after throwing 98 pitches and Kerkering failed to locate. Prior to this last week, Kerkering had made 45 major-league appearances and had never allowed multiple runs. But he gave up two runs on three hits Friday in Pittsburgh, and after retiring two of the three Twins he faced on Monday, the walks haunted him Wednesday. Kerkering’s ERA has risen from 1.26 to 2.39 over his last three appearances.

Suddenly, bullpen looks like as big a need as right-handed outfield bat. Kerkering is going through a rough patch and Jose Alvarado was moved to a lower-leverage role after his own struggles continued out of the All-Star break. There have been times this season the Phillies could trust as many as five relievers in Alvarado, Jeff Hoffman, Strahm, Kerkering and Gregory Soto. Right now, they’re down to two in Hoffman and Strahm, though Alvarado’s stuff is still as overpowering as usual if he can get back to throwing strike one.

In that regard, it’s better for these performances and games to be happening in the week leading up to the trade deadline than the week after it. The Phillies went scoreless in 35 of 40 innings from Friday night until their ninth-inning rally Tuesday and have lost two of their six games in the second half after bullpen implosions. It’s hard to believe they’ll emerge from the July 30 trade deadline without at least one meaningful addition, not as a response to a slump or even because it’s required in the regular season, but because holes need to be shored up ahead of the playoffs.

Again, despite the defeat, little ground was lost because the Braves dropped the first half of their doubleheader for their fourth straight loss. The Phillies will end the day with a lead of either 8½ or 9 games. They’re just 19-19 since their final day in London but the division lead hasn’t budged.

Still, the Phillies realize they haven’t been putting complete games together for a little over a week and will be focused on righting the ship this weekend at home. AL Central-leading Cleveland is in town Friday to begin a six-game homestand against two of the three best teams in the American League, the Guardians and Yankees.

The Phils have Cristopher Sanchez, Tyler Phillips and Ranger Suarez starting after the off day. They’re set to face two of their former farmhands the first two games, right-handers Ben Lively and Carlos Carrasco.

Bryce Harper began the game-winning rally in a scoreless game against triple-digit closer Jhoan Duran, doubling to left field with one out. The Phillies effectively waited out Duran on a wild night, with Alec Bohm and J.T. Realmuto walking to load the bases.

Brandon Marsh, 0-for-his-last-16, came through with a sacrifice fly and Nick Castellanos followed with a hit that was just as important, a two-run, opposite-field double to turn a one-run lead into a 3-0 Phillies win.

Matt Strahm retired the Twins 1-2-3 for his first save of the season. The Phillies have, at least temporarily, moved Jose Alvarado into a lower-leverage role and Strahm could end up the left-handed closing counterpart to Jeff Hoffman, who recorded two outs in the eighth. Gregory Soto, the other left-hander in the bullpen, picked up the final out of the eighth on a 3-1 count with the bases loaded, inducing a difficult play to Bohm, who stepped on the third-base bag as the Phillies wiggled out of the jam.

The late rally was sorely needed because the Phillies had been held off the board in 35 out of 40 innings entering the ninth inning.

In the bigger picture, the most meaningful story of the night was Zack Wheeler’s dominance. He returned to the rotation after missing a start with back spasms and pitched as well as he has all season, allowing three hits over seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. His fastball was 95-97 mph in the first inning and he maintained it, averaging 95.1 for the night.

Wheeler is 10-4 with a 2.55 ERA and 0.98 WHIP through 20 starts in his bid to win a Cy Young award.

The Phillies pushed him in his first start in two weeks. Wheeler threw 107 pitches after throwing 76 on July 9. The Phillies had a plan to limit the first four starters out of the break to 90-95 pitches but apparently not Wheeler.

The Phils are 64-37 after the win with a chance to take the series in Wednesday’s 1:05 p.m. rubber match. Aaron Nola makes his second start of the second half while the Twins will use left-handed opener Steven Okert, formerly of the Marlins.

“If he’s gonna be 95-96 (mph), good luck to everyone in the (AL) Central,” Bryce Harper said of the ascending 29-year-old a little while after departing the Grapefruit League game.

Ober wasn’t 95-96 on Monday night in Minnesota and hasn’t been this season, but it didn’t matter after the first inning. Bryce Harper crushed a two-run homer to give the Phillies a quick lead they held until the bottom of the fifth, but Ober fooled most of the lineup with his changeup and cutter from there. He and two Twins relievers combined to retire 23 of the final 24 Phillies hitters of the game, with the only baserunner erased after two pitches on 1-6-3 double play.

The Phillies lost, 7-2, and are 63-37 through 100 games. They’ve dropped five of seven, matching June 9-16 (London, Boston, Baltimore) for their worst stretch of the season. The first night back from the break, they scored seven runs early and the bullpen faltered late. In two of the last three, they haven’t hit.

Ranger Suarez returned to the rotation after missing the All-Star Game with back tightness and threw 79 pitches over 5⅓ innings. He had a long third inning but was otherwise clean through the first four, then the game changed when he allowed three straight hits to open the bottom of the fifth. The Phillies went from up one to down one and the Twins tacked on an insurance run in the seventh off Seranthony Dominguez, then three more in the eighth against an erratic Yunior Marte.

Regarding Suarez, the most important part was that he looked healthy. His sinker averaged nearly 2 mph more than it did in his last outing before the All-Star break. He obviously is not pitching at the level of his first 15 starts, a streak unsustainable even for Hall of Famers. Suarez had a 1.75 ERA through June 24 and a 6.67 ERA in five starts since. Overall, he’s 10-5 with a 2.87 ERA.

Though they lost for the third time in four games out of the All-Star break, the Phillies didn’t lose any ground in the NL East as the Braves dropped their third straight. The Phils’ lead in the division remains 8½ games.

Zack Wheeler makes his return Tuesday night after missing a start with back spasms. It’s his first in 14 days and he threw 76 pitches in that one, so he’ll likely be limited to a similar number. The Phillies expect Brandon Marsh back after he missed Monday’s game with a sore right elbow.

Phillips held the Pirates scoreless over six innings to win his second straight start.

The Phillies won, 6-0, to snap a three-game losing streak. This weekend was the first time they lost the first two games of a series since Games 1 and 2 of the season, and they still haven’t been swept. The 100th game of the season is Monday in Minnesota and the Phils will enter with a 63-36 record.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson admitted Sunday morning that he’s been pleasantly surprised by what Phillips has accomplished thus far. Phillips’ slider has been an effective pitch and his sinker has averaged more than 1 mph more than it did in the minors, perhaps because of the extra adrenaline at this level.

“I have a job to do,” Phillips said. “You get out there and every game matters here. I think I just go out there and am in full compete mode. It ends up with me getting a win but I don’t play the game for personal stats, I play to try with the ultimate goal of being able to win a World Series.”

The No. 5 spot in the Phillies’ rotation will belong to Phillips for the time being. Thomson said Sunday morning that he’d pitched well enough so far that a stumble Sunday wouldn’t cost him his spot, and he sure didn’t stumble.

“He goes after hitters and he throws strikes,” Thomson said. “With the stuff he’s got, he’s going to get people out.”

Taijuan Walker will throw a bullpen session in Minnesota and is slated to pitch live batting practice next weekend at home, but he is unlikely to return to the rotation until mid-to-late August, meaning Phillips should take at least four or five more turns.

“Guys haven’t seen me,” Phillips said. “I just have to go out there and throw strikes and trust the preparation I’ve done all week.”

In 16 major-league innings, Phillips has allowed five runs with 15 strikeouts and just one walk. Thomson talks often about trying to get pitchers out of the game on a positive note and he could have pulled Phillips after five efficient innings because the most dangerous part of the Pirates’ order was due up in the sixth for the third time, with three lefties among the first four hitters.

But Phillips turned in his best inning of the day when it mattered most, retiring Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz and Nick Gonzales 1-2-3 with a two-run lead.

“I thought he had the game in hand,” Thomson said. “Very low pitch count, he was throwing strikes, the stuff was good. He had a good sinker all day. The slider or slurve was really good. Not a lot of hard contact. I thought he was in command.”

The Phillies made loud contact in the first inning against veteran lefty Marco Gonzales but had nothing to show for it. Kyle Schwarber crushed a lineout to deep left-center and was robbed at the wall by Joshua Palacios. Bryce Harper narrowly missed a homer two batters later when he smoked a ball to a step in front of the wall in right-center.

The second inning was more fruitful. Alec Bohm led off with a single, advanced to third on an Edmundo Sosa double and both scored when Weston Wilson and Garrett Stubbs followed with a sacrifice fly and RBI single.

The Phillies added three unearned insurance runs in the top of the seventh with a Trea Turner RBI single, Harper RBI groundout and Alec Bohm RBI single. Cruz opened the door by dropping a ball at second base in his haste to turn a double play, allowing both Stubbs and Schwarber to reach safely. They both scored, as did Turner. It could have very easily been a scoreless inning if Cruz didn’t try to do too much.

Yunior Marte, Jose Alvarado and Jose Ruiz closed out the six-run win. Alvarado bounced back with a scoreless eighth inning against the same hitters that hurt him on Friday. He popped up Andrew McCutchen and struck out Bryan Reynolds and Cruz.

“It was kind of a lower-leverage situation and that was as good as I’ve seen him in a while,” Thomson said.

The Phils now move on to Minnesota, where they’ll start Ranger Suarez, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. The Twins will be without their hottest hitter, Carlos Correa, who was placed on the injured list out of the All-Star break with plantar fasciitis.

“We did a lot of little things well today,” Thomson said. “It was big. We needed to get back on the winning side. I think that makes everybody feel good and we’ll have a happy flight and go into Minnesota and start all over again.”

The Phils fell to the Pirates, 4-1, and have dropped three straight games for the first time since May 26-28 in Colorado and San Francisco.

They scored seven runs in the first five innings of Friday’s walk-off loss but were held scoreless in 12 straight from that point until Bryce Harper’s solo home run in the ninth inning Saturday.

The Phillies mustered only three hits in seven innings off of Pirates starter Luis L. Ortiz, a two-out double down the line by Nick Castellanos in the second, a two-out single from Johan Rojas in the fifth and a leadoff bloop from J.T. Realmuto in the seventh. Ortiz was stingy otherwise, keeping the Phillies off balance with a four-pitch mix (four-seam fastball at 96 mph, cutter, slider, sinker) that he used almost equally.

The Phillies are 62-36 as they look to avoid a sweep Sunday behind rookie Tyler Phillips.

“He just missed barrels. We hit a ton of pop flies on pitches that guys felt like they were putting good swings on,” said Realmuto, who returned to the lineup after missing 32 games with a meniscus injury. “He was throwing that cutter that was a little deceptive, looked like it was gonna break and we all missed it, hit under it. He just did a good job of keeping us off balance with that.”

There just weren’t many scoring chances on Saturday night. The Phils had runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the second but the inning ended with Brandon Marsh’s pop fly to shallow left. Realmuto reached base to begin the seventh but was quickly erased when Bryson Stott hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

Stott has really struggled the last two months, hitting .200/.261/.259 in 188 plate appearances since May 21. Edmundo Sosa started the first game out of the All-Star break at second base against a lefty and it will be interesting to see if he’s back in there Sunday vs. Marco Gonzales.

Manager Rob Thomson has attributed some of it to Stott falling into modes where he is either overly aggressive or overly passive. The Phillies are seeking a better balance from him in that regard.

“I think he’s sort of forcing it a little bit,” Thomson said postgame. “A lot of flyballs to left field. He’s got to get on top of the baseball. He’ll come out of it. He can hit.”

Cristopher Sanchez started for the Phillies and began with five razor-sharp innings. He had put just four men on base over five scoreless innings when Andrew McCutchen greeted him with a 431-foot bomb to the deepest part of PNC Park in left-center to open the bottom of the sixth.

The next batter, Bryan Reynolds, singled then was retired on a 6-4-3 double play. Sanchez nearly made it out of the inning but Nick Gonzales singled and Oneil Cruz nearly homered to right field, doubling instead to score a second run and chase Sanchez.

“Felt like his slider was a little bit inconsistent today so we didn’t use it as much as we wanted to,” Realmuto said of Sanchez. “He threw the ball well, attacked the zone, just felt like the slider wasn’t there today so we weren’t able to do some of the things we wanted to.”

Cruz homered off of Matt Strahm two innings later to drive in two more, important insurance since the Phillies had Trea Turner, Harper and Alec Bohm due up in what otherwise would have been a two-run game.

McCutchen’s homer was only the third allowed by Sanchez in 109 innings this season. He and Reynolds have been pests to the Phillies this weekend with the number of pitches they force and the way they’ve ended their plate appearances.

“You’ve got to attack them and make them put the ball in play because they’ve got really good plate discipline and they’re gonna chew up pitches,” Thomson said.

Sanchez is 7-5 with a 2.97 ERA through 19 starts. Thomson pulled him Saturday at 90 pitches, a similar limit to what the team had in mind for Aaron Nola on Friday. The Phils will be cautious in the second half not just with Ranger Suarez and Zack Wheeler — set to return Monday and Tuesday — but with their entire rotation.

Not the question they wanted to ponder directly out of the All-Star break.

Alvarado blew a save Friday night in an 8-7 walk-off loss to the Pirates, allowing four of the five hitters he faced to reach base.

The Phillies blew a pair of three-run leads and stranded 11 baserunners, so Alvarado was far from the only culprit.

Yet still, his recent issues are hard to overlook. He has allowed seven runs and 13 baserunners in his last 4⅓ innings. The Phillies won four of those five games so it stood out less than it did Friday at PNC Park.

“Things are not going the way I want to, but I feel good (physically),” Alvarado said. “Baseball is just like that. It’s hard when you come into bigger moments and you lose the game, but that’s the game.

“What I think is it’s not about how we start, it’s how we finish it. I’ve always had in my mind that it’s how we finish. I’m just going through a rough time right now but I’ll keep working and giving the best of myself and we’ll see at the end of the year how it worked out for me.”

Alvarado threw his sinker 100 mph so velocity wasn’t a problem. He just caught too much plate, the Pirates put the bat on the ball and they found holes. He also didn’t help himself by walking Andrew McCutchen on five pitches to put the winning run on base and then losing track of both baserunners, who executed a double steal.

“It looks like the stuff’s there, velocity’s there, the shapes are there, he’s just not getting much swing-and-miss so he must be missing over the plate,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I’ve seen a lot of guys go through this during the course of the year and they fight out of it and he will.”

The Phillies have been here before with Alvarado. In 2022, he struggled early and was optioned to the minor leagues just before Memorial Day, then returned and was mostly lights-out from that point through the end of the 2023 season.

Sometimes a struggling reliever benefits from spending a week or two in low-leverage situations. The Phillies have two other effective lefties in their ‘pen with late-game experience in Matt Strahm and Gregory Soto, so they could simply swap out Alvarado with one of them until Alvarado recaptures his rhythm.

“If that’s what needs to be done, then I’ll certainly do it,” Thomson said.

The Phillies had a rested bullpen coming out of the All-Star break and Thomson managed aggressively, turning to Soto after Aaron Nola threw 80 pitches over five innings. Nola showed rust early in the game after a seven-day layoff. The Phillies scored three runs for him in the top of the first but he gave them right back in the bottom half. They staked him to another lead in the fourth and the Pirates again responded right away.

“A lot of stressful pitches early,” Thomson said. “Going into the game, we were kind of thinking a 90-95 pitch limit just to back him off a little bit because he’s gonna be going on regular rest the next time.”

The Phillies carried a three-run lead into the bottom of the seventh inning with their usually effective bullpen formula of Orion Kerkering, Jeff Hoffman and Alvarado ready to enter. Kerkering had a rare misstep, allowing multiple runs for the first time in his 46 big-league appearances.

Hoffman followed by striking out the side in order in the eighth, but Alvarado couldn’t hold down the top of the Bucs’ order in the ninth.

“He’ll bounce back,” Nola said of Alvarado. “Strike one’s the key with him. Ball squirted through the hole and a high one-hopper with the infield playing in. Just kinda unfortunate, but he’ll get back, nobody’s worried about him.”

Except for, perhaps, a fanbase still haunted by Joe Carter, Yordan Alvarez and the idea of this juggernaut Phillies team being undone by an untimely bullpen meltdown.

They’d been unbeaten in 15 consecutive home series and the visiting Athletics entered the weekend with 25 losses in their last 29 road games, but anything can happen on a big-league field and the A’s smoked them Sunday, homering eight times to win 18-3 and claim the series.

The game and the first half ended for the Phillies with catcher Garrett Stubbs on the mound.

“It’s not the way you want to end, but hey, we had a great first half,” manager Rob Thomson said. “We still had a 4-2 homestand. You’re gonna have games like that. Still a really good first half.”

The Phils were fresh off a sweep of the Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park and this was their first series loss since the first three days of April against the Reds. They are 62-34 and still enter the All-Star break in terrific shape with no less than an 8½-game division lead over the Braves and no less than a 5½-game lead over the Dodgers for home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.

Though they’re the far superior team to Oakland, the Phillies knew Sunday would be a challenge. They were without their scheduled starter and three key relievers.

Zack Wheeler had originally been set for the start but left Tuesday’s win with back spasms and was ruled out through the All-Star break. He and Ranger Suarez both line up to start in Minnesota in the Phillies’ second series of the second half.

Without Wheeler, the Phillies used Orion Kerkering as an opener and Michael Mercado as the bulk pitcher behind him. Kerkering pitched a 1-2-3 top of the first and Mercado was unscathed in the second and third innings but the A’s crushed four balls off of him in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, three of which left the park for two-run homers.

Potential Phillies trade target Brent Rooker hit two of the homers, 450 and 452 feet, both over the ivy wall in center. He made a big impression this weekend, going 7-for-12 with three homers, a double and seven RBI.

Jose Alvarado and Jeff Hoffman had been used three times in four days and Gregory Soto pitched Friday and Saturday, so all three were unavailable Sunday. The Phillies hoped to get Mercado past the sixth inning to utilize Jose Ruiz, Matt Strahm and Seranthony Dominguez to close out the game, but the A’s had a five-run lead by the time Mercado’s afternoon was over and Dominguez was taken deep twice himself.

The A’s hit three homers off Mercado, two against Dominguez, two against Jose Ruiz and one off Stubbs.

“I think there’s a big picture there,” Kyle Schwarber said. “Obviously today’s today and not leaving on the right foot will probably last a little bit, but the overall picture is we put ourselves in a really good position.”

Mercado looked good in his first major-league start July 2 at Wrigley Field, holding the Cubs to one run on two hits over five innings. The last two have been rough. He allowed five runs and put eight men on base without making it out of the second inning last Sunday in Atlanta, then caught too many barrels against Oakland. Even in the top of the third Sunday when the A’s sent only three men to the plate, two of them laced balls that left fielder Brandon Marsh had to race to catch fully extended.

Tyler Phillips has moved past Mercado on the starting pitching depth chart with four solid innings of relief in Atlanta and six innings in a win Saturday. Phillips lines up to start either Saturday or Sunday in Pittsburgh in the Phillies’ first series out of the break.

It’s unclear what they’ll do with Mercado. The Phils could send him back to Triple A to continue starting and call up another pitcher like lefty Kolby Allard, who has a 3.09 ERA with 33 strikeouts and seven walks in his last 32 innings.

The starting pitching situation is dicier now than it’s been all season with Wheeler and Suarez dealing with minor back injuries, Taijuan Walker sidelined by a blister and Spencer Turnbull out until at least August with a lat strain. They’re all making progress, though.

As has been the case often these first two weeks of July, Trea Turner started the scoring with a home run. Oakland right-hander Joey Estes threw him a slider on the sixth pitch that didn’t get far enough down or away and Turner took the same short, simple, seemingly low-effort swing he’s taken time and again this month.

Turner is up to 11 home runs on the year with eight HR and 20 RBI in his last 13 games. The Phillies had the NL Player of the Month in May and again in June in Bryce Harper, and Turner sure looks like the frontrunner with July halfway over.

Turner is one of six Phillies who won’t have a full break because he’ll fly to Texas to participate in Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Suarez and Wheeler were also selected but won’t make the trip as they rehab their injuries.

It was an ugly end to the first half but it’s hard to play better overall than the Phillies have through 96 games, reaching the break on a 105-57 pace. They were a win away from matching the National League record prior to the break, and their eight All-Stars matched a big-league record. They’ve been far and away the best and deepest team in baseball, just not this weekend.

Suarez retired the Oakland Athletics on just 15 pitches over the first two innings Friday night before laboring through the third and fifth. He threw 32 pitches in a three-run third that began with two outs and nobody on, then gave up another run and loaded the bases a second time in the fifth.

The Phillies lost, 6-2, to an A’s team that had dropped 25 of its last 29 road games.

Suarez enters the break with a 2.76 ERA after allowing 15 earned runs in 14⅔ innings over his last three starts. His sinker on Friday night averaged a career-low 90.0 mph. He had trouble locating, hasn’t missed bats his last three times out, and at times Friday night had trouble reaching the plate.

Following each of his last two starts, he’s shut down the notion that he’s tiring out.

“No, I worked for this during the offseason, I worked towards the goal of having a full season,” Suarez said. “I knew I was going to pitch a lot of innings this season and I’m ready for it. I feel good. 

“I’m just trying to be too sharp on the mound. I’ve been trying to be too sharp on the mound the last few outings and I just have to let go of that. I think I’ll be better at doing that and the team will be in a much better position.”

Suarez needs next week’s break as much as any Phillie, though it will be shorter for him because he was selected as an All-Star and may pitch in the game.

“I think the break’s gonna be good, I think it’s gonna be good for everybody, really,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Velocity’s down a bit but not too bad and he can still pitch at that velocity.”

Potential Phillies trade target Brent Rooker went 2-for-5 with two singles, an RBI and three strikeouts for Oakland. He’s hitting .281 with an .897 OPS and would fit the description of right-handed power bat the Phils could use. Rooker can stand in left field occasionally but was the designated hitter Friday and it bears mentioning that he hasn’t played the field in 35 games dating back to May 30.

The A’s started lefty Hogan Harris and the Phillies had the immortal one on the ropes in each of the first two innings but couldn’t drop the leg. Harris walked five of the first 10 hitters he faced and only one scored.

You could sense it wasn’t the Phillies’ night when Trea Turner broke for second and Bryce Harper crushed a line drive right at A’s first baseman Armando Alvarez for a double play to end the fifth. Turner was ejected in the bottom of the eighth after arguing a called third strike. The Phillies had struck out four times to that point, all looking, and all four players (Alec Bohm, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber and Turner) had words with home plate umpire David Rackley.

The A’s are 35-61 and a team the 61-33 Phillies should be able to beat up on, but the series isn’t off to a great start with a loss Friday ahead of Tyler Phillips’ first career start Saturday and a potential bullpen game Sunday.

The final game before the break would have been Zack Wheeler’s turn in the rotation but the Phillies will hold him out because of back spasms. The team is not concerned about the Wheeler injury but Thomson did say Friday afternoon that he’d likely start the second series out of the break rather than the first. Thomson said the Phillies may also delay Suarez’ first start of the second half until the end of the first cycle through the rotation.

Nola struck out nine over six innings, including the murderer’s row of Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman in order in the fifth after allowing his only run of the night on a CBP special to Gavin Lux that barely made it over the left-field wall 329 feet away.

The first two innings were a grind but Nola found a groove after retiring Ohtani and Smith with the bases loaded to end the top of the second. He set down 14 of the final 15 hitters he faced, all except Lux.

The Phillies won, 5-1, and are 61-32 after the sweep, 6½ games ahead of the Dodgers and 7½ ahead of the Brewers for the best record in the National League. This carries obvious importance with the team with the top record receiving home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

“We don’t care who’s coming, we don’t care who we’re playing, we’re just gonna beat ‘em,” said Johan Rojas, who drove in a run with a single and made an important late web gem. “Anyone can come here and they’re gonna end up losing the games or the series. Same with the goal we have of the World Series, we’ll go out and win it. We’re hungry to win, that’s what we’re here for and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Strong words. Strong team-wide response to a series loss over the weekend in Atlanta.

“Tremendous. Mr. Consistency, that’s what he’s been,” manager Rob Thomson said of Nola. “You look at tonight’s game and the first two innings he was in trouble. He just keeps grinding and keeps battling. Second inning there, he strikes out Ohtani, gets a ground ball from Smith and then he settled in and I thought as the game went on, he got better. He’s been dynamite all year.”

The Phillies took a quick lead Thursday on Trea Turner’s opposite-field solo home run in the bottom of the first. The Dodgers used an opener, lefty Anthony Banda, to combat Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper and Turner made them pay in between.

Turner has been possessed over these last 10 games, hitting .452 with six home runs and 17 RBI.

Brandon Marsh took two loud swings, drilling a homer to right in the second inning and tripling to score Nick Castellanos in a sixth inning where the Phillies extended their lead from one to three.

Rojas saved one run and potentially more the next half-inning by racing into the gap in left-center and extending his glove to rob Kiké Hernandez of extra bases. Matt Strahm broke Ohtani’s bat a couple of pitches later to end the top of the seventh.

Harper opened the door for a potential Dodgers rally by dropping a routine throw from Jeff Hoffman with one out and nobody on in the eighth. Hoffman loaded the bases with a walk and a single but escaped with a line-drive double play to second baseman Bryson Stott.

The Phillies did a tremendous job in the series against Ohtani, Freeman and Smith. The Dodgers’ three most dangerous hitters went a combined 5-for-28 with 10 strikeouts and no extra-base hits.

“I know they’re missing Mookie (Betts) but I thought our pitchers took care of the top of their order which was kinda key because those guys can really put up big numbers,” Thomson said. “Keeping those guys in the ballpark is key. I just think our guys executed at the right time.”

Nola gets to the break at 11-4 with a 3.38 ERA. The only pitchers in the majors with more wins is Chris Sale with 12. Starting pitching continues to be a major separator for the Phillies. The difference between their rotation and their competitors’ stands out nearly every homestand. Most teams, even the good ones like the Dodgers and Brewers, can’t seem to get through a series at Citizens Bank Park without using an opener or an unconventional starting pitching choice. Phillies fans have wondered about the No. 5 spot while most teams don’t even have a solid No. 3. Granted, the Dodgers are without injured Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but health and durability are pieces of it all as well.

The Phils will start Ranger Suarez and Tyler Phillips on Friday and Saturday in their final series of the first half against the Oakland Athletics, who have lost 25 of their last 29 road games. Back spasms will prevent Zack Wheeler from starting the finale Sunday — it will likely be a bullpen game — but the Phillies think he’ll be ready to go out of the All-Star break.

Mercado loaded the bases on walks in the bottom of the first but escaped with a lineout to shortstop. The second went significantly worse. Adam Duvall greeted Mercado with a home run to the second deck in left field, Orlando Arcia and Eli White singled to turn the lineup over and Jarred Kelenic popped a three-run homer. Two batters later, Matt Olson took Mercado out to right-center.

“Just couldn’t throw strikes, just couldn’t find the strike zone,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s got great awareness — I said to him after he came out, these guys hit a lot of home runs off a lot of really good pitchers and he said yeah, but I’ve got to throw strikes. He understands. For whatever reason, couldn’t find his release point. This is his first time ever throwing on four days’ rest. We were gonna have a really short pitch count anyway.”

The rookie needed 57 pitches to record just five outs in the Phillies’ 6-0 loss. He lines up to make one more start before the All-Star break — Saturday at home against the A’s — but it remains to be seen if he does.

“We’re gonna discuss some things,” Thomson said of that next turn in the rotation.

The Phillies have little starting pitching depth beyond Mercado. Their fifth and sixth starters, Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull, are on the injured list with a blister and lat strain, respectively. Turnbull is out until mid-to-late August. Walker is set to throw a bullpen session Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park and could throw live batting practice on Saturday. He will need multiple rehab starts before returning to the Phillies’ rotation but could be back in late July or early August.

The Phils also have right-hander Tyler Phillips, who started 15 games at Triple A with a 4.89 ERA, on the active roster. Phillips made his big-league debut Sunday in the bottom of the fifth and struck out Olson, Marcell Ozuna and Travis d’Arnaud in order in his first career inning. The 26-year-old struck out seven over four innings, allowing one run on a solo homer to White.

Phillips was the lone bright spot in a Phillies loss. They had no extra-base hits Saturday for the fifth time this season and were shut out Sunday for the third time.

The Phils are off on Monday ahead of a six-game homestand that leads into the All-Star break. They have the Dodgers Tuesday through Thursday and the Athletics Friday through Sunday. Kyle Schwarber and potentially Bryce Harper could be back Tuesday and the Phils’ scuffling offense needs them.

After winning 13 of Suarez’ first 14 starts through mid-June, the Phillies have lost three of his last four, falling 5-1 to the Braves on Saturday night to even the weekend series at a game apiece.

“I think there’s probably a little bit of fatigue and I think there is with all our guys,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But I don’t think it’s a concern. None of the numbers that we measure are really jumping out at us.”

Suarez was coming off of his worst start of the season — six runs on 10 hits over 4⅔ innings against the lowly Marlins with no strikeouts for the first time in his career — and the Braves jumped on him early Saturday. Jarred Kelenic doubled down the right-field line, scored on an Ozzie Albies single and Atlanta led the rest of the way, with Marcell Ozuna hitting a two-run homer after called strikeouts of Austin Riley and Matt Olson.

Suarez retired seven in a row after the Ozuna homer, then escaped a jam in the fourth inning with two runners in scoring position and nobody out by striking out Sean Murphy and Adam Duvall to set up an inning-ending popup.

But Albies did more damage in the fifth, drilling a two-run homer to left after a Kelenic single. The Braves’ second baseman is 5-for-8 in the series with two homers, four RBI and five runs scored.

Suarez has one more start before the break — Friday at home against the Athletics — and will almost certainly be part of the All-Star Game after his fantastic first half. But it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s dealing with a bit of a tired arm.

“No, I don’t think it’s that,” he said. “Three or four bad pitches today and they hit them and scored the runs. I feel healthy. I think that’s important right now.”

He is at 108 innings pitched on the season. At this point a year ago, he was at 56⅓. The most Suarez has ever thrown through this date is 79. And keep in mind that he also had the first full spring training workload of his career this year.

Suarez (10-3) allowed five runs over five innings. His ERA has risen in his last two starts from 1.83 to 2.58.

“When you have bad outings, it’s normal to worry about your performance and that’s what’s happened today,” Suarez said when asked about showing some frustration on the mound. “When the team gets behind by so many runs, it feels like you’re knocked down and it’s hard to get back up. I’m not giving them the chance to fight by keeping the game close. That’s what I’ve been thinking about.

“I’ve had three bad outings in a row and I started to worry a little bit about it. It’s just pitch location, that’s what I mean when I say I worry about the next performance. I’ll just try to focus and work on my pitch location for the next one.”

Trea Turner drove in the Phillies’ lone run with an RBI single in the top of the third against rookie Spencer Schwellenbach after flying out to the wall in right-center in the first inning. The All-Star shortstop is 12-for-27 (.444) over the last six games with four homers, 11 RBI and 11 runs scored.

The Phillies were held without an extra-base hit for the fifth time this season and first since May 26 in Colorado. They’re 58-31 with a nine-game lead over the Braves entering Sunday’s 1:20 p.m. series finale.

Rookie Michael Mercado will make his second career start, while the Braves turn to right-hander Reynaldo Lopez. Lopez has a 1.83 ERA which would lead all of baseball if he met the innings requirement of one per team game but he’s three short.

Sunday should be the Phils’ last game without Kyle Schwarber (groin strain), who is on track to rejoin the team on Tuesday when first eligible to be activated from the injured list.

The Phillies will find out after their series finale how many of their players made the National League All-Star team as pitchers and reserves. Suarez, despite the recent woes, should still make the team.

“After these couple of outings, I don’t think so,” he joked, “but whatever it is that happens, I’ll take it. My main focus for this year is to stay healthy the whole season. I’ve been doing it, and I just want to stay healthy all year. We have our goals set.”

The Phillies knew they needed others to step up when Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber joined J.T. Realmuto on the injured list last Friday and Turner has done nothing but rake since.

He began the Phillies’ road trip at Wrigley Field this week with a pair of two-run homers to left-center in a two-run win and lofted two more over the wall in left-center Friday night at Truist Park to lead the Phillies to an 8-6 win over the rival Braves.

“When I’m going like this, I’m not necessarily trying to do that,” he said. “I think it’s more of I load right, I don’t feel like I’m cheating, I’m not yanking the ball, just kind of letting it happen. I just feel like my swing’s in a way better spot, my decision-making, my ability to adjust has been way better this year than last and for my career that’s more typical, being able to make adjustments.”

Turner has been on fire over his last nine games with seven extra-base hits, 10 RBI and 11 runs scored. He’s hit .343 since returning from the injured list.

“That’s who he is,” manager Rob Thomson said. “When he gets hot, he gets hotter than heck. He’s not the biggest man on the planet and I don’t know how he hits the ball so far. He’s got bat speed and he barrels things up and when gets it up in the air, it goes. It’s really incredible to me.

“For him to be down all that time and not go on a rehab assignment and have the at-bats that he’s had since he’s been back, it’s a testament to the athlete and the shape he’s in.”

It had the makings of a potentially frustrating night and start to a big series before Turner and the Phillies finally broke through against Max Fried in the fourth inning. They’d stranded six baserunners through the first three with a failed safety squeeze by Johan Rojas and a bases-loaded groundout from Whit Merrifield.

They pushed across their first run on a fielder’s choice beaten out by Bryson Stott, and Turner followed with his first two-run homer. Cristian Pache preceded them with his best at-bat in weeks, an eight-pitch single that advanced Johan Rojas to third base.

The bottom of the order looked like a clear weakness when the Phillies lost Harper and Schwarber to injuries two weeks after Realmuto underwent surgery on his right meniscus. Friday night, for example, their 6-7-8-9 was Merrifield, Rafael Marchan, Rojas and Pache.

Yet the win at Truist Park made the Phillies 5-2 without their trio of big-money bats. Most of that has been thanks to the pitching staff, Turner, Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm, who found out Friday he’d be participating in the Home Run Derby in addition to starting the All-Star Game.

But Marchan and Garrett Stubbs have also held their own at the plate, Pache helped fuel the first rally Friday and Rojas made a huge defensive play to help close out Wednesday’s win in Chicago before singling twice with an RBI and stolen base in Atlanta.

The Phillies are 58-30 on the season with an enormous 10-game lead over the Braves.

Aaron Nola held Atlanta in check early on. This was his 37th career start against the Braves and he generated funky swings the first two times through the order against hitters who have seen him a zillion times like Ozzie Albies, Marcell Ozuna, Adam Duvall and Orlando Arcia.

Nola (10-4, 3.48) didn’t put a man on base until Albies singled with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Austin Riley, a .365 career hitter against him with five doubles and six home runs, followed by taking Nola deep to center to make it a one-run game.

Albies hit a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth to bring the Braves closer but Ozuna lined out as the tying run to end Nola’s night. The Braves committed three errors in the top of the seventh and by the time the Phillies went to Orion Kerkering, the first reliever out of the ‘pen, the lead had ballooned to five, a lead comfortable enough to withstand Ozuna’s three-run shot off Jose Alvarado an inning later.

Jeff Hoffman earned the save, his eighth to Alvarado’s 13.

The Phils try for a series win Saturday night as Ranger Suarez opposes rookie right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach. They’ve already achieved an important weekend goal as they knew entering the series that anything other than a sweep would allow them to return home with a division lead of at least eight games.

Sanchez went 1-2-3 in the first inning, avoided damage by striking out the side in the second and threw just eight pitches in a perfect third before the Cubs batted around in the bottom of the fourth. Sanchez walked Cody Bellinger and gave up a single to Seiya Suzuki, setting the table for Ian Happ’s three-run homer which turned a two-run Phillies lead into a deficit the rest of the way.

Three more Cubs reached base in the fourth inning and two scored. Rob Thomson sent Sanchez back out for the fifth and the lefty put Bellinger and Suzuki on again before being relieved by Seranthony Dominguez, who allowed Happ’s second three-run shot in as many innings.

The Phillies lost, 10-2. The only other time they’d allowed double-digit runs was March 30, the second day of the season. Sanchez was coming off of the first shutout of his career. He entered with the second-lowest ERA in the NL at 2.41 and exited at 2.96, which is still good for sixth in the league.

“I attribute it to the complete game, really,” Thomson said. “It takes its toll on you to throw a complete game, especially a guy who’s never been in a ninth inning before. He gets an extra day the next time and he’ll be good to go.

“He wasn’t getting ahead like he normally does. He did throw some good changeups but it wasn’t as consistent as it normally is. He’ll be fine.”

You knew that eventually, one of his pitches would catch the sweet spot and travel 400 feet. Sanchez had been taken deep just one time all season in 96⅓ innings before Happ launched one to left-center. Last season, he allowed 16 home runs in 99⅓ innings. Nobody avoids longballs at the rate Sanchez has in 2024.

He still warrants All-Star consideration. Pitchers and reserves are announced Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET, and even if Sanchez doesn’t make the team then, he would be a logical replacement for any pitcher who starts Sunday, July 14 in the final game before the All-Star break. Zack Wheeler, for example, is lined up to pitch next Sunday for the Phillies, which would deem him ineligible for the All-Star Game.

Part of being a manager is weighing whether to let a guy go complete or exercise caution with the future in mind. Thomson, for example, said the night of Michael Lorenzen’s no-hitter last summer that he was conscious of how the high pitch count might affect him moving forward and it certainly did.

Lorenzen threw 124 pitches in that game, though, compared to the 101 Sanchez threw in his complete game against the Marlins.

“You’ve got to let guys achieve some goals as long as it’s within reason and I thought it was last time, 101 pitches, not a big pitch count,” Thomson said. “But the nine ups takes its toll on you.”

Sanchez did not agree that his poor outing was a result of going complete last time, though you’d have a hard time finding a pitcher who complains about being given more innings.

“It was not that,” he said. “I just think that I missed some pitches that I shouldn’t have missed. I felt normal during the first time through the lineup but I started missing my spots the second time and they started executing.

“It’s just a part of the game. There’s going to be good days and bad days but we just have to remain focused and use the ‘pen when we have to.”

The Phillies opened the scoring on July 4 with a first-inning RBI single by Brandon Marsh after Trea Turner stole second with two outs. It marked the third straight plate appearance from Wednesday night into Thursday that Turner’s speed enabled the Phillies to manufacture a run. He legged out an infield single in his penultimate at-bat Wednesday and scored on an Alec Bohm homer. Then he scored the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly to very shallow center. On Thursday, he got a great jump on Jameson Taillon to set up Marsh’s knock.

Nick Castellanos hit a solo homer to extend the Phillies’ lead before Sanchez encountered problems. Castellanos has really come on, hitting .298 over his last 31 games with 11 doubles, a triple, six homers and 21 RBI.

The Cubs followed with 10 unanswered runs to prevent a Phillies sweep. The Phils still won the series and are 57-30 as they depart for a three-game weekend series in Atlanta.

It’s a big series but there won’t be nearly as much star-power as either side would have expected after last meeting on opening weekend. The Phillies will be without Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto while the Braves won’t have Ronald Acuña Jr., Michael Harris II or Spencer Strider.

In reality, all the Phillies need to do to maintain a comfortable division lead is win one of three games in Atlanta, which would ensure they return home up by at least eight games.

“It’s like any series, you’re looking to go in and win a series just like we did here,” Thomson said. “They’re a good club. They’ve got good pitching, and I know that everybody talks about how their offense hasn’t clicked yet but they’ve got a powerful team. We’ve got our hands full. Just go get ’em.”

Bohm was on the training table getting a massage, looked up and flashed a smile when the Phillies’ manager confirmed the inevitable.

How did it feel?

“I don’t really know yet,” the soon-to-be-28-year-old said after hitting a two-run homer and helping fuel a game-winning rally in a 5-3 win over the Cubs.

“It’s obviously one of those things that kinda just makes you think about all the time and all the games you’ve played. The good ones, the bad ones. It makes it all worth it.”

Bryce Harper and Trea Turner, the Phillies’ other two All-Star starters, have been here before. This will be Harper’s eighth All-Star Game and Turner’s third. They’ve both been MVP candidates for much of the last half-decade.

Bohm arrived at this point gradually. He was the No. 3 pick in the country out of Wichita State in 2018 and the read on him was that he seemed like he could hit for average with doubles pop but that the home run power might be slow to develop. There were also legitimate questions about his defense at third base.

One thing Bohm has done consistently from the day he got to the majors in 2020 is hit in clutch spots. He hit .452 with runners in scoring position as a rookie and is at .319 for his career. It’s how he drove in 97 runs last season with a relatively low home run total of 20.

With the two-run shot Wednesday night, Bohm is up to 11 homers and 70 RBI on the season. He leads the majors with 28 doubles and has driven in three more runs than anyone in the NL.

He’s also become much more reliable defensively, which is equally important because he might not have been able to stay on the field for the Phillies without that marked improvement. Infield coach Bobby Dickerson deserves a ton of credit with helping shape Bohm as a defender.

“It’s all part of it,” Bohm said. “The good times, the bad times, all of that. You play baseball long enough, it’s not always going ot be pretty but a lot of those failures and a lot of that stuff are teaching moments, too. Little ways to make yourself better in the long run. I think all of it’s kinda happened exactly how it should. It’s brought me to where I am today.”

Bohm credited his veteran teammates, notably Harper and Turner, for helping his grow as a player and person. It makes it even sweeter for him that he’ll be flanked by two teammates in Texas on July 16.

“It’ll be cool to look over to my left and see Trea, to catch a groundball and throw it over to Bryce,” he said. “To be able to share that with those guys is pretty cool. Those guys have been a big part of helping me grow as a player, showing me what it’s supposed to look like.”

How have they helped?

“Pretty much any way you can imagine,” he said. “Starting right when I came up, there’s been a lot of really good veteran players from 2020-on that have come through here. Whether they stayed a while or were just here for a little bit, I feel like a lot of those guys have set a good example to the team we have now where everywhere you look in this clubhouse, there’s a guy that’s been an All-Star and done all that stuff.

“The way they go about their business, whether they’re talking to you about it or not, these guys have done a really good job of setting an example for the young guys.”

He also recognizes that he wouldn’t be here without his parents, Dan and Lisa. They tried to let the All-Star process play out, he said, and didn’t pepper him with questions or comments leading into Wednesday’s reveal. It was pretty obvious that Bohm was going to get the nod over Manny Machado, though. He held a lead of 70% to 30%.

“They were happy. They come a lot,” he said. “They’ve been supporting me since — I’m an only child so it was kinda just following me around, this tournament, that tournament, college, and so I think they had a lot to do with where I’m at, too.”

At least six more Phillies have a genuine case to make the All-Star team. J.T. Realmuto is still one of the NL’s best three catchers along with William Contreras and Will Smith. Ranger Suarez, Cristopher Sanchez and Zack Wheeler rank first, second and fourth in the league in ERA. Jeff Hoffman has a 1.24 ERA with seven saves and elite strikeout-to-walk numbers. Matt Strahm has a 1.64 ERA with 44 strikeouts and four walks.

Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET is when reserves and pitchers are announced and when the Phillies will find out whether they have five, six or potentially more All-Stars.

Taijuan Walker was healthy. Spencer Turnbull was healthy. The idea of Mercado finding himself on the mound at Wrigley Field for his first major-league start in front of the best team in baseball just two Tuesdays later would have sounded far-fetched.

Yet there he was for the Phillies’ series opener against the Cubs, making the first of what could be five starts leading into the July 30 trade deadline.

The 25-year-old rookie allowed hard contact here and there — mostly to Cody Bellinger — but had a promising introduction to the Phillies’ rotation by allowing just one run on two hits over five innings in a 6-4 win, a job well done for any team’s fifth starter.

Mercado had two on with two outs and a 2-0 count to Ian Happ in the first inning but rebounded to strike him out.

He threw 28 pitches in the third inning and allowed a two-out RBI double, then cruised through the fourth and fifth.

“That’s what’s most important is to have that composure and still compete and not get rattled,” Trea Turner said.

“That tells you a little bit about his makeup and poise,” manager Rob Thomson added. “He threw strikes, fastball had good velo, looked like it had good carry on it. Cutter was really effective and he landed his breaking ball enough to keep them off everything else. I thought he was really good.”

Mercado didn’t even begin the year on the Phillies’ depth chart of starting pitchers. They acquired him in November from the Rays, who didn’t have room on their 40-man roster, and he began the season as a reliever at Triple A.

But the struggles of starters like Kolby Allard, David Buchanan and Mick Abel, among others, gave him an opportunity.

“It was actually (assistant pitching coach) Brian Kaplan that came up with it because we had a couple of guys who weren’t throwing well at Triple A to start the season,” Thomson said. “Just the repertoire with high velocity, the strike-throwing ability and the way he can throw his breaking ball, the effectiveness of it, he thought that it might be a big piece for us for depth. And thank god he came up with the idea because it’s really worked out well.”

The end to Mercado’s first start was especially impressive. He retired the final seven hitters he faced and needed only 21 pitches total to get through the fourth and fifth innings before handing the ball to the bullpen, which retired nine in a row until Jose Ruiz allowed all three batters he faced in the ninth inning to score.

“Both times I felt like I felt more nervous just warming up pregame,” Mercado said of his first relief appearance and first start. “It’s like making my debut, it’s one of those things that you dream about doing at a place so historic. It was a great team win, too. I’m just happy that I could contribute.

“I think just the confidence I have in myself and the confidence the guys in this clubhouse have in me. We go back to what we’ve always been doing and for me, that’s pitching. Being able to settle in and treat it like any other game is huge.”

It helped that the Phillies supported him early. Garrett Stubbs, who prides himself on the game-planning and strategic element of catching, navigated Mercado through the start and further helped him with a two-run double down the third-base line in the second inning.

Turner hit a solo home run to left-center in the top of the third, then brutalized a middle-in 94 mph fastball from Hayden Wesneski in the fifth, hitting it 439 feet out of the stadium onto Waveland Ave for a two-run shot. Two innings later, Turner fell behind in the count 1-2 before stroking a two-out, opposite-field RBI single.

“Oh, absolutely,” Thomson said of the positive impact of early run support. “But it can work the other way, too. It can put more pressure on a guy because he’s got the lead and he doesn’t want to give it up. But he held his own. He was great.”

Turner had the game-winning two-run single on Sunday and will be even more crucial than usual over the next week to 10 days as the Phillies await the returns of Bryce Harper (hamstring strain), Kyle Schwarber (groin strain) and J.T. Realmuto (right meniscus surgery recovery). All three injured Phillies are making progress. They each jogged on the field Tuesday, Realmuto did receiving drills and took batting practice on the field for the first time since his June 12 surgery, and Harper and Schwarber hit in the cage indoors.

Harper and Schwarber could be back as soon as July 9. Realmuto’s return might have to wait until after the All-Star break, though Thomson hasn’t closed the door.

“We’ll see,” the Phillies’ manager said Tuesday afternoon. “He’s a quick healer.”

The Phillies have gone 11-9 without Realmuto and are 3-1 since Harper and Schwarber went down. They’ve gotten big contributions from Turner and Nick Castellanos, and also from Stubbs.

Stubbs treats his offense like “icing on the cake” but he’s held his own at the dish since Realmuto’s surgery, batting .275 with a hit in 10 of the 11 games he’s played.

The next-man-up mentality for the 2024 Phillies has been more than just lip service.

“A lot of guys want to play,” Turner said. “Everybody’s excited for the opportunity and that’s really important. Don’t know if that’s always the case but I feel like guys are itching to play and that’s really cool. When their name’s called, it’s their time to prove what they’re capable of, and we’ve got a lot of good players on top of that. That combination is what you’re seeing.”

The Phils are 56-29, a season-best 27 games over .500. The Braves lost to the Giants so the Phillies’ division lead is back up to nine games. The teams meet this weekend for the first time since the first three games of the year.

But first, they’ll look to take at least two of three from a Cubs team that has lost six of seven series and 16 of the last 24 games. Zack Wheeler takes the hill Wednesday night and Cristopher Sanchez will start the afternoon of July 4.

Suarez’ ERA trickled over 2.00 to 2.01, the highest it’s been since his third start of the season.

Detroit scored all four of its runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Tigers loaded the bases on singles with nobody out, scored one run on a groundout, two on a single up the middle with a drawn-in infield and another on Riley Greene’s RBI triple.

Suarez didn’t allow much hard contact but was done in by that one frame.

The Phillies were held scoreless over seven innings by Tigers ace and sure-fire All-Star Tarik Skubal, who improved to 9-3 with a 2.32 ERA.

The Phils (52-27) had a couple of chances against the tough lefty, albeit with two outs. They had runners on second and third with two away in the top of the second and third but the innings ended with a Cristian Pache strikeout and Alec Bohm groundout.

Bryce Harper provided the lone run in the ninth inning with a solo home run off of Jason Foley after doubling earlier in the night. Harper is up to 19 doubles, 20 homers and 57 RBI while hitting .306 with a .992 OPS.

The series finale is Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. with Spencer Turnbull making his return to the Phillies’ rotation and to the mound at Comerica Park. Manager Rob Thomson said he expected to limit Turnbull to approximately 70 pitches in his first start since April 30. Turnbull most recently pitched last Friday, throwing 49 pitches over three scoreless innings.

Harper had a monster game Monday night in the Phillies’ series opener in Detroit, hitting a two-run double in the top of the first and a three-run homer in the sixth inning of an 8-1 win over the Tigers.

Harper’s homer came off left-handed reliever Tyler Holton, who had held lefty hitters to 6-for-58 entering the night. He put a short, Chase Utley-like swing on a changeup that caught too much plate for his 19th home run, lacing it on a low line drive over the right-field wall.

Harper’s driven in 56 runs, eight fewer than Alec Bohm, who did just as much damage Monday in Detroit. Bohm hit a two-run homer himself in the Phillies’ four-run first inning against Casey Mize as part of a four-hit night.

Harper and Bohm, as productive as any 3-4 hitters in baseball this season, are far out in front as the top two All-Star vote-getters in the National League and just continue to rake.

Harper has hit .426 over his last 15 games with seven doubles, five homers, 12 RBI and 16 runs scored.

Bohm is batting .313, leads the majors with 28 doubles and is tied with Marcell Ozuna for the NL RBI lead with 64.

Harper is on pace for 39 home runs and 116 RBI. Bohm is on pace for 58 doubles and 133 RBI. The Phillies’ official midpoint is Thursday.

The game began with a simple groundball to short by Kyle Schwarber but Zach McKinstry bobbled the ball. Trea Turner and Harper followed with doubles before Bohm capped the early rally. Most teams pay the price when giving the Phillies extra outs in front of their thumpers.

McKinstry made another mistake in the bottom of the third when he lost track of the ball on a line drive back to the mound. Aaron Nola caught it, threw to first and Harper threw to third for a highly unconventional 1-3-5 triple play.

“That was wild,” Harper said. “Pretty cool moment for all of us. We were all so excited, that was like going back to Little League. It was pretty awesome.”

Nola turned in a terrific outing, following a quality start his last time out with seven innings of one-run ball. He’s up to 101 on the season with a 3.39 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. How wild is it that those are the fourth-best numbers in a rotation?

The Phillies have won seven of Nola’s last eight starts and 13 of his last 15. They have the best record in baseball at 52-26.

The week ahead could be one of their most advantageous the rest of the way. They have two more in Detroit, then four games at home against the Marlins, who have the worst offense in the National League. It sets up well on paper for a dominant starting pitching staff that began the week with the three lowest ERAs in the league (Ranger Suarez, Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez).

Tuesday should be an exciting left-handed pitchers’ duel between Suarez (10-1, 1.75) and Tarik Skubal (8-3, 2.50).

Wednesday afternoon is Spencer Turnbull’s return to the Phillies’ rotation and to the mound at Comerica Park to face a Tigers team he started 60 games for between 2018-23.

Matt Waldron kept the Phils off balance over seven innings, allowing just a solo home run to Bryce Harper in the third. The only inning they put multiple men on base was the bottom of the first. Nick Castellanos struck out and Brandon Marsh flied out to end that threat, with both expressing dissatisfaction to umpire Jeremie Rehak on called strikes they felt floated out of the zone. One did, the other did not.

There haven’t been many knuckle-ballers, period, in the major leagues over the last decade and the Phillies hadn’t seen one since R.A. Dickey on August 30, 2017, a lineup that included guys like Nick Williams and Pedro Florimon. Waldron entered having thrown his knuckler three of every eight pitches but did so nearly 50% of the time Wednesday. He had little reason to abandon it. It fooled the Phillies, and the Harper homer came on a fastball. Harper added another solo shot in the eighth inning for the Phils’ only other run.

“When you face a guy with a knuckleball, you tend to know what to do with it, but he’s a lot different than other guys because he has four or five other pitches that he throws,” Bryson Stott said. “He had good command of his knuckleball today. 

“It’s tough. Your gut is to sell out on that first pitch and hope it’s a cutter or four-seamer and then he’ll throw the good knuckleball and you hit it off the end (of the bat). He did a really good job of mixing and matching and throwing his knuckleball when he needed it. He tends not to throw the knuckleball in hitters counts and today he was.

“I don’t even know if he knows what it’s gonna do, really. You see it for so long, the laces aren’t moving. The one hit Bohm and then he’ll throw it in the same spot and it’s in the other batter’s box. Just a tough pitch.”

Pitching in front of his wife and two children for the first time as a pro, Ranger Suarez made another strong start, allowing just a solo homer to Jackson Merrill over six innings. He didn’t factor into the decision, escaping a first-and-third jam in the top of the sixth to end his afternoon at 94 pitches. Suarez’ ERA barely moved, decreasing to a major-league-leading 1.75 from 1.77. He has allowed two runs or fewer in 12 of his 15 starts.

Orion Kerkering came on in relief in the seventh inning and pitched his first clunker in a month, hitting a batter and allowing a pair of two-out singles, the second of which plated San Diego’s go-ahead run. He owns a 1.69 ERA and remains one of the Phillies’ most trusted relievers.

Seranthony Dominguez was charged with three runs in the eighth inning, all of them unearned because of an Alec Bohm error. Two batters after Bohm’s bobble, Marsh sold out in center field attempting a diving catch with the bases loaded and two outs but the ball went just under his glove, resulting in a bases-clearing triple for Kyle Higashioka. (Does recently optioned Johan Rojas make that play?)

The Phils were unable to achieve their 10th sweep in the last 19 series but did win two of three over the Padres. They’re 49-25 with an off-day Thursday and a three-game set looming this weekend against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the teams’ first meeting since the shocking result of the 2023 NLCS.

Trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies laced four straight hits off Padres closer Robert Suarez to walk off with a 4-3 win.

Nick Castellanos, who had a four-hit game after doubling twice in Monday’s win, delivered the game-winning knock, a bloop double down the right-field line to follow singles by Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott.

It came after the Phillies stranded 12 runners through the first eight innings, including two in the second, the bases loaded in the fourth, two in the fifth and two more in the sixth.

“When we have the heart of the lineup coming up and we’re only down one, we’re in it,” Castellanos said. “Hats off to Bryce for being able to get the inning going because, first off, a one-run lead, I’m pretty sure the other side doesn’t feel safe against us in the ninth inning. And when you have the leadoff guy on, it makes it that much more difficult for the pitcher.”

This would have been a tough game to waste given how well the Phillies pitched. Aaron Nola, Orion Kerkering, Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman combined for seven 1-2-3 innings and faced the minimum in another. The only inning the Padres sent more than three men to the plate was the sixth when they scored all three of their runs.

“I think we have a lot of strengths but our bullpen is certainly one of them because we’ve got power arms, guys who throw strikes and come right after people,” manager Rob Thomson said. “They can hold a team down and that’s what they did tonight.”

The Phils struck first when Brandon Marsh singled in Castellanos in the fourth inning, then they went quiet until the bottom of the eighth when Kyle Schwarber hit his sixth home run in eight games. It woke up the crowd and gave the dugout the jolt it needed. The Phillies pride themselves on playing all nine and this was the fourth time in 2024 they’ve won a game they trailed after eight innings.

“Just reassurance of what we all know and believe,” Castellanos said, “which is that we’re a really good team, and in order to beat us, you’ve got to put us away with all 27 outs.”

Castellanos has been more productive after a slow six weeks to open the season. He’s hit .278 with a .542 slugging percentage over the last 17 games, production the Phillies would welcome rest-of-season if they could.

“Considering I haven’t had the best year, to be able to come through when the team needs it, it feels good,” he said.

The Phils are 49-24 after yet another series win. Teams talk about trying to win every series, and the Phillies’ record to this point has been even better than taking two of every three.

They’ve also won 14 of their last 16 games against the Padres the last three seasons as they look for a sweep on Wednesday afternoon. It’s a short turnaround with a 1:05 p.m. series finale. Ranger Suarez goes for his MLB-leading 11th win, while the Padres send out knuckle-baller Matt Waldron.