Citizens Bank Park is now the site of 6 straight victories for the Phillies after they handled the White Sox once again. Philadelphia has not lost in their last 5 series after losing the first 2 of the season, including sweeping the last two against Colorado and now Chicago. A strong way to close out their second home stand – let’s see how we got there.
Starting Pitching Continues to Dominate
The Phillies starting rotation has been nothing but stellar over the past week. Coming into the game, they had even set some history.
Sunday’s starter, Aaron Nola, looked like he might snap the hot streak from the Phillies starters as he allowed 2 quick runs in the top of the first inning on a single from Robbie Grossman followed by a 2-run home run from Eloy Jiménez. However, Nola settled in from there. Over the next 7 innings, he allowed just 2 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 7. Over his last three starts, Nola has only allowed runs when giving up a long ball. Aaron finished his outing Sunday with just 91 pitches, and he turned things over to Yunior Marté who was able to shut the door.
Offense keeps rolling
The Phillies offense has continued to roll as of late, and that didn’t stop today. They scored 8 runs on 11 hits and 6 walks. Trea Turner continues to be one of the hottest hitters in all of baseball. He extended his hitting streak to 10 games and now has a .348/.402/.506 slash line. After some confusion on the initial ruling, Turner also extended his consecutive steals streak to 40 with a steal of home in the bottom of the 1st inning – the longest such streak since Ichiro stole 45 consecutive bags in 2006-2007.
Kyle Schwarber hit a mammoth home run and walked 3 times, Johan Rojas had 2 hits to raise his average to .264, Alec Bohm went 3-for-5 with a RBI of his own, and Bryce Harper knocked in 2 more to continue to improve on a slow start.
How Good Have They Been Lately?
The Phillies pitching staff has been the highlight of the team so far this year, and even better in the last week. The last time a starter threw less than 6 innings was a week ago, including 3 straight games where they went 7+ IP. The last time they did that was July 22-24 2023. The staff has only allowed more than 4 hits twice in the last 6 games.
Offensively, they took care of business as well. They tallied 30 hits, their most in a 3-game series and only 1 behind their total in the 4-game set against the Pirates. Philly also went 11-for-31 with runners in scoring position – their best percentage in a series this year. The series against the Rockies was their best offensively, and they followed that up with an even better performance. During the homestand (10 games) the Phillies have 28 extra-base hits – that’s 8 more than the first 12 games of the year 4 combined.
What’s Next for the Phillies?
Philadelphia hits the road tomorrow, heading west to start a 10-game road trip. First stop, Cincinnati for a rematch against the Reds. They will stay there for 4 games before going out to California for 2 more series before returning home.
Tomorrow’s contest will see Ranger Suárez take the mound against Hunter Greene who they did not see during the series in Philadelphia in early April. Greene has one career start against the Phillies, allowing 2 runs over 4.2 innings.
Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
