Phillies, led by Bryce Harper again, tee off on Angels with five-homer onslaught

Bryce Harper left his South Jersey home at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, tuned into sports-talk radio on his commute to the ballpark, and, well, let’s have the Phillies star take it from here.

“A guy named Chuck calls in — he calls in a lot; he’s hilarious — and he was talking about our team and talking about me,” Harper said. “I walked in the training room, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to go deep tonight for Chuck.’ That guy had me fired up, man.”

On cue, in the second inning, a dinger.

And so, it has come to this: Harper homers, dedicated to “Chuck from Mount Airy” and other 94-WIP regulars.

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What, then, did you expect from poor Angels manager Phil Nevin in the sixth inning? Never mind that his team led by two runs. Or that Harper was the tying run. Or that the Angels had a lefty (Tyler Anderson) on the mound and the Phillies had a righty (Alec Bohm) on deck. It might as well have been a reflex for Nevin to raise four fingers and order an intentional walk.

Two pitches later, Bohm bashed a go-ahead three-run homer — the third of five Phillies round-trippers in a 12-7 rout, the team’s fifth consecutive victory and seventh in eight games — so it sure looks like Nevin blundered.

But as Bohm circled the bases, a reality washed over the roar of 36,096 screaming patrons at Citizens Bank Park: It probably didn’t matter what Nevin decided.

Not with the way the Phillies are mashing.

“When we get going, we can string it together all the way through the lineup,” said Bohm, who insisted repeatedly he took no offense to the walk of Harper. “Anywhere we’re at in the lineup, we feel like we can get something going and put a big inning together.”

Never more than in this snapshot in time.

Kyle Schwarber, Harper, Bohm, Bryson Stott, and resuscitated Trea Turner went deep, giving the Phillies 57 homers in August. It’s the most ever in one month in the franchise’s 141-year history and the third-most for any team in a month this season.

Bohm’s blow was the Phillies’ ninth three-run homer in August. They had five three-run homers from opening day through the end of July.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper nears 300 homers: How he got here and what’s next

And as this power-packed month, which included 19 home games, ends with Wednesday’s matinee series finale, the Phillies offered a preview of what might well be ahead in October, assuming they keep their foot on the pedal and clinch the top wild card — and the accompanying home series in the best-of-three wild-card round.

“The biggest thing is we love playing at home,” Harper said. “We love coming home and playing in front of these fans. We’re so comfortable here. We really enjoy playing at the Bank. It’s a big part of our success here against teams. We never feel like we’re down, even when we are, in the first, second, third innings.”

They rallied from 1-0 and 4-2 deficits against the Angels by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six runs in the sixth inning. Nevin used three pitchers in the inning. It didn’t seem to matter which ones he chose. The rally kept going.

It began with a leadoff single by Nick Castellanos. Five consecutive batters reached base before the Angels finally recorded an out. And the scoring spree didn’t fizzle until after Turner delivered a two-run triple down the line in left field.

Is there a better symbol of the Phillies’ breakthrough month?

When the Phillies began a 10-game homestand on Aug. 4, Turner had bottomed out with a .235 average, a .657 OPS, and a desperate, late-night slump-busting session in the indoor batting in Miami. The fans tried to prop him up with standing ovations.

Since then, Turner is 33-for-92 (.359) with eight homers. He has played in 18 games at home and has a hit in every single one.

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“He’s playing great baseball,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I don’t even want to talk about early in the season anymore. I really don’t. He’s the guy that we expected to get.”

So, second-guess Nevin if you want. As long as the Phillies are doing this, pity managers who must figure out how to pick their poison in a lineup that has been positively lethal.

“With the way Bryce has been swinging, I don’t really take [the walk] as disrespect,” Bohm said. “I feel like he’s going to homer every time he swings the bat. I get it. My job is just to try to make it look like the wrong decision.”

It turns out there’s something Shohei Ohtani can’t do: Run on J.T. Realmuto.

With a two-run lead and two out in the fifth inning, the Angels star tried to steal third base, an ill-conceived decision considering batter Luis Rengifo homered in his previous two at-bats against Phillies starter Michael Lorenzen.

Realmuto threw from his knees and cut down Ohtani, 19-for-25 in steal attempts.

» READ MORE: Before Shohei Ohtani, Michael Lorenzen wanted to be a two-way player. But he’s found his calling as a starter.

Lorenzen gave up eight hits, including six to batters who led off an inning. The Angels had two doubles, two homers, and two singles to open the six innings against Lorenzen, who allowed four runs (three earned).

In three starts since his 124-pitch no-hitter on Aug. 9 against the Nationals, Lorenzen has been touched up for 13 earned runs on 24 hits and six walks in 15 innings for a 7.80 ERA.

But Lorenzen felt better than the line against the Angels looked.

“Honestly, I felt better today in execution and the way I threw the ball than when I threw the no-hitter,” he said. “It’s just, the first-pitch swings were doubles and extra-base hits rather than outs. But I feel really good.”