All-Star starters Alec Bohm and Trea Turner lead the Phillies to win over Cubs

CHICAGO — Alec Bohm was on a table in the cramped training room at Wrigley Field when Phillies manager Rob Thomson gave him the news.

In his fifth season, at age 27, he’s finally an All-Star.

“He got a big smile on his face,” Thomson said Wednesday. “It was like, ‘Yeah, I made it. I’m here.’”

» READ MORE: All-Star infield: Phillies’ Alec Bohm and Trea Turner join Bryce Harper as NL starters

Then, a few hours later, as if to reinforce the status conferred upon him by the online votes of fans across the country, Bohm banged a two-run homer and joined fellow All-Star Trea Turner in fueling the decisive eighth-inning rally in a 5-3 win over the Cubs before 36,653 patrons on Chicago’s North Side.

Sometimes, the story writes itself.

“It was really cool,” Bohm said after the Phillies won their third straight game to maintain the best record in baseball (57-29) and a nine-game lead in the NL East. “It was one of those things that kind of just makes you think about all the time, all the games you played — all the good ones, the bad ones — and it makes it all worth it.”

And make no mistake: Bohm has experienced a lot of both.

This is old hat for Turner, who will make his third All-Star appearance. Even for Bryce Harper, an eight-time All-Star who likely will be back from his hamstring injury in time to play July 16 in Texas.

But it’s new ground for Bohm. And it speaks to how far the third overall pick in the 2018 draft has come since he broke into the majors in 2020, got sent back to triple A in 2021, nearly lost his job and/or got traded early in the 2022 season, and overcame an on-field embarrassment that would’ve crushed other players to become a fixture in the Phillies’ cleanup spot.

“I’ve seen where he started,” Thomson said. “I saw his first spring training after he got drafted. To see him at that point and to see him now, he’s a completely different guy, a completely different player, a completely different person.”

» READ MORE: Busting out of his slump shows ‘maturity’ of Phillies’ Alec Bohm, who is on his way to his first All-Star Game

Bohm said nothing specific flashed through his mind after getting the news. But Zack Wheeler thought about Bohm’s journey, especially after the big third baseman hit a two-strike fastball from Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga into the left-field bleachers to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning.

“I went up to him and said, ‘Man, you came a long way,’” Wheeler said. “From, ‘I hate this place’ to you’re a starter in the All-Star Game, it’s pretty cool to watch. He’s one of my favorite guys to watch. He just has a good-looking swing, plays hard, shows up every day, and he plays every day. He’s a team guy and a good human. It’s cool to see.”

There will be time in the next 10 days to reflect on Bohm’s breakthrough season and the reasons behind it. For now, with a shorthanded lineup, Bohm and Turner are helping to carry the Phillies, who have gone 4-1 since Harper and Kyle Schwarber joined J.T. Realmuto on the injured list last week.

Turner, who will be the NL’s starting shortstop, contributed to two runs by sprinting harder and faster than any point since his return from a strained left hamstring.

In a 3-3 game in the eighth inning, Turner led off with a single up the middle, went to second when Bohm punched a single through the right side, moved to third on a passed ball, and dashed home with the go-ahead run on a medium-depth sacrifice fly by Edmundo Sosa.

Turner and Thomson credited third-base coach Dusty Wathan for realizing that Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s throwing might have been compromised after he injured his thumb sliding into third base earlier in the game.

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But Turner also has been cautious on the bases since returning from a six-week absence with a high-grade hamstring strain. He said he cleared a mental hurdle last week in Detroit and realized he won’t reinjure it by pushing hard on the accelerator.

And he blazed down the first-base line on a chopper to third base to open the sixth inning to set up Bohm’s two-run homer.

“I knew it would take some time and not every day you feel great, but today, I felt like there was some plays where I needed to be quick and needed to have that next gear,” Turner said. “Went for it, and obviously everything’s good. I didn’t know when, but I feel good now. I know it’s in there.”

The Phillies tacked on a run when Bohm scored on a single by scuffling utilityman Whit Merrifield, who drove home his first run since June 12.

Turner and Bohm were voted in as All-Star Game starters in fan balloting that concluded Wednesday. Assuming Harper is cleared to play, the Phillies will have three starting All-Star infielders for the first time since 1982, when Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, and Manny Trillo started in Montreal.

“When you’re all on the field at the same time, I think it’s pretty cool,” Turner said. “I don’t know how it’s going to work out, but hopefully we’ve got a starting pitcher on there as well. It’s going to be a cool day for us and a cool day for our fans.”

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Said Thomson: “It’s great for the organization. It’s great for all these guys being on the national stage.”

Especially Bohm.

“You play baseball long enough, it’s not always going to be pretty, but a lot of those failures and all that stuff is teaching moments, too, and little ways to make yourself better in the long run,” Bohm said. “All of it has kind of happened exactly how it should, and it’s brought me to where I am today.”