Phillies improve to 10-3 under Don Mattingly with win over Rockies
Cristopher Sánchez ran his scoreless streak to 20⅔ innings and Kyle Schwarber homered twice in Sunday's victory.
It was Game 41, the quarter pole of the season, and a time when front offices across baseball often begin to make judgments about the rosters they’ve built.
OK, so about the Phillies …
“You know,” interim manager Don Mattingly said, “I feel like we’re going in the right direction now.”
It appears that way, doesn’t it? And not only because the Phillies thumped the lowly Rockies, 6-0, in the rubber game of a series Sunday in sold-out Citizens Bank Park.
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On days like this — when Kyle Schwarber goes deep twice to extend his home-run streak to four consecutive games, and Bryce Harper bangs a first-inning homer, and Cristopher Sánchez runs his scoreless stretch to 20⅔ innings, and Jhoan Duran throws a perfect ninth — it’s easy for the Phillies to find their equilibrium.
But after a 9-19 start that only a mother could love, a Mother’s Day victory pushed the Phillies to 10-3 under Mattingly. It’s the result of a softer schedule and much better starting pitching, but also undeniably crisper and cleaner play.
“Well, we knew what we had in-house,” said left fielder Brandon Marsh, who went 4-for-4 to hoist his majors-leading batting average to .353. “We knew what type of team we were. We knew we’re an explosive team with really good pitching.
“It’s a long hill we’ve got to climb, but we’re built for it. It starts with our arms, and we’ve got the best in the league in here.”
Indeed, it’s because of the starting pitching that things are looking up.
Sánchez looked masterful as ever, mixing sinkers with his signature changeup. Want to know his secret? He’s able to disguise the two pitches by “tunneling,” or throwing them from the same initial trajectory for about 20 to 30 feet. Once they begin to appear different, the hitter has less time to react.
Oh, and Sánchez has pitched ahead in the count more often lately. He threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of 27 batters against the Rockies five days after landing his first pitch to 21 of 29 hitters in eight scoreless innings against the Athletics.
“It’s super-important for me to attack the hitters early on and get ahead early on,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “Because that means I can move [the ball] around more.”
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Mattingly’s favorite part of Sánchez‘s latest gem?
“Zeros,” he said. “No, Sánchy’s been on a roll. I know it’s been a while since he’s given up a run. His mix is just tough, right? His fastball is not a fastball. It’s got movement to both sides of the plate. He’s a handful. This guy, he’s really good.”
Sánchez’s roll and Zack Wheeler’s return have helped steady the rotation, especially amid inconsistency from Jesús Luzardo and Aaron Nola and growing pains from rookie Andrew Painter.
It helps, too, when Schwarber and Harper stake the starter to a 2-0 lead on back-to-back first-inning homers. Schwarber’s second homer, another solo shot, made it 5-0 in the second inning.
After striking out in eight consecutive plate appearances last weekend in Miami, Schwarber has five homers in the last four games and leads the National League with 16.
“I don’t want to say it’s to the point where we expect it, but it’s like, ‘Oh, another one,’” Marsh said. “It’s really special. It’s a talent that I feel like is one-of-one, how much he can pump out of the stadium. It’s impressive.
“And we rely on it — heavily. At the top of our order, him setting the tone for us."
But when the Phillies roll, they find alternate methods of offense than Schwarbombs and Harper homers. In the second inning, for instance, Bryson Stott led off with a double, stole third, and scored on an errant throw by catcher Hunter Goodman. Alec Bohm walked and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly.
Mounting rallies that begin that way might determine if the Phillies are able to sustain success beyond the initial 13 games under Mattingly.
» READ MORE: The Phillies have an Alec Bohm problem. What are their options? And how long can they wait?
“I like to say we’ve got the best bats [in the league], too,” Marsh said. “We’ve just got to keep clicking on all cylinders and just keep winning as many ball games as we can.
“We just didn’t show that at the beginning of the year, and that’s nobody’s fault but ours. So, it’s on us to turn it around and get to where we want to go.”
After 40 games, team officials usually start to take stock of such things. The trade deadline is 85 days away.
“Obviously we started off a little sideways,” Mattingly said. “But we regulated the pitching, kind of normalizing our starters; bullpen’s been good. We’re catching the baseball better now. The bats are getting better.
“So, I think it’s kind of normalizing. It would have happened no matter what. But to happen a little faster is good.”
And Sunday was as normal as can be for the Phillies. At last.
There’s never not a good reason to talk baseball with Terry Francona. But with his current team (the Reds) coming to town Monday, and because two of his former clubs (the Red Sox and Phillies) recently fired their managers, there's no better time to invite the future Hall of Fame manager for a conversation on "Phillies Extra," The Inquirer's baseball podcast. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Previous episodes: Aaron Rowand | Hunter Pence | Paco Figueroa | Gage Wood | Scott Boras | Brian Barber | Aaron Nola | Justin Crawford | Garrett Stubbs | Kyle Schwarber
