Saturday, September 05

Welcome to the latest edition of the Phillies Beat newsletter.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies are looking for three things before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline:

1. Late-inning relievers

2. Right-handed bats

3. Fifth starters

Brad Keller’s season-ending UCL tear in his right elbow exacerbates the Phillies’ need for a late-inning reliever. More than a bat? A strong argument can be made for one, yes. Don’t forget, the Phillies’ postseason bullpen had a 5.58 ERA from Game 3 of the 2023 NLCS through Game 4 of the 2025 NLDS. The Phillies are 3-10 in that stretch, and the bullpen is a season-killing 0-for-7 in save opportunities.

But the postseason offense will remain a focus for Phillies fans because in that same stretch (Game 3 of the 2023 NLCS through Game 4 of the 2025 NLDS) the Phils’ offense hit a paltry .199 with a .626 OPS and averaged just 3.2 runs per game.

The Phillies struck out 10 or more times in nine of those 13 games.

But president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is unlikely to find a magic bat that can fix the Phillies’ offense in October.

Not everybody will want to hear this, but in the end, the Phillies will need the players they’ve already got on the roster to just play better.

Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly knows it.

“This is our team, right?” he said this weekend at Citizens Bank Park. “I’m going to continue to show confidence in guys. But we’ve talked to a lot of the guys about, ‘Nobody’s going to remember what’s happening right now. They’re going to remember how we finished this year out.’”

Trea Turner has shown signs of an offensive turnaround in the past month. He entered Sunday’s series finale against the Mets batting .311 with five home runs, 14 RBIs and an .856 OPS in his last 25 games.

Turner’s batting average on balls in play was just .262 through June 15 -- by far the worst mark of his career -- but it’s .338 in his last 25 games, which is almost exactly in line with his career average (.339).

Perhaps Turner’s luck is turning.

Brandon Marsh is going through his first extended slump of the season. He was batting .338 on June 6, but he has hit .224 in his last 34 games. Following his slow start, Alec Bohm had hit .301 in 36 games from May 9 through June 18. But Bohm has hit just .169 in his last 23 games.

“Everybody’s not going to keep rolling the whole year,” Mattingly said. “You're always going to have spots.

“If we get where we're swinging the bats as a club, scoring runs, guys that are either having good starts or bad starts … if we're getting it done, then we're going to remember that. We're not going to think about, you know, Bomer wasn't great during this part of the year.”

The Phillies traded Jimmy Rollins to the Dodgers on Dec. 19, 2014, for two prospects: right-hander Tom Windle and … ?

A. Ben Lively

B. Darnell Sweeney

C. Jared Eickhoff

D. Zach Eflin

Mattingly was asked this weekend if there’s a specific statistic that he thinks is best to summarize a hitter’s performance.

Not really, he said.

“I don't necessarily look at just the numbers,” Mattingly said. “I look at the quality of the at-bats. I can tell when guys are having good at-bats or bad at-bats or look like they're a little bit tired. You’re basically looking at if they're controlling the zone. Kind of, you are what you eat. You swing at bad stuff, bad results are coming. Right? You keep eating bad food, you're going to end up in trouble. So it's kind of that [way] with me.”

Did he look at any specific number when he played?

“Not really,” Mattingly said again.

“.340,” a witty reporter interjected, referring to Mattingly’s AL-leading .343 batting average in 1984.

The Phillies and Dodgers open a three-game series on Monday night at the Bank. The Dodgers announced that Shohei Ohtani will not pitch Wednesday as previously scheduled. He has a knee issue.

Cristopher Sánchez will face Emmet Sheehan on Monday night. Zack Wheeler will pitch Tuesday night against Eric Lauer, followed by Aaron Nola vs. Justin Wrobleski on Wednesday night. 

Phillies outfielder Sherry Magee stole home twice in a 14-2 victory over the Cubs on July 20, 1912.

D. Zach Eflin

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