With the All-Star game less than a week away, the Philadelphia Phillies are in Chicago and absolutely destroying a bad Cubs team. The Cubs, who have now lost 11 games in a row, have let up 28 runs on 27 hits to the Phillies, and have lost two games in as many nights. The Phillies beat the Cubs 13-3 in game one and last night, beat them 15-10. The Phillies are now one game below .500 and have won four out of their last five games. They sit in second place in the National League East, four games behind the leading New York Mets. The Phillies will send All-Star pitcher Zack Wheeler to the mound tonight for game three against the Cubs. He will face Cubs starter Alec Mills.

Last night, Jake Arrieta was on the mound for the Cubs and much to the happiness of Phillies fans, he got absolutely destroyed. Snake Arrieta only pitched 1.2 innings, allowing six hits, seven earned runs, and two walks while striking out four. Andrew McCutchen stayed red hot and hit a grand slam off Arrieta in the bottom of the first inning. It was his second grand slam in two weeks and the third of his career. Over the last 15 games, Cutch now has two home runs, and 11 RBI.

In the second inning, Jean Segura singled on a line drive to left fielder Joc Pederson to score Travis Jankowski. Rhys Hoskins then doubled on a fly ball to center fielder Ian Happ. Happ attempted to make a diving catch, but couldn’t reel it in for the Cubs, as Hoskins advanced to second, scoring Segura and Realmuto to give the Phillies a 7-0 lead in just two innings.

Aaron Nola was on the mound for the Phillies and didn’t have his best stuff but it was enough to get the job done. Nola threw six innings, allowing six hits, four earned runs, and a walk while striking out eight. Shout out to anyone to followed me on Twitter with Nola’s over 7.5 strike outs at +130. Nola let the Cubs believe they had a chance to make it a ball game in the bottom of the third inning by letting up three runs, but the Phillies answered right back in the top of the fourth inning, scoring two more runs on a Bryce Harper ground-rule double and a sac fly from Rhys Hoskins.

With the score at 9-3 in the bottom of the sixth, Javier Baez hit a solo home run to centerfield off Bailey Falter, who struggled in relief of Nola. Again, the Phillies were able to answer any call from the Cubs, and scored six more runs in the top of the seventh inning thanks to Rhys Hoskins, Jean Segura, and Bryce Harper. For those who follow The Liberty Line on Twitter, there’s nothing more that I enjoy than trolling people about Rhys Hoskins.

Speaking of Jean Segura, he was batting first with Odubel Herrera getting the night off and went 4-for-6 with two RBI. Bryce Harper, who continues to be red hot from the plate, went 5-for-6 with four RBI and brought his batting average up to .282 on the season. Hoskins went 3-for-5 with four RBI. His three hits were all for extra bases. Cutch, Harper, and Hoskins drove in 12 of the Phillies 15 runs on the night. For Harper, he now has seven home runs in the last 13 games and finally broke his streak of solo homers with a three-run blast in the seventh.

The bullpen wasn’t great. Falter, Neris, and De Los Santos allowed the Cubs to score six runs on eight hits, but thanks to the Phillies offense, that didn’t matter. As I mentioned, the Phillies have now scored 28 runs on 27 hits over the last two games in Chicago, which includes eighth home runs. No one is denying that the Cubs are a very bad baseball team but for the Phillies who desperately needed to go on a little run on the road before the All-Star break, they are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing; scoring a ton of runs and beating teams that they should beat on the road, which doesn’t happen too often.

Up Next for the Phillies:

Zack Wheeler, who’s coming off eight innings of shutout baseball against the Padres, will look to keep things moving for the Phillies. He will face Alec Mills (3-2, 4.85 ERA) tonight in Wrigley as the Phillies look to get back to .500 for the first time since early mid-June.

Mandatory Credit: The Philadelphia Phillies