Phillies begin the Don Mattingly era with a 7-0 win over the San Francisco Giants
Rob Thomson is out. Don Mattingly is in. The Phillies are 10-19 and just fired their manager after a 10-game losing streak, the worst start to a season in over two decades, and an organizational free fall that made this franchise look like a joke for three straight weeks. Thomson was fired earlier Tuesday and Mattingly, now as the skipper, told reporters that the season would start tonight against the Giants.
Fine. Now, the Phillies are 1-0.
The Phillies beat the Giants 7-0 on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park in Mattingly’s debut as manager. It was only their second win since April 13th.
Let that one sink in. Two wins in 16 days. That’s the bar this team has set for itself. Winning a single baseball game is now cause for celebration.
Look, baseball doesn’t really start until June 1st. We know this. We say it pretty much every year regardless of what the Phillies are doing on the field. Is all forgiven after one win? Of course not. Is Mattingly going to cure the same issues that have plagued this baseball team for the past four years? Not even close but hey, a win is a win and there was a lot of good things happening tonight for the Phillies, so I’ll try to be positive.
The Return of the [Lizard] King
Jesus Luzardo, who had been a disaster in four of his five previous starts this season, pitched the best game of any Phillies starter all year. Seven innings. Zero runs. Two hits. Eight strikeouts. Zero walks.
The same guy who had a 7.94 ERA through his first four starts and was getting hit like he was tipping pitches looked like a completely different pitcher on Tuesday night.
Whether that’s the Mattingly effect or just Luzardo finally figuring his shit out, it doesn’t matter. That’s the version of Luzardo the Phillies paid $135 million for and they need to see it every five days going forward.
Kerkering and Mayza combined for two scoreless innings of relief after Luzardo departed. For the night, Phillies pitchers struck out 12 and didn’t issue a single walk. Not one. After walking 10 batters in a game just last week, zero walks from the entire staff is almost hard to believe.
Phillies Offense Actually Showed Up
Trea Turner had four hits. Bryce Harper, Adolis Garcia, and Alec Bohm all stroked run-scoring doubles in a four-run fifth inning that blew the game open. The Phillies were 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position after spending the better part of three weeks going hitless in every leverage situation imaginable.
Five for eleven with runners in scoring position. After going 0-for-26 in that split at one point during the losing streak. After being one of the worst teams in baseball history in that category for the month of April.
One game under a new manager and suddenly they remember how to get hits when it matters. I’m not going to read too deeply into one game but the difference between what I watched Tuesday night and what this team has been doing for weeks is night and day.
Zero errors in the field too. Pitching, offense, defense. Mattingly said before the game that the Phillies need to play better baseball. They did exactly that.
The Thomson Firing Was Inevitable
I’m not going to pile on Thomson because the man managed this team to a World Series appearance and gave this franchise some of the best seasons it has had in decades.
He’s a good manager and a good person and the Phillies owe him a lot. But at 8-19 with a $300 million payroll, historically bad splits against left-handed pitching, a starting rotation ranked 28th in the league, and a clubhouse that looked completely checked out, something had to change.
Whether Mattingly is the long-term answer or a placeholder to get through the rest of 2026 remains to be seen. It sure looks like Alex Cora is going to be the skipper eventually but right now, the only thing that matters is the Phillies played a clean, competent, complete game of baseball on Tuesday for the first time pretty much all season.
The pitching was dominant. The offense was productive. The defense was clean. They looked like a team that actually gave a damn for three hours.
The Phillies are 10-19 and sitting at the bottom of the NL East. There’s a long way to go and one win against the Giants doesn’t fix anything structurally but this team needed to feel what winning feels like again and Mattingly gave them that on night one.
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Happy the Phillies won but so conflicted with Lizardo, the man balled out. If me insulting him and hating him somehow how makes him a better player in some cosmic chain events so be it. I see through it, he’s a bum and doesn’t matter who the coach is the team sucks. You are what the records show. Dumbroski should be next for the chopping block.