Phillies close out 5-1 home stand with 9-5 win over the White Sox
The Phillies closed out the first homestand of June with a 9-5 win over the White Sox on Sunday afternoon.
Five wins, one loss on the homestand. Two games over .500 at home after being two under when the homestand started. 35-30 overall. Nine wins in the last twelve games. In control of a Wild Card spot heading on the road for six against Toronto and Milwaukee.
Remember a month ago when this team was the worst in the National League and the season was over? Remember two weeks ago when the offense was hitting .189 and averaging 2.46 runs per game over a 13-game stretch? Remember last week when I wrote about the formula being unsustainable and the pitching carrying a corpse of an offense to wins by the slimmest margins?
The offense heard me. Or the weather warmed up. Or both.
The Phillies hit .278 on the homestand. Ten homers. Thirty-two runs. 5.3 per game. At the start of the homestand they ranked second-to-last in the majors in batting average and runs per game. Six games later, the lineup looks like it remembered how to play baseball. The pitching set the table for months. The bats are finally showing up to eat.
Marsh Is the Best Hitter in Baseball Right Now
Brandon Marsh is hitting .338. That leads the majors. Not the Phillies. Not the National League. All of baseball. Since May 3, 2025, the man is hitting .316 across 550 at-bats. That’s not a hot streak. That’s 13 months of elite hitting from a guy who most people outside of Philadelphia still think of as a platoon outfielder.
Brandon Marsh RING IT
His solo homer Sunday was his third in three games. Three straight games with a homer from a left fielder hitting .338 who everyone said couldn’t hit lefties and shouldn’t be playing every day. He’s playing every day. He’s hitting everything. He’s leading the league. The only concern is the jammed finger from the pickoff play in San Diego and even that hasn’t slowed him down.
Marsh said after the game that the run has been “driven by our pitchers. They’ve set the tone for us. As hitters, we’re picking it up as well.” That’s the right answer from a guy who has been one of the few consistent bats all season. The pitching has been the engine since Mattingly took over. The offense joining the party over the last week is what turns a good team into a dangerous one.
Phillies Actually Hit With RISP
The Phillies were 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position Sunday. Five for eleven. From a team that has been one of the worst situational-hitting lineups in baseball all season. Turner, Harper, Marsh, and Bohm all had two hits. The two-through-five hitters combined for eight hits. The offense put together a rally in the fifth when they trailed 5-4, stringing together a Harper single, a Marsh walk, a Bohm RBI double, and a Stott RBI single to take the lead and never give it back.
That’s the kind of inning this team has been searching for all season. Multiple hits with runners on. Manufacturing runs without waiting for a homer. Professional at-bats up and down the order. Thursday’s seventh inning against the Padres was the first time we saw it. Sunday’s fifth inning was the second. Two manufactured rallies in the span of four days from an offense that was completely one-dimensional for the first two months of the season.
Bohm is 8-for-19 with two doubles, a homer, and six RBI over his last five games. Whatever Mattingly’s two-day reset did back in May has stuck. Bohm is having the best stretch of his season at exactly the right time. If the guy who was hitting .161 in April is now producing consistently from the right side, the lineup gets significantly deeper.
Nola Was… Nola
Nola gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings Sunday. Six hits. Four walks after going three straight starts without walking anyone. The White Sox turned three of those walks into runs. Same story as the rest of the season. When Nola walks guys, the wheels come off. When he throws strikes and attacks the zone, he can compete. Sunday he couldn’t throw strikes consistently and the White Sox made him pay.
The offense bailed him out. That’s the beauty of scoring nine runs. Your starter can give up five and the team still wins by four. A month ago when the Phillies were scoring two runs a game, a Nola start like Sunday is an automatic loss. With the bats coming alive, mediocre starting pitching doesn’t have to be fatal. The offense played over Nola’s outing and the bullpen slammed the door with four scoreless innings from Alvarado, Kerkering, and Bowlan.
Mattingly Is Coaching the All-Star Game
Mattingly confirmed before Sunday’s game that he’s been asked to join Dave Roberts’ National League coaching staff for the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park next month. The interim manager of the Phillies coaching the All-Star Game in the Phillies’ own ballpark. That’s a feel-good story that Mattingly has earned with a 26-11 record since taking over.
The Phillies could have significant All-Star representation beyond Mattingly. Sanchez leads the majors in ERA. Schwarber leads the majors in home runs. Marsh leads the majors in batting average. Three league leaders on the same roster. All of them should be All-Stars. All of them should be celebrated at Citizens Bank Park in July. The All-Star Game coming to Philly during a season where the Phillies have three category leaders is perfect timing.
35-30. On the Road. Keep Building.
The Phillies head to Toronto for three against the defending American League champion Blue Jays and then to Milwaukee for three against the NL Central leaders. The schedule gets tougher. The competition gets better. The homestand was against the Padres and the White Sox, two teams at the bottom of the league. Toronto and Milwaukee are legitimate playoff teams.
The last road trip produced a sweep in San Diego and a split with the Dodgers. The Phillies have shown they can compete on the road against quality opponents. They need to keep proving it this week.
The offense showing up on the homestand was encouraging but the real test is whether the bats stay hot against better pitching in hostile environments.
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