Sweep City: Phillies storm back to beat the Twins 7-5

Here’s what separates a good team from a mediocre one. A mediocre team falls behind 5-0 early on the road, watches its rookie starter give up a first-inning grand slam, wastes a bunch of scoring chances, and quietly loses by a couple runs.

A good team turns that exact same script into a 7-5 win and a series sweep. On Sunday at Target Field, the Phillies were the good team. Alec Bohm powered the comeback, Andrew Painter settled down after a rough start, and Jhoan Duran closed it out to finish off the Twins.

Phillies looked ugly early.

The Phillies fell behind four on Andrew Painter’s first-inning grand slam, then five after another homer, and they kept wasting golden chances against Twins deadline arm Dean Kremer.

Schwarber led off the game with a double. Nothing. Sosa tripled with one out in the third. Nothing. Crawford doubled with two down in the fifth. Nothing. It had all the makings of one of those maddening days where the early hole and the stranded runners bury them.

Then the sixth showed up, and that patient approach kicked back in. Schwarber walked. Stott grinded a seven-pitch at-bat into a single. Harper walked. Arraez pushed a run home on a groundout. And then the baton went to Bohm.

Alec Bohm has taken more heat than just about anyone on this roster, but the man has been absolutely raking since the All-Star break, and he looked the part all weekend, including a career-high five knocks on Saturday.

Down 5-1 in the sixth, Bohm got ahead 2-0, sat dead-red on something up, and when Kremer floated an 81.8 mph splitter up and in, he turned on it, yanked it down the left-field line, and kept it fair off the foul pole for a three-run bomb. 5-4, ballgame’s alive.

Alec Bohm – RING IT

BOHMER SENDS ONE TO THE CONCOURSE! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/Ya59RY7zAN

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 16, 2026

A game that looked like it was going to be nothing but Painter’s first-inning meltdown had become something else entirely and like clockwork, anytime the Phillies are out in the Midwest, they were never really out of it.

After Harper singled and Arraez doubled in the seventh, Bohm came up again and blooped one into shallow right, no man’s land, and it dropped to score Harper and complete the comeback.

From there, Marsh got the intentional walk, Realmuto popped out, and then Bryan De La Cruz poked one down the first-base line to plate two more. 7-5, Phillies.

DE LA

DE
LA
CRUUUUUUUZZZZ!!!! pic.twitter.com/sdFdtCCGoX

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 16, 2026

Painter’s First-Inning Problem

That rally doesn’t erase what happened in the first. Painter slammed the rosin bag down, barked into his glove, and stomped around the dirt after Brooks Lee took him deep for a grand slam.

Painter now has the WORST first-inning ERA of any starter in baseball this year at 9.56, minimum 15 starts. That’s the highest by a Phillie with that qualifier since Paul Byrd’s 14.11 all the way back in 2000. This isn’t a fluke anymore. It’s a legitimate, recurring problem, and with October creeping closer, it needs a fix.

Once he escapes that cursed first inning, he’s a completely different pitcher. In his four starts since coming back from Lehigh Valley, Painter has a 1.69 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP, and a .130 average against, all OUTSIDE the first inning.

If they can just solve whatever’s happening in that opening frame, this kid is a real weapon. Best of all, he didn’t spiral Sunday. He settled in and gave them five, saving an already-cooked bullpen and keeping the door cracked for the offense to storm back.

That’s growth, I guess.

Sunday started in a five-run hole and ended with Bohm powering the rally, Painter grinding out just enough, Duran slamming the door, and a sweep locked up in the ballpark he used to call home. That’s the 2026 Phillies in a nutshell. Flawed, occasionally infuriating, but relentless as hell and impossible to bury.

The Painter first-inning thing is real and it needs an answer before October, where some Nola-Painter piggyback could absolutely come into play in a short series. But the fight this team keeps showing is the exact trait that wins in the postseason. They punch back, the lineup is deeper than it’s been all season, and the bullpen might finally be figuring itself out at the perfect time.

Down five, swept the Twins anyway. That’s a good baseball team finding its stride right when it matters most.

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