Phillies continue to mash, reach season-best six games over .500 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
TAMPA, Fla. — It took a month, but this is the Phillies lineup that was advertised.
The Phils pounded the Rays, 7-0, on Wednesday night at Steinbrenner Field to win their fourth straight series and eighth game in their last 10.
They chased Tampa Bay’s best starter, Shane Baz, with one in the fourth inning after forcing him to throw 83 pitches, so many of them stressful. A main theme of the series has been the Phillies’ ability to grind out at-bats up and down the lineup. On Tuesday night, Drew Rasmussen needed 58 pitches to get through the second and third innings and was out by the fifth.
“We’re seeing a lot of pitches,” manager Rob Thomson said. “We’re really working on the starter, getting his pitch count up and getting him out. We’re using the entire field. The fourth inning, we had four opposite-field hits. We’re controlling the strike zone and that’s what you’ve got to do.”
The Phillies haven’t been putting runners on base and leaving them there, either. They’ve scored 66 runs in those 10 games with seven-plus runs in seven of them. On Wednesday, they scored in every way — with power, by stringing hits together and even a little small ball.
“It just feels like everybody’s doing something, which is always nice,” Trea Turner said. “Moving runners but we’re also driving the ball again. Just the total package.”
Turner, hitting .397 over his last 16 games, pulled a 90 mph, middle-in slider that barely moved for a solo home run in the top of the third, his second of the season.
“The thing that was really impressive was that after the home run, he still got a base-hit to right field later in the game,” Thomson said. “That tells me he’s staying with that approach.”
The approach Thomson is referring to is the one he discussed with Turner before the season. The manager’s message was: Don’t worry about home runs. I want a .380 on-base percentage, 100 runs scored and 40 stolen bases, and everything else should take care of itself.
“It’s kind’ve always been my game and who I am but I think the walks have helped with that,” Turner said. “I’ve been walking, at least early on I was walking quite a bit. Lately, not as much but I think that comes with putting the ball in play and making good contact, you walk less.
“Just having that high on-base percentage is nice. If you hit .300, you should be getting on base higher than what I have in the past. That’s where I feel like I’m seeing the difference — controlling the zone and taking my walks.
“I just think it’s hard to do for me, personally. I make contact, so in the past, even if I swing at a bad pitch, I put it in play. And everywhere I’ve hit, I’ve been in lineups where there’s usually someone bigger and scarier behind me so I kinda feel like I’m ready to hit, they’re gonna attack me.”
The Phillies piled on five more runs in the fourth with six of seven hitters reaching before the second out was made.
One of the biggest plays in the five-run fourth was a safety squeeze bunt laid down by Johan Rojas with one out and runners on the corners before the Phillies had scored in the inning. Baz tried to flip to the plate but was unsuccessful, letting in a run and putting two men back on base for the top of the order. Bryson Stott and Turner followed with RBI singles and Bryce Harper drove in both with a double to the gap in left-center.
Harper has been frustrated over a two-week stretch during which he’s hit .200 on the nose, but he’s shown signs of coming out of it in recent days. He homered and smoked a single on Sunday. He has seen the lowest rate of pitches inside the strike zone of any hitter in all of baseball but has, for the most part, avoided getting too antsy. One of Harper’s many positive attributes is still finding ways on base during a slump.
Rojas found various ways to contribute to Wednesday’s win. After bunting his way aboard and scoring in the fourth, he singled, stole second and scored again in the sixth. Rojas is hitting .303 in 73 plate appearances this season. The bunts haven’t been perfect but they’re getting better. With his speed and defense, it’s hard to sit him when he’s playing like this. Thomson said pregame Wednesday that he called Rojas and Brandon Marsh into his office after the series opener to lay out the plans for playing time over the next nine days as the Phillies face a slew of right-handed starting pitchers.
Cristopher Sanchez had far from his best control yet made it work over six scoreless innings against the Rays’ weak offense. He walked three but allowed just one hit, a single to the third batter of the game. At one point in the sixth inning, Sanchez had thrown 39 strikes and 36 balls, but he made pitches when they counted. He didn’t want to make excuses but said postgame that there was a difference between the mounds in the bullpen and on the field at Steinbrenner Field which forced an adjustment.
Sanchez is 4-1 with a 2.89 ERA through seven starts. He’s allowed one run in 18 career innings against the Rays, the team that traded him to the Phillies in November 2019 for Curtis Mead, who started at first base Wednesday and went 0-for-4.
“I thought his command and control was off a bit tonight,” Thomson said. “He was searching for his secondary pitches early in the game. The velocity fluctuated a little bit. But I thought he got better as the game went on, finally found his changeup and started to command the strike zone.
“But that’s the difference between Sanchy now and Sanchy a couple years ago. That could have just flailed. But he’s matured, he’s got some experience now, he trusts himself, he believes in himself and he keeps battling.”
Taijuan Walker pitched the final three innings for the first save of his career in his first bullpen appearance of 2025. His outing began with five straight strikeouts and he whiffed seven total. This was the perfect sort of confidence-building outing as Walker transitions to the ‘pen with Ranger Suarez healthy.
The Phils removed J.T. Realmuto in the bottom of the seventh, up seven, with a left foot contusion after he fouled a pitch off it in the top half. He was walking aroud fine after the game, Thomson said, and the Phillies did not send him for X-rays. They’ll check on him early tomorrow afternoon.
The Phillies are a season-best 21-15. They’re 8-3-1 in 12 series, the best series record of any National League team. Only the Mariners (9-2-1) have won more.
