Phillies' new identity, Luzardo's gem key in Twins beatdown — by the numbers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
MINNEAPOLIS — When you think of the Phillies’ offense, the thump usually comes first.
Kyle Schwarber. Bryce Harper. The hitters who can drive the ball out of any ballpark at any point in a game. Plenty of strikeouts have come with that, too.
But since the start of August, the Phillies have not looked so one-dimensional.
That is no coincidence.
It lines up with the deadline acquisition of National League batting leader Luis Arraez, and it was clear again Saturday evening in a 9-1 win over Arraez’s former team at Target Field.
Before August, the Phillies ranked eighth in the majors in home runs but had the lowest on-base percentage in baseball at .303. Their 7.8 percent walk rate was the third worst in the league, and their 33.8 percent chase rate was the second highest.
The power was there. The traffic was not.
That has started to change.
The Phillies still have the top-end starting pitching needed to carry a postseason run. Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesús Luzardo give them a dangerous front three. Aaron Nola has been better. Andrew Painter has shown signs of progress.
But the key at the deadline was getting more runners on base and finding a cleaner path to Jhoan Duran, another former Twin, at the back end of games.
Those two issues have hurt them in previous postseasons.
The first one has looked different so far.
After J.T. Realmuto pushed across a run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning Saturday, the Phillies broke the game open with seven runs in the fifth against Twins starter Connor Prielipp.
With one on and two out, they strung together six straight baserunners.
Trea Turner walked. Harper walked. Arraez walked. Alec Bohm followed with his third hit of the day, an RBI single, on his way to a career-high five-hit game. Edmundo Sosa added another run-scoring single. Then Bryson Stott cleared the bases with a three-run homer.
It was the kind of inning that showed what the Phillies have become capable of when they are not relying on one swing to carry them.
FLIPPED THE SCRIPT
The Phillies look like a different offense.
The numbers say the same.
Since the start of August, they have produced the second-lowest strikeout rate in the majors at 16.2 percent, down from 23.7 percent before the month began. Their .367 on-base percentage leads baseball.
They are not expanding the zone nearly as often, either.
Their chase rate has dropped to 28.4 percent, more than five percentage points lower than it was before August. Their walk rate now leads MLB, and that climbed again with six more walks Saturday.
The power is still there.
But the Phillies are no longer living only on it.
AND HARP?
One of the biggest beneficiaries has been Harper.
He extended his on-base streak to 18 games Saturday, and a lot of that has come with Arraez hitting behind him in the cleanup spot.
Before the Arraez trade, Harper had a 34.6 percent chase rate, one of the highest marks of his career.
Since then, he has drawn 18 walks, the most in baseball, compared with eight hits. His 35.9 percent walk rate leads the league by nearly 13 percentage points. His .510 on-base percentage trails only Stott for the league lead over that span.
Harper said before the deadline that he would like some protection in the lineup.
Arraez has given him that.
And with Stott’s emergence since June, the Phillies’ lineup suddenly has more ways to create offense than it did earlier in the season.
ZEUS AGAIN
It has been an incredible year for Luzardo.
Especially with the context.
He has had six starts this season in which he allowed five or more earned runs. Three times, he allowed five. Twice, he allowed six. Once, he allowed eight.
Outside of those outings, there have not been many pitchers in the game who have been more dominant.
That has been especially true over his last 12 starts.
Luzardo allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings Saturday, struck out nine and lowered his season ERA to 3.23. Since June 10, he owns a National League-best 1.98 ERA with a league-leading 105 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings. His .183 opponents’ batting average over that span is the fourth lowest in baseball.
As the Phillies’ No. 3 starter, that says a lot about what this rotation can look like in October.
In a three-game or five-game series, Sánchez, Wheeler and Luzardo give the Phillies a serious front. And for a team that now does not have to rely solely on the long ball, that gives them a different feel as they chase their fifth straight playoff appearance.
HOT STOTT
Stott’s value has shown up on both sides of the ball.
According to the Phillies, Stott leads the club in fWAR since June 4 at 2.7, tied for second among all MLB players over that span behind only Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
He showed why again Saturday.
His three-run homer came off a lefty. Stott leads the Phillies with a .318 average against left-handed pitching, nearly 100 points higher than where he finished against lefties in both 2024 and 2025.
It was his second homer against a lefty this season. It also came with runners in scoring position, where Stott is now hitting .344, the 12th-best mark in baseball.
That is part of a larger turnaround.
Stott finished April with a .576 OPS. After Saturday, that number had climbed to .763.
His game has become more complete. He is giving the Phillies contact, defense, speed, better production against lefties and more impact in scoring spots.
That kind of depth is what makes this version of the lineup look different.
The Phillies can still thump.
They just do not have to wait around for it anymore.