OAKLAND — When the month began, the Philadelphia Phillies were six games under .500, on a four-game losing streak, and eight back in the NL East. As play begins on Monday, the Phillies have celebrated the one-year anniversary of Rob Thompson’s promotion to manager by going 13-4 this month, winners of six straight, and five straight series. The Phillies now sit just a game out of a wild-card spot in the National League.
They were the final wild-card team last season, en route to their first trip to the Fall Classic since they won in 2009. So, this position comes with a certain level of confidence.
While sweeping the Oakland A’s over the weekend may not seem like a huge feat, given their opponent’s 19-55 record, the A’s have been playing better baseball. The Phillies also won series against two good National League teams in the Los Angeles Dodgers, who currently own the third wild-card spot, and the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks.
Over the past 15 games, the Phillies are 13-2 thanks to a starting staff that has been dominant and getting deeper into games with regularity. Over the weekend Phillies’ starters combined for 18 innings pitched, gave up just one earned run, walked three and struck out 17.
Combine this level of starting pitching with the team’s ability to close out games when they’re either tied or hold a lead after six innings (32-4), and this is a squad that is positioned to potentially make another deep postseason run.
Related: Find out where the Philadelphia Phillies stand in our MLB power rankings
Kyle Schwarber leading June boom for the Philadelphia Phillies
Left fielder Kyle Schwarber was re-inserted into the leadoff spot on June 2, and since then the team has gone 14-3. Schwarber has hit seven home runs, including lead-off homers on Friday and Sunday to provide his club an early 1-0 lead.
Both home runs came against Oakland left-handers. He also led off games against Detroit and Arizona with long balls. That’s four of 17 games that he has started off with a blast, which is huge because the team is 30-9 when it scores first.
Many have pointed to his low batting average (.177 entering the series), but he hit .218 last season with 46 homers and a .323 OBP. This season he’s on pace for 45 homers if he continues to play every game, and his OBP is nine points higher than a year ago, thanks to a bump in his walk rate. He’s still just as productive this year, even if the hits are landing with quite the same frequency.
A 5-for-13 weekend in Oakland bumped that batting average up to .187.
Schwarber is also the winner of the past two Player of the Month awards for the month of June, winning the award back in 2021 with the Washington Nationals, and last season with Philadelphia.
Schwarber isn’t the only hot bat in the lineup this month. Nick Castellanos ranks ninth among qualified hitters in the month of June in wRC+ (181, where 100 is league average) and is batting .403 with three homers and 14 runs batted in, while catcher J.T. Realmuto ranks 16th in wRC+ with a 170. Realmuto has swatted five homers, breaking a dry spell that lasted all of May.
Philadelphia Phillies have pieces to move around
The Phillies’ manager told reporters over the weekend that superstar Bryce Harper had progressed to throwing from 105 feet as he recovers from Tommy John Surgery. He has been limited to the DH role as he recovers, and he has been his usual self. Through 40 games this season, Harper is batting .296 with a .391 on-base. But he has just three home runs on the year and hasn’t left the yard since May 25 in Atlanta.
Harper is expected to take over first base duties when he is deemed well enough in his rehab, and Todd Zolecki of MLB.com reported that 120 feet could be the number to watch out for before he’s cleared. The timeline for Bryce Harper to take over that role is still likely a month or so away.
With Harper at first, Alec Bohm can slide back over to third base full-time, and that also opens up the DH spot for either Schwarber or Castellanos with the latter being just a little below league average defensively, per Statcast. Schwarber is in a three-way tie at the bottom of the leaderboard with Amed Roario of Cleveland and C.J. Abrams of Washington as the worst defenders in baseball with -10 outs above average.
With one of the two sluggers in a new role, that could open up the Philadelphia Phillies either on the trade front to pick up another bat, or they could utilize Brandon Marsh and the recently returned Cristian Pache to form a pretty solid defensive outfield.
The plan for Pache, per Thompson, is “to use him similarly to the way we did [before his injury]. He’s gonna face a lot of left-handed pitching. He’s gonna come in late in games for defense.”
In very limited action this season (20 games, 31 plate appearances) Pache ranks third on the club in wRC+ with a 128. That is right about the same level of production as the Phillies have received from Castellanos this season in a much larger sample. If Pache were able to provide even league average production at the plate against left-handers while providing Gold Glove caliber defense in the outfield, Philadelphia may have something there.
Despite the streak, the Atlanta Braves keep churning out wins
When the month began, the Phillies were six games under .500 and eight games back in the NL East. After the recent hot streak, the Phillies have improved to 38-34 on the year, four games over .500. They are still eight games back of Atlanta.
After an off-day on Monday, the two teams square off in a three-game series in Philadelphia, with the two clubs splitting a four-game set last month in Atlanta. Ranger Suárez, Aaron Nola, and Taijuan Walker are the scheduled starters for the Phillies.
After play on June 18 last season, the Phillies were 36-31 and eight games back of the New York Mets in the East. The team is in a good spot to land a playoff berth for the second straight season, something they haven’t accomplished since their run of five straight appearances (and one World Series) from 2007-2011.
The question this season is whether the 87 wins they finished with last season will be enough to lock down a spot this season. The Marlins (41-31), San Francisco Giants (39-32), and Dodgers (39-33) are ahead of them in the wild-card race. The biggest threats behind them are seemingly the San Diego Padres (2.5 back) and Mets (4.5 back).
This is going to be an exciting race to keep an eye on the rest of the way.
Jason Burke covers Major League Baseball for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.