The Phillies dropped two of three to the basement-dwelling Oakland A's to head into the All-Star break.
They were flat on Friday, alive on Saturday, then came crashing back down in the finale on Sunday in a bullpen game that Oakland just completely teed up on – tagging the Phils for eight home runs.
The Phillies, at 62-34, will still go into the break as the top team in baseball, and with a still comfortable nine-game lead over the Braves in the NL East race, but it was an odd note to end the first half on, especially after such a monumental sweep over Shohei Ohtani and the juggernaut Dodgers.
Anyway, here's what stood out from the three-game set against the A's, good and bad...
Turner's on a heater
Trea Turner hit a laser of a two-run shot into left-center on Saturday that broke the game open and put the Phillies up 6-2.
Then he came right back out on Sunday and immediately launched a solo homer to the same spot in the first inning.
Entering Sunday, Turner was slashing .391/.417/.848 with seven homers and 17 runs batted in through 11 games for the month of July so far.
Going back to June 17, when he returned to the lineup from a hamstring strain, his line has been .343/.381/.626 with four doubles, eight of his 11 total homers on the season, and 22 runs batted in.
Turner has been swinging the bat incredibly well to head into the All-Star break, and for the year on the whole, he's at .343/.387/.530, which would put him right up there with the NL's best if he had the same amount of games played – he was only at 56 entering Sunday because of the injury.
So let's say he does stay healthy and keeps at this pace coming back, that puts him in the NL MVP race, right?
Bryce Harper has been the default for that conversation, and rightfully so, but by a lot of measures, Turner has been keeping up and has definitely been living up to that $300 million shortstop billing.
Either way, it speaks to how much the Phillies' lineup has been clicking through the first half.
Harper hits 'em all
Speaking of Harper, he took one to the opposite field in the seventh on Saturday for his 21st home run of the season, and with that, he's now homered against all 30 teams in Major League Baseball.
Harper is the 17th active player to reach the milestone, on a list that includes Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, and joins some pretty extensive company in baseball history since the turn of the century, all of which you can see over at MLB.com HERE.
The names on the list vary when it comes to the types of careers they've all had, but top to bottom, steady hitting and longevity are the two shared traits throughout.
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The story of the series
Tyler Phillips made his first major league start on Saturday, and a dream came true.
Phillips was born in Lumberton, New Jersey, and went to high school at Bishop Eustace in Pennsauken, which is only a 20-minute drive away from Citizens Bank Park.
A few days ago, after he made his major-league debut out of the bullpen down in Atlanta, he posted an old photo from Veterans Stadium to his Instagram:
"I was telling the guys earlier, the little kid inside of me's screaming, he's punching the air, he's like 'Man, we're here, we're a Phillie!' It's the best thing ever," Phillips said postgame (via NBC Sports Philadelphia).
And then he hung in there for six innings. The A's tagged him for two homers and four runs (all earned), but he struck out five and did enough to keep Oakland under control while the Phillies' bats more than took care of the rest.
When Rob Thomson took the ball from him after a Brent Rooker double with no outs in the seventh, the 26-year old had a standing O from the entire ballpark leading him back to the dugout.
It meant everything. And the emotions?
"It was damn near impossible," Phillips said of keeping them in check in that moment. "I'm watching like...I know what a standing O means in Philly, and I wasn't expecting that for myself. I threw the ball well. Result-wise, it wasn't perfect, how I wanted it to be, but to have that many people stand behind me, it means something."
The bullpen picked up for him from there. Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos had more damage to deal to the A's pitching, and once the final out was recorded, Phillips had his first major-league win, too.
A dream came true.
And so did another
Cristopher Sánchez was named an All-Star replacement for the National League on Saturday, taking the spot of Atlanta's Chris Sale.
Sánchez, who has had a breakout 2024 as the Phillies' fourth starter in the rotation, didn't make the initial cut when the All-Star pitchers and reserves were first announced, but with a sub-three ERA and a recent stretch that saw him continually pitch deeper and deeper into games until he threw his first-ever complete game shutout on June 28, he definitely had his case and had to be on the short-list to be a fill-in this week in Arlington.
It worked out for him.
As the 27-year old left-hander was pitching better and gaining more of the spotlight as a result, he said that one of his goals for this season was to make it to the All-Star Game.
After he was told he was going to Arlington, Sánchez met with the media in the clubhouse and was asked about his next goal. Typically, Sánchez depends on the Phillies' Spanish interpreter Diego D'Aniello to translate questions and answers for him, but he didn't need that here.
"World Series," Sánchez replied.
Suárez, Wheeler, and the rest of the rotation
The World Series is the goal for the rest of the club, too, which is why Ranger Suárez won't be flying down for what would have been his first All-Star appearance. Zack Wheeler, who would have been up for this third midsummer classic, will be staying behind, too, per NBC Sports Philadelphia's Corey Seidman on Sunday.
Both pitchers were recently said to have been dealing with back tightness, and they'll use the extra time off granted from the All-Star break to rest and recover, hoping they'll be ready to go again for the series in Minnesota on July 22-24.
Wheeler threw five innings of one-run ball in a 10-1 win over the Dodgers on Tuesday night, but was pulled early when he started feeling his back tighten up. It was a precaution on the Phillies' part initially, and one that they took a step further when they decided to have him skip what would have been his next start on Sunday against Oakland. They made it a bullpen game instead.
Suárez, meanwhile, had another pedestrian performance in the series opener against the A's on Friday, continuing his seeming fall back to earth after an incredible 10-1 start to the season.
Since June 25 against the Tigers in Detroit, a 4-1 Phillies loss and only Suárez's second of the season at the time, the left-hander has slid into an 0-3 rut with 17 earned runs allowed over his last four starts. In his 15 starts prior, he had only given up 18 earned runs in total.
It was expected that Suárez was going to hit a wall at some point, but that didn't mean it was going to be any easier to take when it did eventually happen.
But hopefully, the All-Star break proves perfect timing to take a breather, get healthy, and bounce right back, for him and Wheeler both.
After all, the real season is about to start now.
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Hey, by the way...
The Phillies made the call to release Whit Merrifield on Friday.
Rumors are they're on the lookout for another impact outfielder.
Any chance Oakland could just leave Brent Rooker here – especially after he just crushed two homers off the Phils in Sunday's finale?
Maybe Mason Miller, too?
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