The Daycare dominated on Thursday, Nick Castellanos finally caught a huge break on Saturday, but on the days in between, struggling pitching and quiet bats stopped the Phillies short.
They're still taking a 2-2 series split from the Pirates after a four-game set at Citizens Bank Park, which ended with a 9-2 defeat on Sunday afternoon, but do so continuing to hang around at the .500 mark at 8-8 after 16 games so far.
There are some good things going on right now, for sure, but also some not-so-great trends and lingering habits that are still keeping the 2024 Phillies from fully breaking out.
Here are a quick six thoughts looking back on the Pirates series...
• Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, and Bryson Stott each homered through the cold and the rain of Thursday night's series opener, and throughout the weekend, the Daycare continued to have its moments.
During Friday's 5-2 loss, Marsh doubled and Stott ran out a high-bouncing grounder back to the mound that Bailey Falter couldn't handle to drive in a run on a night that the Phillies were otherwise struggling offensively.
In Saturday's walk-off win, Bohm looped a single through the gap into left with runners at the corners in the seventh to tie the game 3-3.
Then on Sunday, Marsh ripped a two-out triple into right in the fourth, but got held up there, though it still kept him well above the .300 mark and bordering on 1.000 in OPS.
As essential as bigger names like Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, and Kyle Schwarber are to the lineup, that Daycare trio is just as critical, and perhaps are all far better than a lot of people give them credit for.
But they're showing up so far, Marsh especially, and could stand to gain a lot more attention as the year wears on.
They're each key in ensuring that the Phillies have as complete of a lineup as possible.
• Staying with Marsh, though, he started in center Thursday night (against a right-handed starter), then did it again on Friday (against the left-handed Falter), sat on Saturday (lefty) aside from a late pinch-hit appearance (against a righty), then stepped back in left on Sunday (righty).
So far Marsh has been making it tough to keep him out of the everyday lineup with the way he's been playing, but his concerns against and resulting protection from left-handed pitching early on have been a curious – at the very least – trend to monitor.
But maybe the Phillies are starting to ease him into it now. There's only one way to find out whether he can hit left-handers or not, after all. That start against Falter on Friday night should be a step forward in that respect.
• The season so far has not been kind to Nick Castellanos in the least, but man was Saturday finally a much-needed break. It started with his base knock in the first to drive in an early run, then ended in the ninth on the bases-loaded walk-off that sailed way over the head of Pirates centerfielder Jack Suwinski.
And the ensuing celebration? Yeah, that looked like a pretty cathartic one.
Castellanos' line at the plate still doesn't look all that great – a .182 batting average, still with no homers, and a .444 OPS through 15 games and 55 at-bats entering Sunday's game – but maybe it's a matter of just needing that one to finally get going.
And a fortunate bounce, too, as he singled right away on Sunday after running out a ground ball to third that Ke'Bryan Hayes bobbled and couldn't get the throw over in time on.
A clear head can do wonders sometimes as well.
"Honestly that was probably my first at-bat all year where I didn't have an approach," Castellanos said of his walk-off postgame on Saturday. "I wasn't looking for a pitch, nothing. I was just ready to hit...
"I wanted to end the game, bro."
• Let's go back to that walk-off celebration for a second. Watch it back, and focus specifically on Bryce Harper:
Did you spot the difference? He's wearing last season's uniform, not this season's new Nike-templated ones, which have drawn a whole lot of ire from everyone ever since their rollout in spring training.
Tim Kelly over at Phillies Nation first spotted it from the TV broadcast on Saturday while Harper was standing at second in the seventh. The bigger name and number, plus the higher up placement of the MLB logo beneath the collar, stuck out like a sore thumb – and a much, much better looking sore thumb if you ask me.
Harper was back to wearing the newer uniform the next day.
• Like Castellanos, though in a bit quieter of a fashion, Trea Turner wasn't exactly off to a great start either, but has since turned a corner beginning with the Cardinals series.
From Opening Day to the end of the Nationals series back on April 7, Turner was batting .222 with only a couple of doubles, 12 strikeouts, and a .560 OPS.
From when the Phillies got to St. Louis on April 8 and up to Saturday: A .348 batting average with four walks, just five strikeouts, and an OPS of .836.
Then on Sunday, he piled on.
Turner went 3-for-4 and knocked in two runs, first with a solo homer ripped down the left-field line in the third – his first of the year – and then in the fifth on a single driven into center that scored Johan Rojas from third, though that would stand as all the offense the Phillies could generate for the day.
Hopefully, that prolonged slump that bogged down much of his first year in Philly has been left completely in the past, and this tear he's on right now keeps building into something greater.
"It's getting better," Turner said of his approach at the plate. "I feel like my at-bats throughout the year have been pretty good. Chasing a little less, walking a little more. The swing wasn't quite there until maybe yesterday and today, definitely is coming out a little bit better."
• Ranger Suárez was lights out on Thursday night, throwing six scoreless with only two hits allowed to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Cristopher Sánchez was relatively steady through six himself on Friday, but got charged for two runs and then handed the game off to a bullpen that let up three more on a night that just wasn't going the Phillies' way.
Spencer Turnbull managed through four on Saturday, then Matt Strahm, Gregory Soto, José Alvarado, and Jeff Hoffman locked things down to give the Phillies a chance and bridge the path to Castellanos' walk-off.
On Sunday, Zack Wheeler looked well on his way to another dominant start, having mowed straight through the Pirates' lineup with 10 Ks through five, but then trouble struck in the sixth.
Bohm was charged with a fielding error at third, Wheeler walked Rowdy Tellez and then let up a single to Andrew McCutchen to load the bases, then Suwinski stepped up to the plate and...
Yeah...
"Today was good, but it was frustrating at the same time," said Wheeler postgame, who touched the mid-90s pretty consistently with his fastball but still dropped to 0-3 on the year. "The outcome wasn't good, but I felt like, personally, I made some good strides. Mechanically, I made an adjustment between last start and this start, and the ball was definitely coming out better today.
"It's just a matter of figuring out how the ball is moving now."
Wheeler was pulled for Seranthony Domínguez after that, and he went on to surrender a solo shot to Joey Bart before escaping the inning to make it 6-2, Pittsburgh in an instant.
The pitching this series went from dominant to manageable, back to dominant, and then disastrous in one weird swing, which is really at the core of why the Phillies are only leaving this series with a 2-2 split.
But hey, Orion Kerkering made his way back on Sunday with a scoreless seventh.
The Colorado Rockies, who have stumbled out of the gate at 4-12, are up next for a three-game set beginning Monday night and present another chance for the Phillies to overcome their early hurdles and start putting a more consistent stretch together.
"I feel like we're starting off a little better, but we're kind of beating ourselves in some of those games," Turner said. "I know last year we were kind of in a hole and had to make up some ground. This year we can kind of create some separation, just with the way we've started and the team we have, not necessarily who we're playing.
"But we gotta play well. We can't give stuff away."
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports