On Sunday, April 26, the Phillies lost, 6-2, to the Braves. The loss was their 11th in the last 12 games, dropping them to 9-19 on the season with a -53 run differential. They were 10 ½ games behind the Braves in the NL East.
That wretched start to the season cost Rob Thomson his job; the manager who guided the Phillies to the 2022 World Series was fired and replaced by baseball lifer Don Mattingly.
Since then, the Phillies have been on an absolute warpath. They've gone 38-18 with a +56 run differential.
The Braves are no strangers to overcoming huge divisional deficits. Remember, in 2022, they were 10 ½ games back as late as June 1 and won the NL East. They were as far back as 6 ½ games in 2021 and won the World Series.
Is the shoe on the other foot this time around? The Braves had a 10 ½-game lead as late as May 22. They were still up eight games through June 13. Since then, the Braves have gone 3-9.
Uh oh.
That 10 ½-game deficit for the Phillies? It has shrunk, rather significantly. The Phillies are only three games out right now. They don't play a team with a winning record again until July 20 (Dodgers). The All-Star Game is in Philly in a few weeks to celebrate the semiquincentennial.
Meanwhile, Zack Wheeler is back from his offseason surgery and looks like the Wheeler of old. Cristopher Sánchez is pitching like a Cy Young winner. Jhoan Duran is among the best closers in baseball. Bryce Harper is doing Bryce Harper things. Kyle Schwarber is on the short list of candidates for the best slugger in baseball. Brandon Marsh is having a career year. Trea Turner is heating up. The front office will surely go all in at the trade deadline.
Things are really looking up.
It'll be a party in Philadelphia, the birthplace of America, in July. Will there be another party once the regular season ends with an unlikely NL East title? Time will tell, but the Phillies sure look the part right now.
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Mookie Betts had a down year in 2025 and then was broken for most of the playoffs. He started this season slow, too, leading to concerns that, at 33, he was in his age-related decline phase. Maybe he's back? From June 9-27, he hit .310/.355/.577. He's gotten hotter as he's gone, too, with home runs in three straight games through Saturday. On Sunday, he came through with a big two-RBI single as part of a 2 for 4 day. | -- | 54-30 |
| 2 |  | The Brewers lead the majors in wins without hitting a home run. That sample is just an 18-18 record, though. Even the Small Ball-type teams need power. | 1 | 50-31 |
| 3 |  | The Rays swept the Diamondbacks over the weekend, their eighth sweep this season, which is the most in the majors. | 2 | 48-33 |
| 4 |  | How about this nugget? The only players in MLB history with more home runs in their ages 29-33 seasons than Kyle Schwarber (217 and counting) are Sammy Sosa (292), Aaron Judge (249), Babe Ruth (232) and Jim Thome (227). | 2 | 47-37 |
| 5 |  | We're past the halfway point of the season and Austin Riley is hitting .209/.289/.338. It's becoming more and more likely he'll never get back to that 2021-23 level. | 3 | 49-33 |
| 6 |  | The offense is hibernating. They averaged 2.5 runs per game over the course of the last 10 before Sunday night when they didn't score until the ninth. Sure, injuries have something to do with it, but there's still too much talent for this to be happening. | 2 | 48-35 |
| 7 |  | This is ridiculous. The Cubs are hot again. It's just extreme all the time. After starting 7-9, they went 20-3 then 7-22 and since then have gone 12-4. It's the Jekyll and Hyde All-Star team. | 7 | 46-38 |
| 8 |  | The loss on Sunday dropped the Marlins to 18-6 in the month of June. They've gone 7-1 in series. It's quite a run. | 1 | 44-40 |
| 9 |  | That 22-run game is going to stand out, obviously, but a much bigger deal this past week was the White Sox taking two of three from the Guardians. They face off in a four-game series in Cleveland next weekend and the Sox have been far worse on the road. | 1 | 43-39 |
| 10 |  | It's been a rough month in wins and losses but also in losing their best player to injury. And yet, the Guardians are still tied for first. That's just what they do. They survive. | 2 | 44-40 |
| 11 |  | What's going on with their offense at home? In their last nine games in Busch Stadium, the Cardinals have scored 19 total runs. It's been pretty evenly dispersed, too, as they scored no more than four runs in a single game across that stretch. | 4 | 43-38 |
| 12 |  | Luis García Jr., through 604 career games heading into this season, had a 98 OPS+. He's up over 125 this season thanks to a .543 slugging percentage. He has 16 homers and 55 RBI. Perhaps he's another part of the future nucleus? | 1 | 43-42 |
| 13 |  | This is the damnedest thing. The Pirates are wild-card contenders. Legitimately. And they've lost Paul Skenes' last eight starts. LAST EIGHT! He has a 4.40 ERA in there, for those curious. | 2 | 42-42 |
| 14 |  | We're past the halfway point and a team with exactly a .500 record is in first place. | 5 | 42-42 |
| 15 |  | The Padres rank dead last in the majors in batting average, on-base percentage and OPS. Probably some other stuff, too, but I got too depressed in staring at their offensive stats to go any deeper. | 5 | 43-39 |
| 16 |  | The Mariners have now lost three straight series and their hold on first place. | 4 | 42-43 |
| 17 |  | The Astros rank 29th in the majors with a 5.00 starting pitching ERA. The good news is Hunter Brown (1.78 ERA in five starts) is now healthy. | 6 | 42-44 |
| 18 |  | The A's have lost six of eight and all those games came against the Angels and Giants. Yuck. | 2 | 40-44 |
| 19 |  | The Reds are 19-33 since the end of April. | 2 | 39-43 |
| 20 |  | Every time the Twins get hot and get some of their fans' hopes up, they immediately fall apart. The latest example is they climbed to within one game of playoff position and then lost four of five before Sunday's win. | 3 | 40-45 |
| 21 |  | Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end, right? Merrill Kelly is now 37 years old and has a 5.84 ERA and 1.53 WHIP. | 3 | 41-42 |
| 22 |  | It is June 29 and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has played in 42 home games this season with ZERO home runs. | 9 | 39-45 |
| 23 |  | We have too many wild cards when the Orioles are planning to be aggressive buyers (as of now) in front of the trade deadline. | 1 | 39-46 |
| 24 |  | Yet another illustration of how bad the American League playoff race is: the Red Sox can reasonably be considered in the race at 4 ½ games out of a playoff spot. They're playing decently well right now -- having won four straight, five of six and seven of 10 -- but keep in mind that Boston was 14 games under .500 on June 24. | 3 | 36-46 |
| 25 |  | The Angels are 2-0 since firing Perry Minasian. That's all it took, huh? | 3 | 36-49 |
| 26 |  | From the "you can't predict baseball" files: The Giants won the season series over the Braves. So far, it's four games to one with a makeup game set for Aug. 31. | 3 | 35-48 |
| 27 |  | The Tigers have now lost an MLB-worst (most) 26 times after having a lead. | 3 | 35-49 |
| 28 |  | Remember, Michael Wacha looked like he was done in 2021. Give him credit for the career renaissance since then (14.6 WAR in about 4 ½ seasons. | 2 | 35-50 |
| 29 |  | That seven-game losing streak included a six-error game (all from the infield) and a -33 run differential. Carlos Mendoza was probably relieved to get fired. | 4 | 35-49 |
| 30 |  | Just past the halfway point, Hunter Goodman has 25 home runs. Fun fact: the Rockies have never had a 50-homer player. The club record is 49, held by Larry Walker in 1997 and Todd Helton in 2001. There have only been 14 40-homer seasons, with the most recent being Nolan Arenado in 2019. | -- | 33-51 |
