Max Kepler’s bloop hit helps awaken Phillies’ offense to snap five-game losing streak in 10-4 win over Cubs

CHICAGO — In the throes of a five-game skid that dropped the Phillies’ record to .500, Rob Thomson pondered a way out of the offensive fog that draped over the entire lineup.

“It might take a bloop hit at some point,” he said. “And then it just kind of explodes.”

Maybe the manager wants a crack at the Powerball, too.

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Because after a week of struggle and frustration, all it took for the Phillies to hang a six-pack of runs on the Cubs in the fourth inning Saturday was a 197-foot pop fly that got caught in a whipping wind at Wrigley Field and fell inside the left-field line.

Max Kepler’s bases-loaded single — the textbook definition of a bloop — drove in the game’s first run and continued a string of four consecutive singles in a 10-4 victory that sent the Phillies’ losing streak over and out.

“Me and J.T. [Realmuto] had some duck-fart knocks, and then, we opened it up,” Kepler said. “That’s the game of baseball, you know? You don’t have to really square ‘em up every time but just try to make something happen. Luckily, yeah, that ball fell in, and we got it going.”

More than any inning, in fact, since way back on April 6, when the Phillies scored six runs in the third against the Dodgers.

Alec Bohm followed Kepler with an RBI single before Johan Rojas fouled off three pitches before lifting a sacrifice fly. Bryson Stott singled in a run, then Bryce Harper knocked in two with a gap-splitting double against Cubs starter Ben Brown, a former 33rd-round Phillies draft pick.

And considering they hadn’t won a game in exactly a week, everyone in the Phillies’ dugout exhaled. It couldn’t have been more cathartic.

“I don’t remember what the last week was like,” Kepler said. “But that fourth inning was great.”

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The way it’s been going, maybe it’s best for the Phillies to have a selective memory.

A refresher: They entered having scored a total of 13 runs in the previous five games. They also lost 11 of 17 games after starting 7-2. And when Kepler sliced a drive through the wind for a solo homer in the seventh inning for his first homer since March 31, it was the first time any Phillies player went deep since … checks notes … Monday.

“We were talking about it the other day that you don’t know how it’s going to end up, but once Kepler had the bloop hit down the line, it just seemed like everything opened up,” Thomson said. “It was good to see. I thought we had really good at-bats. We swung the bats well.”

Thomson, known for his evenhandedness, stuck with the lineup that he typically uses against righties. Sure enough, every starter except Rojas had at least one hit. All but Nick Castellanos and Realmuto drove in at least one run. Only Harper didn’t score a run.

The Phillies, who inched back over .500 at 14-13, scored 10 runs for only the third time in 27 games.

But they insisted it was only a matter of time before the offense awoke. Even after the Phillies got shut out in the series opener Friday, Kyle Schwarber maintained that the runs would start to pile up.

Maybe this was the start of something. Maybe it was only one game.

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“Yeah, you know, I think if you look at things in a small scale, but this isn’t a 100-meter race. This is a marathon,” said Jesús Luzardo, the beneficiary of the run support who also didn’t allow a hit until two outs in the fifth inning. “We’re going to go through good moments, bad moments, offensively, defensively, pitching-wise. It’s just a matter of containing them, keeping them small, and then going back to what we can do.

“We all know what this lineup is capable of. There’s no doubt about that.”

Never mind that it was 49 degrees with a 14-mph wind at first pitch. The Phillies didn’t even have to sweat out their bullpen, even though Matt Strahm loaded the bases in the seventh inning and gave up two runs in only his second appearance since last Sunday.

But big hits have been elusive. And for three innings, the Phillies’ frustrations continued.

With two on in the second inning, Bohm rolled into a rally-killing double play. Stott singled with one out in the third but was left on base after Trea Turner grounded out and Harper struck out. So, when the Phillies got Brown on the ropes again in the fourth, it wasn’t assured they would cash in.

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For a change, the Phillies got a break. Kepler’s fly ball fell in, and the floodgates opened.

Just like Thomson predicted it would.

Maybe it’ll kick-start the offense.

“I think that’s what we’ve been looking for is to just rally together, and when we try and do the small things, big things happen,” Kepler said. “That inning there started with some small, not-very-impressive hits. But it got the job done, and got us where we needed to be.”