Phillies continue recent surge under interim manager Don Mattingly with 7-2 win over Marlins
Bryson Stott's three-run homer capped off a six-run first inning for the Phillies, who have won five of their six games since Mattingly took over on Tuesday.
MIAMI — Kyle Schwarber took a changeup in the dirt to snap his streak of eight consecutive strikeouts. He dropped his bat and peeked at the dugout, where teammates applauded and banged the padded railing.
Everybody laughed.
It was a new day, and in baseball, sometimes that’s all you need. So, after getting shut out on one hit here Saturday, the Phillies scored six first-inning runs for South Florida native Jesús Luzardo in an easy-like-Sunday-morning 7-2 victory over the Marlins.
» READ MORE: History shows it’s not over for the Phillies’ season. Here’s what it took for others to turn it around.
“We’ve been together for a long time now and kind of seen everything happen,” said Bryson Stott, whose torment of the Marlins continued with a second three-run homer in three days. “Once the day is over and it’s a new day, we don’t really worry about what happened yesterday or the day before that.”
Except that the Phillies saw their manager lose his job Tuesday. Almost a week later, it still doesn’t sit well in the clubhouse. They enjoyed playing for Rob Thomson. Everyone knew a 9-19 start was unacceptable. Nobody believed it was his fault.
“A little bit of a wake-up call,” Stott said.
Since the snooze alarm went off, the Phillies have won five of six games under interim manager Don Mattingly. All have come against a less-talented opponent; most were highlighted by a solid showing from the starting pitcher.
Luzardo, a tone-setter Tuesday with seven scoreless innings in the first game after Thomson’s firing, blanked the Marlins for six innings before yielding Esteury Ruiz’s two-run homer in the seventh.
By then, though, Luzardo was on cruise control. He hadn’t even taken the mound before the Phillies sent nine batters to the plate and scored six runs against right-hander Chris Paddack, whose ERA rose to 7.63 from 6.11.
“It’s a lot more comforting pitching when you put up six in the first inning,” Luzardo said. “We all want to go as long as we can and put up zeros, as many as we can. But knowing you have that freedom to eat up innings and keep us in a position to win, it definitely gives you a little bit of peace of mind.”
Luzardo had a 7.94 ERA through four starts. He walked four batters in his fifth start. Over his last two starts, he has a 1.35 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 13⅓ walk-free innings.
» READ MORE: Phillies hope giving Aaron Nola extra rest will help him reset after a tough start to the season
It comes back to better mechanics and “just some mental cues,” according to Luzardo, to help him get back on track when he loses his rhythm on the mound.
“I started off a little out of whack mechanically,” Luzardo said. “I feel like I’m starting to feel like I’m getting in my groove, finding how I felt last year at the end of the year.”
In Stott’s case, maybe it’s the Miami cuisine. At least that’s what reliever José Alvarado thinks. How else to explain why Stott, who came into the weekend hitting the ball harder than ever in his career but with only four extra-base hits, is finally getting better results?
Stott’s three-run homer against Paddack cleared the fence where it juts out next to the right-field bullpen. Since 2023, he’s batting .337 (28-for-83) with five homers and slugging .602 in Miami.
“I have no idea,” Stott said. “Alvarado told me it’s the empanadas they serve here. I’ll go with that.”
But the early barrage against Paddack was the result of the Phillies taking what the Marlins gave them, including a six-pitch walk to Schwarber two batters into the game.
In the expansion era (since 1961), only one Phillies position player struck out more times consecutively than Schwarber. And Dylan Cozens’ streak of nine in a row occurred over multiple call-ups from triple A in 2018.
Clearly, then, Schwarber was due. And upon drawing a walk after Trea Turner’s leadoff double, he smirked at the dugout’s derisive eruption.
“I see him hit a foul ball, and I knew we were back on track,” Mattingly said. “He at least made contact.”
Bryce Harper walked to load the bases, then slid safely into second on a low throw from Marlins third baseman Leo Jiménez on a potential force play. Brandon Marsh, back after missing one game with a bruised elbow, drew a bases-loaded walk, J.T. Realmuto lifted a sacrifice fly, and the Phillies had a 3-0 lead on only one hit.
Stott made it 6-0, which was plenty for Luzardo.
“More than anything, it’s just a response,” Mattingly said. “It’s like one game’s over. You catch a guy with good stuff, with a good breaking ball that night, you just don’t know why. It’s kind of night to night.
“And sometimes that’s going to happen. But you don’t want to let that carry over.”
The Phillies play again Monday night in Miami. Who knows what a new day will bring?
Stott took an empanada for the road anyway.
Hunter Pence's 368-day stint with the Phillies was a study in extremes. Acquired at the trade deadline in 2011 as the missing right-handed bat for a World Series contender, he got dealt a year later by an underachieving team. And with the Phillies in full-on crisis mode this week, Pence sits down with "Phillies Extra," the Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss how quickly a team's fortunes can change. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Previous episodes: Paco Figueroa | Gage Wood | Scott Boras | Brian Barber | Aaron Nola | Justin Crawford | Garrett Stubbs | Kyle Schwarber | Brad Keller | J.T.Realmuto
