The Phillies wrap up a perfect week, win sixth straight, 8-2 over the White Sox

After the Phillies slapped the exclamation point on an undefeated week, it would have been fitting Sunday for Rob Thomson — or maybe Bryce Harper, given his enviable coiffure — to slick back his hair, stand up straight, and recite the Gordon Gekko speech from Wall Street.

“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.”

The Phillies got greedy this week, and no, they need not apologize. It was necessary. After an 8-8 start and handwringing about an offense that wasn’t clicking, they welcomed the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox — tomato cans in their respective leagues — and well, they walloped them.

As any good team would.

» READ MORE: Trea Turner wants to play shortstop for as long as he can. And that means the work never ends.

“Not every series is going to be like this, like the ones we had the past two,” Aaron Nola said after delivering eight solid innings in an 8-2 thumping of the hapless White Sox. “But we all feel good right now. It’s fun to watch those guys do their thing and get the wins.”

Six wins, to be precise. In six games.

The Phillies outscored the White Sox, 24-7, in the three-game sweep after taking care of the Rockies by a 14-7 margin. They went 8-2 overall on a 10-game homestand and are 14-8, their best 22-game start since 2018 (also 14-8).

And they will happily bank these victories. Because although the White Sox are 3-18, a smidge worse than the 5-16 Rockies, the games all count the same. The schedule will get tougher, too, beginning Monday night in Cincinnati against the Reds, who are 12-9 and played the Phillies tough at Citizens Bank Park a few weeks ago.

“It was pretty good the last couple series,” said Kyle Schwarber, who worked three walks before banging a 423-foot homer in the sixth inning and lifting a sacrifice fly in the seventh to cap the rout. “It’s nice when we’re able to put up some runs and let the starters get settled in and keep going deep in the game.”

The starters have turned the lights out. Nola didn’t threaten a no-hitter, as Spencer Turnbull and Zack Wheeler did to the White Sox in the previous two games. He actually gave up a two-run homer in the first inning to Eloy Jiménez. But he shut things down thereafter, giving up a total of four hits in eight innings.

» READ MORE: As load management creeps into MLB, these Phillies want to play every day: ‘It’s a mindset’

The Phillies’ rotation — Wheeler, Nola, Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez, and Turnbull — has posted a 2.25 ERA. The starters have been so good and gone so deep into games that Thomson has found it challenging to get enough work for the relievers.

Nola completed the eighth inning in 91 pitches and might have been able to finish the game. But Thomson took him out because right-hander Yunior Marte hadn’t pitched since Wednesday. (Neither has Jeff Hoffman or Gregory Soto.) Marte tossed a scoreless ninth.

“We’re getting to the point now where we’ve got to get some of our bullpen guys some work,” Thomson said. “Although you love the starting pitching, there is a little bit of an effect on the bullpen.”

File it under “first-world baseball problems.” Or maybe it’s just a problem that arises at the end of six consecutive games against the worst teams in baseball.

But it was a get-well week for the offense, in particular.

Trea Turner went 12-for-26 with five doubles and a homer against the Rockies and White Sox and 18-for-42 overall on the homestand. Alec Bohm went 8-for-18, including three hits in the finale against the White Sox; Schwarber banged three homers; Harper went 8-for-21 and drove in seven runs.

Even formerly struggling No. 9 hitter Johan Rojas delivered two hits, giving him seven in his last three games.

The Phillies feasted on mistakes. They answered Jiménez’s homer with back-to-back walks by Schwarber and Turner against White Sox starter Nick Nastrini. Harper singled in Schwarber. And when he got hung up in a rundown between first and second, Turner broke from third and stole home on an errant throw.

“That was not a [planned] play,” Thomson said. “I think Bryce got a little bit of a slow jump, and Trea reacted to it. They ran it right, but we didn’t put that play on. Trea left at the right time.”

Brandon Marsh broke the tie with a two-out single to score Harper, and the Phillies didn’t look back. They notched 11 hits, five with runners in scoring position, and stole four bases, never taking their feet off the pedal.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper continues to fit in smoothly at first base, and Rob Thomson isn't surprised

Nor should they have. It was good to be greedy. It doesn’t always work this way. Over a six-month season, even good teams have trap series against bad teams. There was no shame, then, in taking advantage of a weakling when you have a chance.

“You go into a series and you’re playing a team that hasn’t been playing well, I get a little fearful of how you’re going to respond,” Thomson said. “And our guys responded really well. We’ve just got to keep it going.”