Where have these Phillies been?
An underachieving team with the fourth-highest payroll in the major leagues that went into the weekend 22-29 had reason to feel a lot better about themselves by late Sunday afternoon.
Rookie infielder Bryson Stott’s three-run walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Phils a 9-7 victory to complete a three-game sweep of the Angels. That followed Bryce Harper’s tying grand slam in the eighth inning.
The Phillies showed they could come back and take leads late earlier this season, but had lost their last three in that scenario — largely due to their unreliable bullpen. That changed Sunday.
“We’ve had many opportunities in the past to win games,” Harper told reporters afterward. “We haven’t done that.”
So what happened? The most obvious thing was bench coach Rob Thomson became the interim manager Friday when president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski fired Joe Girardi after 2⅓ seasons. The players’ sense of urgency seemed to increase in the wake of the move.
The players seem to genuinely like Thomson and appreciate him being more involved and hands-on than Girardi. That can only help.
A baseball lifer, Thomson started Stott in all three games vs. the Angels and talked Friday about how “the three kids at the bottom of the lineup (Stott, center fielder Mickey Moniak and second baseman Nick Maton) bring a lot of energy.”
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While Maton went on the 10-day injured list with a sprained right shoulder Sunday from his diving catch in the series opener and veteran Didi Gregorius returned from the IL, Thomson demonstrated he has faith in Stott and his younger brethren.
“Being able to put our trust in our young guys the last couple days and really let them just play has been great,” said Harper, who became friends with fellow Las Vegas native Stott years ago.
At Friday’s news conference, Dombrowski said the Phillies must produce more consistently on offense for this team to be successful.
In the three victories over the Angels, they scored 26 runs while accumulating 14 extra-base hits (six doubles, one triple and seven home runs).
“Obviously, we swung the bats very well this weekend,” Thomson said.
The much-maligned bullpen allowed just one earned run in 10⅔ innings during the sweep for a stellar 0.84 ERA.
The unreliable defense turned in a pair of error-free performances in the 10-0 and 7-2 wins to open the series, which also featured strong outings by starting pitchers Zach Eflin and ace Zack Wheeler, who was the National League Pitcher of the Month in May. The 25-29 Phils committed two infield errors Sunday.
The players and Thomson insisted there was a real sense of optimism in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday before Stott delivered, even with closer Corey Knebel having allowed another run in the top of the inning and the Phillies trailing by a run.
“We tie it, we give up a run in the ninth but the energy level was so high in the dugout,” Thomson said. “Guys were like, ‘We can do this. We can do this.’ And they did.”
“We never feel like we’re out of it,” Stott said.
It probably didn’t hurt that the struggling Angels had lost eight in a row coming into the series and Los Angeles star outfielder Mike Trout was and still is mired in an unusual, lengthy hitting slump.
So while there’s certainly reason for Phillies fans to be encouraged by what occurred from Friday through Sunday in South Philadelphia, let’s see what happens in the three-game series against the National League Central-leading Brewers that begins Tuesday night in Milwaukee.
By late Thursday evening, we should have a better idea if it’s reasonable to expect this team to be in the mix for one of the NL’s three wild-card spots. Don’t be surprised if that turns out to be the case.
Tom Moore: tmoore@couriertimes; @TomMoorePhilly
