August 31, 2026

September will show us who the Phillies really are

The Phillies tore through August with a reinvented approach at the plate. The playoff push coming up will prove whether they can actually stick with it.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Edmundo-Sosa-Celebration-Phillies-Angels-Aug-2026-MLB.JPG

Gary A. Vasquez/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Phillies have been hitting like a totally different ball club through August.

The Phillies look like a postseason team again.

They're maybe not entirely all of what they're supposed to be, and have a giant LA Dodgers-shaped cloud hanging over their World Series chances, but right now, they're afloat in the National League playoff race, and beating the clubs they should to have a place in October.

The Phils completed a sweep of the annually disappointing Angels out in Anaheim over the weekend, thanks in large part to Edmundo Sosa heroics, bullpen stability, the steady progression of Andrew Painter, the continued excellence of Cristopher Sánchez, and a rebound effort from Zack Wheeler in Sunday's finale.

They've won their last four games, 13 of their last 15, and not including Monday night's opener at Arizona, the Phillies have gone on a 20-7 tear through August, giving them control of the NL's second Wild Card spot and a chance to still catch the Braves for the NL East crown.

But there's no more gimmes.

Starting with the Diamondbacks, in Arizona, this week, the Phillies' remaining schedule looks like it will test them in every way imaginable.

The D-Backs are fighting for their own Wild Card security.

Then after them, the Phillies come home to face the Braves in a key four-game set that very likely could determine the division. As of Monday morning, the Phils trail the Braves by 5.0 games for the NL East lead, so that series going north or south will paint a hard picture of whether or not they're still in the race for another division pennant.

Then it's the Astros, another postseason chaser as a barely above .500 AL West leader, the Braves again on the road, and a trip to face the Nationals and the Mets, who'll be looking to play spoiler, before returning back to South Philly to close out with the Brewers and Rays, who have each held all year as two of baseball's better teams.

The last Nats and Mets series would present one last breather down the stretch, but by then too much could be on the line to sleep on either of them.

So there's no more relative cakewalks in the way of the Twins or the Angels.

This is it. September is going to show everyone exactly what kind of baseball team the 2026 Philadelphia Phillies really are.

"You're trying to get wins now, and it doesn't matter how," interim manager Don Mattingly said after the Phillies put away the Angels on Sunday (via NBC Sports Philadelphia). "We didn't exactly go out and knock the ball over the ballpark. We pitched good, we did enough to win, and that's really the thing at this point, is just trying to get a win every day."

It's sink or swim from here.

The remaining schedule:

Dates	Opponent	W-L	Standing
8/31-9/2	@ARI	73-65	3rd NL WC
9/4-9/7	ATL	82-55	1st NL East
9/8-9/10	HOU	69-68	1st AL West
9/11-9/13	@ATL	82-55	1st NL East
9/15-9/16	@WSH	65-74	4th NL East
9/17-9/20	@NYM	61-76	5th NL East
9/22-9/24	MIL	85-52	1st NL Central
9/25-9/27	TB	82-54	1st AL East

*Bold denotes club holding postseason spot

Working for the Phillies, particularly at the plate, going into September is that they've transformed themselves into one of the most efficient-hitting teams in baseball.

Whereas they've been known to lean on crushing the ball for the past several years, both for better and worse, of late, the Phils' bats have reset themselves far more toward piling runners on and moving them along.

Through the past 30 days, the Phillies lead the National League in batting average (.273), on-base percentage (.357), walks (115), and doubles (48), while trailing only the Cubs in total hits (238) and runs scored (140), and all with the NL's fewest strikeouts during that span (163).

It's suddenly not the same old boom-or-bust Phillies that everyone had gotten frustratingly used to with every passing regular season surge and then playoff burnout.

But all things considered, and keeping in mind that the Phillies badly needed a month like they've enjoyed for August, it's one thing to pile on against the Twins, Marlins, and Angels – with room to stumble a bit against the Mariners in between.

But the clubs coming up can be capable of sending the Phillies back into their old ways fast.

Really, these next few weeks, against competition that's going to be fighting tooth and nail, is going to be just as much about proving that these Phillies actually are different as it is just getting in.

Because they've said otherwise before, just to end back up at the same bitter place in the fall, still wondering why they're being held short of a World Series.

And looking down the horizon, both for an aging core and the looming threat of a nasty labor strike between Major League Baseball and its players, this might be the Phillies' last shot to adapt and try something else.

Because they've wasted too many others hanging on to their old ways.

The NL playoff picture as of Monday morning to close out: