May 20, 2026
The Phillies just have to keep going.
They finally lost a series in the Don Mattingly era, losing 9-4 to the visiting Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday to drop two of three at Citizens Bank Park, but it took weeks and six straight series victories in between for that to finally happen.
Dating back to April 28, when they fired Rob Thomson just before facing the San Francisco Giants to promote Mattingly as the interim manager, to Wednesday morning, just ahead of wrapping up against the Reds, the Phillies, with all their talent, woke up.
They went on a 16-5 tear ahead of Wednesday's finale. They started in the NL East basement with the miserable Mets at 9-19, and at a steep 10.5 games back of the Braves at the top of the division at 20-9. But ever since, they've climbed back to .500 at 25-25 and just a bit closer to the early NL Wild Card picture, even though they still have a ways to go from 4.5 games out, and a still even further 8.5 games back of the Braves in first, who now sit at 33-16.
But hey, the Phillies have enough clicking now to keep them moving forward, and if they can stay with it, those gaps in the standings are slowly but surely going to keep shrinking.
The first series loss in weeks shouldn't deter them.
The Phillies just have to keep going.
"I think our guys should expect to win," Mattingly said from the Phillies' dugout during batting practice on Tuesday (via KYW's Dave Uram). "We got good players. We got good starting pitching. On an everyday basis, those guys, for the most part, keep us in a game and give us a chance. I think we should expect to win.
"I know it's a long season, and you're not gonna win every game, but there's no reason you can't that day. It's just one at a time that day."
And the Phils have gotten back to playing that way. They just have to keep going.
Some news and notes from the Reds series...
• Kyle Schwarber was out of the lineup for all three games this week due to a stomach issue. On Wednesday, Mattingly left enough room for there to be a chance of Schwarber pinch-hitting late, per The Athletic's Matt Gelb, but the Phillies never got to that point.
He'll probably hop right back in later this week and get right back to crushing home runs.
Kyle Schwarber is not in the lineup for a third time. He has a stomach issue, Don Mattingly said, and he could be available to pinch-hit. There are thousands of children at the ballpark for Weather Day. It's hot.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) May 20, 2026
An encouraging sign that he's settling in, though: Painter has pitched to at least 5.0 innings in four of his last five starts, and across his last two against Boston and then Cincinnati, he only has three earned runs charged to him.
• Alec Bohm has an 11-game hit streak and homered twice against the Reds, for the lead in the sixth on Monday night and also in the sixth during Wednesday's losing effort. Entering Wednesday, the third baseman was batting .421 with a 1.277 OPS across his last 10 games.
His start to the year has maybe been the most brutal of any Phillie, between his on-field struggles and his now public legal and familial ones away from it. But he's seemed to find a comfort zone at the plate under Mattingly, which has gone hand-in-hand with the Phillies' turnaround.
Bohmer homer 💥 pic.twitter.com/zf8JHakQjG
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 20, 2026
• Bryson Stott also homered in the eighth of Monday night's win for the go-ahead two-run shot, which made for his second straight game with a four-bagger.
Bryson Stott with the go-ahead shot 🔔 pic.twitter.com/OODXx8K6eS
— MLB (@MLB) May 19, 2026
The second baseman's take on it afterward, after struggling at the plate for a while himself
"I haven't really done much different," Stott explained (again via Uram). "I was hitting the ball hard, and it just wasn't going my way. I think a younger me would've had a new swing by now. So just staying with it, and trusting it, and going from there."
Or maybe his hands would've crept up too high without realizing. Either way, he'll take the homers.
• Aaron Nola had a better start on Wednesday than his last in Pittsburgh, but that isn't saying too much. The veteran right-hander got tagged for four runs in 5.0 innings against Cincinnati, dropping him to 2-4 on the year with the losing decision.
Nola ran into trouble in the second with a three-run inning, and in a finale where the bats went mostly quiet while the bullpen couldn't manage to keep things stable, that was enough to bury the Phillies heading into the off day.
Nola has been a volatile pitcher for years now, and at this rate, it's only getting harder to dependably count on him as he ages.
It cost the Phils on Wednesday, but hey, a day at a time right now.
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