May 27, 2026
Denis Poroy/Imagn Images
The Phillies offense has done just enough to life the red hot pitching staff.
The Phillies are hosting this year's All-Star Game and it's seeming more and more inevitable that Cris Sánchez will be standing on the mound at home when the game begins in July.
After tossing seven more scoreless innings, Sánchez now has the franchise record for consecutive run-free innings, totaling 44.2 frames and counting now.
The Phillies are following his lead, mustering up just enough offense to support him and the rest of the impressive starting pitching staff. Philly completed a sweep of the high-powered Padres in San Diego Wednesday afternoon, with 3-0, 4-3 and 2-0 victories highlighting both the potent pitching and the often impotent offense.
A day off in southern California precedes their next series in L.A. this coming weekend. How much of what we're seeing is real, and how much is an illusion? Here's a look at three things that we are calling a fact, and three likely to be fiction about the 2026 Phillies after their most important and impressive series of the season.
Clearly, when you have someone like Kyle Schwarber in the lineup, with 21 home runs before the end of May, you have some power. But the Phillies can generate some pop up and down the lineup and it's starting to win them games.
In their opener against the Padres Monday, Schwarber and Brandon Marsh went deep providing enough offense in a 3-0 win — in support of Jesús Luzardo's shutdown performance. The next day, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto went deep with solo shots (paired with an Alex Bohm RBI single) to give the Phillies' offense just enough to lift Aaron Nola to a 4-3 win. The Realmuto homer, by the way, was a straight bullet:
This is not a 2022 J.T. Realmuto highlight! pic.twitter.com/Hmqq0Rd2ll
— Phillies Tailgate (@PhilsTailgate) May 27, 2026
Philly is eighth in the majors in total home runs, one of the few impressive stats from a full season perspective. Many of the others are still not particularly good.
The Phillies are missing a big time righty bat — Turner's monster home runs in this series not withstanding. Running Alec Bohm out in the cleanup spot every night isn't going to make opposing pitching staffs particularly fearful.
During their recent stint of incredible starting pitching, the offense has been barely serviceable. Dating back to the start of their series against the Reds they've played basically .500 baseball (5-4). They've scored 24 runs (2.67 per game) in those nine games. They've allowed 24 of them in that span as well. Nine of those came in a 9-4 route to Cincy, but still — the pitching is elite. The hitting is barely hanging in there.
Here's a look at some key offensive stats heading into Wednesday:
| Category | Stat | MLB Rank |
| Runs per game | 4.0 | 23rd |
| Walks | 166 | 24th |
| Batting average | .228 | 28th |
| On base percentage | .298 | 27th |
| OPS | .685 | 25th |
Sánchez scoreless innings record is now reaching stratosphere level — it's the longest by a lefty since 1961 (he passed Clayton Kershaw Wednesday). His latest spectacular performance saw him wring up nine Padres whilst issuing zero walks. He also got some help on defense:
Justin Crawford slams into the wall for an INCREDIBLE catch!
— MLB (@MLB) May 27, 2026
Cristopher Sánchez is loving it 👏 pic.twitter.com/kAUOwT7sBr
Sánchez' ERA is a ridiculous 1.47. The rest of the staff has been streaking as well. In Monday's win, Luzardo tossed six scoreless innings in the 3-0 victory — his third scoreless start in six tries (his ERA is 2.36 in that span). And Nola looked great too, giving up just two in a 4-3 win Tuesday. The starting five has clearly turned a corner, also led by Zack Wheeler pitching like a total ace and rookie Andrew Painter improving with each big league chance.
Baseball is totally about getting hot, riding streaks and finding good vibes. And manager Don Mattingly looks like he found something by swapping Schwarber and Turner in the batting order. In 51 games leading off this season, Turner is hitting .221 with five homers and a pretty lackluster .274 on base percentage. Hitting second (in a three-game sample size) Turner is hitting .308 with two homers.
Sometimes things like this make a difference. The idea of having Schwarber hitting second made some sense, it theoretically gave him more RBI opportunities — though as you can see from his on base rate this season Turner didn't really set the table much. But Turner in the two-hole splits up Schwarber and Harper, the two middle of the order lefties. And the back of the order of Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford, all hitting in some order, are basically table setters after the first inning.
Moving forward, if this isn't the everyday lineup it'll at least be a very frequent batting order.
Prior to their recent series win in San Diego, the Phillies had eight series wins this season. Seven came against teams currently sporting losing records. Their sweep against the Pirates was technically against a team that is above .500 right now — but they're fourth in their own division.
The Padres sweep, on the road and against a bonafide playoff contender, definitely gives some confidence to a team that, prior, had been 10-18 against above .500 teams. The Dodgers at Chavez Ravine are next on the schedule before three more games against the Padres back at Citizens Bank Park. The pennant-winning Blue Jays and NL Central leading Brewers are also coming up soon.
That seemed hard to deny a few weeks ago but check the NL standings — the Phillies are just one (yes, as of Wednesday at 6:30 pm it's one) game back of the final Wild Card spot. Once they reached .500 again last week it was essentially a new season. We'll see if they can make good on that second chance.
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