The Philadelphia Phillies head into the All-Star break in pretty good shape thanks to a starting rotation that had a stellar June.
By Chris Murray
For the Philadelphia Sunday Sun
ABOVE PHOTO: Philadelphia Phillies’ Trea Turner plays during a baseball game, Sunday, July 2, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
When the New York Mets swept the Philadelphia Phillies in a three-game series at Citi Field on June 1st, the team was 25-31 and in fifth place in the National League East.
In that first game of the month, Phillies right-handed starting pitcher Taijuan Walker gave up three runs and three hits in four innings before he and his team eventually lost the game.
Since that afternoon in New York, the Phillies owned the month of June, finishing the month with a 18-8 record. The team has won seven of their last nine series and are in third place behind the National League East leading Atlanta Braves. They are now 44-39 and are two games behind the San Francisco Giants for the final National League Wildcard spot.
The key to the Phillies during this current run of wins has been consistency from their starting rotation. Conventional wisdom would start with the top two starters in the Phills rotation-Aaron Nola, who finished June with three wins and two losses with an ERA of 4.06 and Zack Wheeler, who was won last four starts after losing to the Washington Nationals on June 2. He has a 4.13 ERA for the month.
What really stood out for the Phillies during June were the outstanding performances of Ranger Suarez and Taijuan Walker. The three and four starters in the Phillies rotation have been nearly unstoppable for the Phills during the month of June.
“The pitching has been fantastic,” said Phillies left fielder Kyle Schwarber. “You look at our bullpen and that’s definitely a top bullpen in the league. You look at the way our starters going out there and they’re going deep into ball games. They’re going into the sixth and seventh innings. …They’re going deep into games and they’re keeping us in the game for us to score and hopefully we can give them a lead so they’re walking away with a win at the end of the game.”
Except for his outing on Sunday against the Washington Nationals, Suarez has been showing folks around major league baseball that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come if he stays healthy. In June, he had a 4-1 record with an ERA of 1.08 in 33 and one-thirds innings. It is one of the best for a month in franchise history. He also had two games in which he pitched seven innings in June.
Since his loss to the Mets at the beginning of June, Walker (9-3) has won his last five starts and has allowed just three runs during that stretch. He finished June with a 1.50 earned average and currently leads the team with a 3.93 ERA. Walker has gone beyond the sixth inning twice which kept the Phillies bullpen from being stretched too thin.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said that he figured that Nola, Wheeler and Walker could give the Phills quality starts. It has been the performance of Suarez that has pleasantly surprised him the most.
“Ranger is a little bit of a surprise just because he had the injury (left elbow strain) and the fact that he hasn’t had a whole of starts in his career,” Thomson said. “He’s gone through a stretch where he has been extremely consistent. His stuff has really been good.”
The challenge for the Phillies as the season moves into its second half is to find that consistent fifth starter that can give Phillies a good five or six innings to either hold a lead or keep the opposition from doing any more damage until the offense can put runs on the board.
Thomson said he has found that in Cristopher Sanchez. In the Phillies 2-1 loss to the Washington National Friday night, Sanchez pitched six innings and had season-high six strikeouts.
“It’s Sanchez’s job right now. His first two starts were pretty consistent,” Thomson said. “If we get that type of consistency from a five-inning guy with the other four guys (in the rotation), I think we’ll be in really good shape.”
Whether or not that’s the case will be put to the test when the Phillies go to Tampa Bay to take on the Rays, owners of the best record in the Majors. The rematch of the 2008 World Series begins today at 4:10 pm and you can see the action on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
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