Phillies’ offense busts out by taking it easy against the Cubs
An adjusted approach yields major production
Delaware County Daily Times: https://tinyurl.com/bdz739jv
PHILADELPHIA — As Rob Thomson settled into his usual spot in the dugout for his pregame media session Monday, he glanced around.
“Seems like there’s a few less of you than normal,” the Phillies manager said.
One reporter pointed out that there was a big hockey game across the street, where the Flyers were getting ready to face Carolina with the playoffs on the line.
“Yeah, that is a big one,” said the Canadian-born Thomson, a lifelong Toronto Maple Leafs fan from southwestern Ontario, shaking his head in agreement.
The assembled media and 36,045 fans in attendance at Citizens Bank Park — many keeping one eye on the Flyers game — witnessed the Phillies’ offense finally erupt like they’d been waiting for this season. As the Flyers rallied to clinch their first playoff berth in six years, the Phils drilled 15 hits and scored in six different innings during a 13-7 romp over the Chicago Cubs.
Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit except for rookie Justin Crawford, whose bat has been a bright spot this year (.306/.370/.429).
For the better part of a week, and really since opening day, the Phillies had looked tight. Every at-bat seemed rushed, every swing urgent. They had scored in just three of the last 46 innings.
The tension finally broke Monday night. The Phillies’ lineup relaxed and spread the ball to all fields. Kyle Schwarber homered twice, J.T. Realmuto had three hits and three RBIs, Brandon Marsh added three hits, and Adolis Garcia — moved to the cleanup spot — went 2-for-4 with an RBI double as the offense exploded.
Even in a loss to Arizona a day earlier, some guys were starting to show signs of life. Like Trea Turner, who was a combined 3-for-8 with a homer, two RBIs and two runs scored Sunday and Monday.
The difference, Thomson said, was simple: “It’s guys not trying to do too much.”
“It think they needed it, just to kind of breath a little bit,“ he said. “It was a good night all around. … But it’s just one day. We’ve got another one tomorrow. You’ve got to come back with the same focus. You can’t feel like, ‘Well, we’re back.’ You’ve got to keep working and fighting and grinding.”
The Phillies stopped trying to win every at-bat with one swing. For a club built on power and patience, the best approach was a quieter one: Let the game come to you and trust the next guy.
Bryce Harper knocked a hit the opposite way and scored twice. Alec Bohm, down in the lineup to take some pressure off, singled and drove in a pair of runs.
“He had good at-bats,” Thomson said of Bohm. “He looked better.”
The tone for the evening was set immediately. Schwarber led off the bottom of the first inning by driving an 0-1 changeup from Cubs starter Javier Assad over the wall in center field. Two innings later he went deep again, a two-run blast that made it 4-0 and ignited the ballpark.
But the Phillies’ night was less about a single swing than a series of them.
They strung together hits, moved runners and kept innings alive. A five-run fifth inning broke the game open, highlighted by a Marsh double and RBI hits from Bryson Stott and Realmuto.
By the time the dust settled, the Phillies were 8-for-14 with runners in scoring position. It was the type of offense that had been missing during a recent skid.
The Phillies’ approach didn’t appear overnight.
Before the series finale against Arizona on Sunday, Turner spoke about resisting the urge to press when the lineup goes cold. The key, he said, is remembering that nine hitters share the workload.
“You can’t try to do too much,” Turner said, as Thomson reflected. “Just take your at-bat, trust the guys behind you and let the lineup work.”
That message echoed through Monday’s series opener against the Cubs.
Turner scored twice and helped spark the offense from the top of the order. Realmuto kept rallies alive in the middle. Marsh delivered multiple clutch hits. Even productive outs — like Bohm’s sacrifice fly in the fifth — added to the pressure on Chicago’s pitching staff.
Schwarber said the lineup works best when it stays connected.
“When everyone just passes it along, that’s when we’re tough,” he said after the victory. “You don’t feel like you have to be the guy every time.”
It showed in the way the Phillies attacked Assad. Rather than chasing early-count pitches, they forced the Cubs right-hander into the zone and punished mistakes.
Assad lasted only 4 1/3 frames and allowed nine runs on 11 hits.
Schwarber’s two home runs grabbed the headlines, but even he described them as the byproduct of a calmer approach. He has spent most of his career embracing patience — deep counts, selective swings, and letting pitchers make mistakes.
Monday’s swings were classic Schwarber: quick, direct and driven by timing rather than force.
“Sometimes when you’re trying too hard, everything speeds up,” he said. “When you slow it down and just take a good swing, the ball tends to find the barrel.”
Both homers were to center field, a sign he was staying through the ball instead of trying to yank it into the right-field seats.
The Phillies have seen enough Aprils to know that one big offensive night doesn’t fix everything. Still, if the lineup keeps Monday’s approach in mind — less pressing, more trusting — the results could follow.
NOTES: RHP Jonathan Bowlan went on the 15-day IL with a right groin straight. To replace him on the 26-man roster, the Phillies called up RHP Seth Johnson from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He gave up five runs — three earned — on four hits and two walks with a strikeout in 1 2/3 innings Monday. Johnson was sent back down Tuesday and the team recalled RHP Chase Shugart. … Schwarber’s two bombs gave him six on the season. It was the 37th multi-homer game of his career, his first this season and first since Sept. 24, 2025, against Miami.
Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X and Threads at @the_defranc.