BALTIMORE -- The only thing that matters for the Phillies now is what president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski does before Monday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline.
The Phils beat the Orioles on Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards, 8-0, in a six-inning shortened game that featured two rain delays. But at least they won their first series since the All-Star break, which is a turn in the right direction for a team that has been struggling.
The Phillies need bats before Monday’s Deadline. They need arms, too. They don’t have a deep farm system, so it will be interesting to see how much they can do. Asking prices have been relatively high to this point, but that could change as the Deadline nears.
A few things from Sunday’s game:
Harper is heating up
Bryce Harper said Monday in Miami that “It’s my job to go out and play and do my job. And, obviously, in the last month, I haven't done my job to the best of my ability.” But Harper is batting .318 (7-for-22) with one double, one triple, two home runs, five RBIs and a 1.150 OPS in six games since, including a solo home run to right field in the fifth inning on Sunday.
“If I can swing at strikes, let the ones go that are balls and hit the ones over the heart, we all have success,” Harper said.
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No matter who the Phillies acquire, they’ll need the stars on their roster to step up.
“I never worry about Bryce, honestly, because I know he doesn't really worry,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said.
Wheels up
Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler pitched only two innings because of the rain, but his four-seam fastball averaged 94.8 mph, which is more in line with his season average (95.2 mph).
“I felt good,” Wheeler said. “I felt better than the other day.”
That’s good news. Remember, Wheeler allowed five runs in three innings on Monday in Miami. It was his shortest start since April 17, 2022. It was the first time he allowed five runs in a game since May 29, 2025.
Everybody has a bad day, of course, but Wheeler’s four-seam fastball in Miami averaged only 93.5 mph, down 1.7 mph from his season average. It was the second-lowest four-seam average in any start in his career. It raised red flags. But from Monday night through Sunday morning, the Phillies expressed complete confidence that Wheeler would bounce back without any issues.
It goes without saying that the Phillies need Wheeler to be healthy and effective if they stand any chance of making a deep run in the postseason.
De La Cruz delivers again
Bryan De La Cruz crushed a two-run home run to center field in the third inning to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. He had a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 6-0.
He is batting .450 (9-for-20) with two home runs and six RBIs in eight games with the Phillies. It's a small sample size, but it makes you wonder why the Phillies kept him in Triple-A so long when they were very clearly struggling to find competent hitters in the outfield. De La Cruz has a .704 OPS in his six-year MLB career. He had an .806 OPS in 356 plate appearances with Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Will he be part of the outfield rotation following the Deadline or not?
“I can't control if the team wants to or doesn't want to make a move,” De La Cruz said via team interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “I can't control that. What I can control is what I do on the field.”
The Phillies opened the season with Otto Kemp (.228 OPS in 27 plate appearances) on the roster. They moved on to Felix Reyes (.421 OPS in 38 plate appearances), then to Gabriel Rincones Jr. (.488 OPS in 89 plate appearances).
Mattingly has made it clear he will start playing De La Cruz more frequently against lefties and righties instead of platooning him in right field with Rincones, who has 29 strikeouts and two walks in 29 games.
“It’s obviously a lot of strikeouts,” Mattingly said about Rincones. “You know, I feel like I watched enough that you're just not seeing balls get squared up. If it was hitting balls on the nose all over the place and just not having results, it'd be different than what we're seeing.”