MIAMI -- Bryson Stott joked on Friday that he finally hit a baseball where nobody could catch it.
Then he caught himself.
“I’m not going to jinx that,” he said.
Stott is fine. He hit a three-run home run to right field in the first inning of Sunday afternoon’s 7-2 victory over the Marlins at loanDepot park. It was his second homer of the season, and his second in three days. The homers followed a game-tying triple in the ninth inning in Game 1 of Thursday’s walk-off victory over the Giants at Citizens Bank Park.
Stott is batting .340 with eight doubles, five homers, 27 RBIs and a .985 OPS in his last 27 games in Miami.
“[José] Alvarado told me that it’s the empanadas that they serve here,” Stott said.
Stott’s blast capped a six-run first inning, which was more than enough for Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo. He allowed two runs in 6 ⅓ innings against his former team, striking out 10 with no walks. Luzardo had a 7.94 ERA (20 earned runs in 22 2/3 innings) in his first four starts this season. He has a 1.50 ERA (three earned runs in 18 innings) in his last three, including 18 strikeouts and no walks in his last 13 1/3 innings.
“I feel like I started a little out of whack mechanically,” Luzardo said. “I feel like I’m starting to get in my groove, finding how I felt last year at the end of last year.”
Almost everybody is still trying to find their groove following a 9-19 start, which cost Rob Thomson his job last week. The Phillies are 5-1 under interim manager Don Mattingly.
“The guys in this clubhouse, when there’s a coaching change, you wear it,” Stott said. “We knew that most of it, or a big part of it, was us not playing well. You never want to see someone lose their job or anything. So a little bit of a wake-up call. Obviously, we knew we weren’t playing good or up to our standards.”
The Phillies’ 4-9 hitters entered Sunday ranked last in MLB with a combined .595 OPS, which was 43 points lower than the 29th-ranked Giants. The Phillies’ 1-3 hitters ranked seventh with a combined .799 OPS.
Mattingly said last week that if they want to get to where they want to go (i.e. World Series championship, parade down Broad Street) they need their big boys to produce.
But they also need the supporting cast to help.
Trea Turner doubled and Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper walked to load the bases in the top of the first inning. Schwarber’s walk snapped a streak of eight consecutive strikeouts, which was the second-longest streak by a Phillies position player in the Expansion Era (since 1961).
“I saw him hit a foul ball, I knew we were back on track,” Mattingly said.
Alec Bohm's fielder’s choice scored the game’s first run. Adolis García got Sunday off, so Mattingly hit Bohm cleanup, despite his season-long struggles.
“I trust this guy’s going to hit,” Mattingly said. “I feel like he’s been swinging better, so I just want to show confidence that I believe in him.”
Brandon Marsh walked to score the second run. J.T. Realmuto’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0. Stott’s three-run homer made it 6-0.
Stott is batting .206 with a .590 OPS, although he has two triples and two homers in his last eight games.
“We talked the other day about hitting the ball hard and not getting a lot of help,” Mattingly said. “If you continue doing that, things are gonna start falling.”
After the Phillies got one-hit on Saturday for the first time since April 18, 2023, everybody in the lineup got a hit on Sunday.
It’s the first time that’s happened this season.
“More than anything, it’s just a response,” Mattingly said. “It’s like, one game’s over. You catch a guy with good stuff, a good breaking ball that night. You just don’t know why. It’s kind of night to night. It’s kind of like the playoffs. The starting pitcher sets the tone, and their guy [Max Meyer] was good. Sometimes that’s going to happen, but you don’t want to let that carry over. You just want guys to bounce back, be ready to play. It's a different game. It's a different starter. It starts all over.”
For Stott, everything starts in Miami.
“He likes Miami maybe,” Luzardo said. “Who knows? But I remember when I was over there, he used to kill us a lot. So maybe Miami just gets him right.”
Maybe it’s the empanadas. Maybe he needs to find the caterer and ship a few to Philly.
“I’m gonna,” Stott said.