With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Kyle Schwarber sent a jolt through Citizens Bank Park with the team’s first walk-off home run in more than three years, securing a 6-4 win and a sweep against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“We have watched hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands of Phillies games together,” longtime NBC Sports Philadelphia host Michael Barkann said to open Sunday’s postgame show. “That might be the greatest regular-season finish I’ve ever seen.”
It was October vibes on 94.1 WIP, with longtime play-by-play announcer Scott Franzke reaching “Bedlam at the Bank” levels with his call of the historic “Schwarbomb.”
“It’s over! It’s over! Kyle Schwarber with a walk-off home run into the hedges of dead center field,” Franzke yelled during the broadcast. “And the Phillies have absolutely stunned the Cardinals!”
His partner, former Phillies pitcher Larry Andersen, added in joyous disbelief, “Wow! It does not get any better than that.”
Over on NBC Sports Philadelphia, John Kruk was uncharacteristically silent when Schwarber’s game-winner sailed out of the stadium. But Tom McCarthy, in his 20th season as the TV voice of the Phillies, wound things up when he realized Schawarber’s ball was gone.
As McCarthy noted, Schwarber’s home run was hit so hard it went off the top of the batter’s eye in center field, about 460 feet from home plate. According to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark, it was the first Phillies home run to travel over the batter’s eye into Ashburn Alley since Darick Hall’s blast in 2022.
“He’s a strong human being,” Hamels said of Schwarber.
“Are there any words to capture this?” McCarthy asked Schwarber following the game.
“That one’s wild,” Schwarber shot back. “That’s why you never quit.”
Spanish radio announcers Angel Castillo and Bill Kulik had a tremendous call of their own, captured and shared on social media by Phillies clip king Nick Piccone.
As with most their calls, you don’t have to understand Spanish to feel the energy and excitement of Schwarber’s game-winning blast.
All the excitement is warranted. The Phillies, who lost 10 straight games in April, have quickly won nine straight and are closing in on the division-leading Atlanta Braves.
It’s also been a minute since the Phillies have had a similar comeback. The last time they won a game trailing by four or more runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth was more than four decades ago, when Bo Diaz hit a walk-off grand slam to win it against the New York Mets.
Schwarber’s bomb was the 209th walk-off home run hit by a Phillies player since 1900, according to Larry Shenk, the team’s former public relations guru. In total, 131 Phillies players have hit walk off homers, with Mike Schmidt leading with 10. Sunday’s was Schwarber’s second with the Phillies.
Schwarber is also closing in on Babe Ruth. Since having joined the Phillies in 2022, Schwarber has hit 226 homers, second-most in the first five seasons with a team in MLB history. He’s now just nine behind The Bambino’s 235 homers with 29 games remaining.
The Phillies have swept three straight series for the first time in 16 years. They’re also 16-5 in August so far, tops in all of MLB.
The Phillies were last in the majors with a .303 on-base percentage through the end of July. In August, they're first at .370, which would be the highest monthly mark by any team since the Braves in June 2023 and by a Phillies team since July 2007.
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NL wild card
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Edmundo Sosa walked up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon. The bases were loaded with two outs. The Phillies faced a four-run deficit against the Cardinals.
These aren’t circumstances that normally lead to success (let alone a six-run rally, en route to a 6-4 walk-off win). But Sosa wasn’t afraid. He looked to his teammate, Bryce Harper, standing on third base, 90 feet away.
Harper gave him a knowing glance. “Like, ‘Yes, you got this,’” Sosa recalled. Then the utility infielder turned toward the dugout. His teammates wore the same expression.
Momentum in the ballpark was starting to build. Kyle Schwarber could feel it from the moment Harper hit his line-drive double to lead off the inning.
Luis Arraez and Brandon Marsh recorded back-to-back flyouts, but J.T. Realmuto singled, and Justin Crawford walked to give the Phillies a chance for a victory.
Schwarber leaned over to Trea Turner, who was beside him, and joked that Sosa would “hit a grand slam somehow.” He didn’t do that. But the infielder did something nearly as good; roping a double to left field double that just stayed fair, to drive in all three runners.
Momentum continued to build; the infield dirt vibrated, the crowd began to rumble. Schwarber stood in the on-deck circle as Bryan De La Cruz worked a six-pitch at-bat against Cardinals closer Riley O’Brien, fouling off a two-strike pitch before taking two balls, then finding a hole up the middle for a game-tying single.
Then, it was Schwarber’s turn. He said he went up to the plate looking to pass it on Turner; instead, on a 2-2 count, the slugger launched a 459-foot home run to center field to give the Phillies their ninth straight win.
When Schwarber saw St. Louis’ center fielder turn around in resignation, he knew it was over. He flipped his bat, flipped his helmet, and started jogging around the bases.
“I think it was just more just shock, disbelief,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do there. I’m not trying to be disrespectful to them. But it was just a little bit of disbelief.”
Anyone watching in the moment wouldn’t begrudge his reaction. For eight innings, the Phillies offense looked lifeless, recording only four hits, with no runs off the Cardinals’ pitching staff. And St. Louis had brought in O’Brien, who led the National League with 33 saves, to start the ninth.
It seemed like the eight-game winning streak would come to an unceremonious, muted end, and a strong, scoreless showing from the bullpen would be squandered.
Instead, that streak is alive and well, as the Phillies head to the West Coast for a nine-game road trip. Since the Field of Dreams Game in Iowa, they’ve made up five games against the Cubs in the National League wild-card race, sitting in second place at 73-58, only a game-and-a-half behind Chicago.
Over that span, they’ve also made up seven games against the NL East-leading Braves, who led the Phillies by 2½ games going into their night game at Milwaukee.
“I feel like it’s a lot of really good baseball,” Schwarber said. “It’s a lot of complete baseball. It’s not like we’re out there just hitting homers and relying on that, I feel like there’s a lot of different things we’re doing well.
“I feel like the defense is playing really well. Our pitching obviously is our pitching, our starters set the tone for us, they’re attacking the zone, they’re trusting the defense, getting their punch outs.
“And our offense just from top to bottom feels like they’re doing what they need to do with their plans, and staying aggressive to their plans, and whatever individual approach they need to have.”
One person who was not surprised was Cristopher Sánchez, who took in the six-run rally from the TV in the clubhouse. The left-handed starter said he felt good about his outing, but conceded that there were a few routine plays he could’ve made, which proved costly.
He allowed stolen bases to Jordan Walker and JJ Wetherholt, both of whom ended up scoring for runs.
“Usually I control the runners pretty well,” he said. “I was bothered a little bit because they took those two bases quite easily.”
Sánchez fanned seven Cardinals across 6 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits with no walks. It wasn’t as dominant as his other showings, but on Sunday afternoon, that didn’t seem to faze him.
“Incredible, incredible,” Sánchez said of his teammates’ come-from-behind effort. “But this is who we are. This is who we are.”
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Bryson Stott injury scare
In the bottom of the sixth, Bryson Stott took a foul ball off his right foot in the midst of his at-bat; the trainers visited him at home plate briefly. He remained in the game but was later removed in the eighth inning, with a right foot contusion. Arraez replaced him at second base.
Interim manager Don Mattingly said after the game that X-rays on Stott’s foot were negative and they’ll see how he feels tomorrow.
“I kind of expect him to be in there,” Mattingly said. “Honestly, a lot of the foot things, if it’s not a fracture, they bounce back decent. Not a lot of area to get swollen up in there. So I expect him to be able to play.”
A few short weeks ago, the Phillies struck out looking for a back end starting pitcher at the trade deadline.
Three days prior, out of options for the fifth slot in their rotation, the team recalled top prospect Andrew Painter, who’d struggled through his first go-round in the majors.
On Saturday against the Cardinals, Painter showed exactly why the Phillies and everyone else were so high on him in the first place, striking out eight in a one-run, seven-inning performance in the Phillies’ 12-3 win, the best start of his major league career.
“The whole outing today, he looked like — he was a dog on the mound,” J.T. Realmuto said. “He wanted to get guys out. He wanted to attack the strike zone. He looked really confident out there.”
Painter earned a big standing ovation from the Citizens Bank Park crowd after throwing the last of his 102 pitches.
“The guy we saw today, the ceiling is so high for him,” Realmuto said. “If he has that demeanor and that much confidence on the mound, he can be whatever he wants in this game.”
Painter gave up just one run in the sixth inning, an RBI single from Alec Burleson.
Since his 2024 Tommy John surgery, Painter has been trying to rebuild his fastball, which was identified as his best weapon as a prospect. He threw 32% of his fastballs for either called strikes or whiffs on Saturday.
“It doesn’t look as hittable,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “ … I think one of the things they talked about is him working sideways when he was here. I don’t know. I look at it from a hitter standpoint, guys that are going sideways, they’re dragging the barrel. Pitchers, when they’re going sideways, they’re dragging the arm, and they’re also showing the ball early.”
The Phillies worked with him on getting down the mound, and also on “letting go” and being more aggressive.
After a blow-up first inning in his last start in Minnesota, Painter said he focused on using that first inning against St. Louis to attack and win the at-bats, instead of “falling into the trap” of using it to “feel stuff out.”
He started Saturday’s game with a 1-2-3 inning, including two strikeouts. Painter didn’t walk a single batter and generated 20 whiffs total. He also made heavy use of his new changeup, something he worked on in his stint in triple A. He got six whiffs and averaged 92 mph on the pitch.
Having that changeup in the mix, which he threw 28 times compared to 25 fastballs, could be helping his fastball tick back up where he and the Phillies want it.
Andrew Painter fired off the best start of his career today!
After struggling to find his pre-injury fastball shape, Painter showcased a stupendous 4-Seam which exhibited +2" iVB compared to prior starts. If these traits hold Painter could be a postseason menace for the Phillies pic.twitter.com/4cUDOnpINm
“It tends to widen out the fastball grip, probably a bit less forearm fatigue, but I think it’s harder, and it moves more too,” Painter said. “Being able to play those two pitches off of each other helps a lot.”
Even deep into the seventh inning, Painter threw a 99.6 mph fastball on his 100th pitch.
“There’s a lot of mechanical things that lead to a little bit more gas in the tank later in the games,” Painter said. “ … I know that’s probably my last at-bat. I didn’t want to walk off that mound with anything left in the tank.”
Brandon Marsh (left) greets Kyle Schwarber after Schwarber’s solo home run in the eighth inning.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
But the Phillies didn’t even need a gem from Painter to pick up the win, thanks to their thriving offense. The Phillies have long been a team that relied on the long ball, but by the time Bryce Harper hit the Phillies’ first home run of the game in the sixth inning, they’d already scored eight runs thanks to their small-ball game.
Alec Bohm, who hit the walk-off triple in Friday’s win, stayed hot in the first inning, knocking a single to left to score the Phillies’ first run after Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner walked and singled to get on base. Edmundo Sosa followed with a double to make it 3-0 in the first.
In the third, Bohm, Sosa, and Luis Arraez loaded the bases with singles, then Bryan De La Cruz knocked in two more runs with a single. J.T. Realmuto added a sacrifice fly, and Derek Hill doubled to put the Phillies up by 7-0. Schwarber added another sacrifice fly in the sixth, followed by Harper’s three-run homer. Schwarber homered in the eighth off position player Pedro Páges to cap off the Phillies 12-3 win.
Arraez was removed from the game with lower body cramps in the third inning. Hill was removed with neck stiffness in the sixth. Both will be evaluated.
The Phillies haven’t faced a true left-handed starting pitcher since Aug. 15, a full week ago. After facing Quinn Mathews on Saturday, they’re not set to face another anytime soon.
That’s why Bryson Stott, who’s hitting .317 with a .905 OPS in August, wasn’t in the starting lineup against the St. Louis Cardinals. Neither were Brandon Marsh or Justin Crawford. Derek Hill, Bryan De La Cruz, and Edmundo Sosa got the start in their place.
“I’ve just got to keep everybody in the mix a little bit,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “We hardly see any lefties right now, and these guys got to be ready to play. If I don’t ever put them in there, it’s tough. He doesn’t need a rest. He’s fine. It’s just trying to keep everyone in the mix.”
Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly says he wants to keep other players fresh, especially against a run of right-handed starting pitchers.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Stott, despite being a lefty hitter, actually has hit lefties better than righties this year, hitting .301 with an .839 OPS against lefties vs. .251 and .727 against righties. Saturday was the first game he hasn’t started since the All-Star break.
The Mariners are set to throw three righties when the Phillies roll into town. The Cardinals haven’t released their starting pitcher for Sunday, but Matthew Liberatore, the rotation’s only lefty, pitched on Aug. 19, so he almost certainly won’t take the mound for the series finale.
Reliever Tanner Banks has been on the injured list since July 9 with a left forearm strain, but he threw about 30 pitches in a live bullpen session before Saturday’s game.
Mattingly said if Banks continues to feel good, he could go on a minor-league rehab assignment during the Phillies’ road trip.
Before the injury, Banks was in the middle of by far the worst season of his major league career, with a 7.14 ERA and a 2.00 WHIP in 28 appearances, compared to a career 4.01 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. Per Statcast, his expected ERA is only 4.41, which would be his second-worst ERA, but it indicates he could be due for some positive regression.
Phillies pitcher Tanner Banks has been on the injured list since July 9 but threw a live bullpen session on Saturday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
When he returns, Mattingly said the Phillies are still considering all options for how to use him, including in a bulk role.
“The last time he went down, we did think about bulk a little bit, obviously he’s throwing 30 pitches [Saturday],” Mattingly said. “I don’t think it would be all one-inning stints in the minor leagues. They’re going to try and get him one-plus, build him up, as long as he’s ready for that.”
Kyle Schwarber took a few grounders pregame at first base, but Mattingly said there haven’t been any recent conversations about giving Schwarber another game at first. Schwarber has appeared in four games at first, most recently on Aug. 10.
“He may be thinking that because he came out here today,” Mattingly said. “Usually when he comes out, he might be thinking that, but we haven’t really talked about it.”
Pregame, Schwarber met with Brandon Graham and Joe Eitl, a heart and liver transplant recipient, who threw out the first pitch pregame with the Gift of Life Donor Program.
As Philly guys go, the Phanatic is one suave dude. His gyrating belly, chameleonlike tongue, and ability to burn our opponents without uttering a single word have charmed generations of Philadelphians.
Now, this smoothie operator has a smoothie all his own and it tastes like the tears of our rivals — sweet, salty, and delicious.
Kim Rodriguez, Wawa manager, along with the Wawa mascot Wally Goose and the Phillie Phanatic in Philadelphia on Aug. 17, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Wawa debuted its new, limited-edition Phanatic Caramel Curveball Cream Smoothie during an event at the chain’s Penrose Avenue store Monday that was part news conference, part pep rally, and perfectly preposterous.
Fans packed the store — for what, they weren’t exactly sure — they just knew it would be a chance to “hang with the Phillie Phanatic and Wally Goose,” according to Wawa’s Facebook page for the event.
The two-birds-one-store offer was enough to bring out a flock of more than 75 people dressed in Phillies, Phanatic, and Wawa gear, including sisters Elizabeth and Jennifer Bertolet of Doylestown. They arrived 90 minutes before the event and decided that whatever was about to happen, it was “going to be awesome.”
“Wally is going to be here and the Phanatic is going to be here. Why wouldn’t we be here?” Elizabeth Bertolet said.
Maggie McNulty, who is dressed as Wally Goose, and her father, Glenn McNulty, attend an event at Wawa’s Penrose Avenue store celebrating the partnership between the Phillies and Wawa. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Justin Tichy, chief operations officer for Wawa, announced during his remarks that the smoothie is part of a new partnership between Philly’s hometown baseball team and its hometown convenience store.
Fans at Friday’s Phillies’ game against the St. Louis Cardinals will receive a Wawa Kyle Schwarber bobblehead, samples of the Phanatic smoothie, and a chance to see Wally Goose throw out the first ceremonial pitch.
When asked how he’s feeling about taking the mound, Wally shuddered with nervous energy then practiced his pitching wing.
She Willians, of Job Corps culinary, and the Wawa mascot Wally Goose at Wawa’s Penrose Avenue store Monday. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Perhaps he’ll throw a curveball like Wawa did by not making its Phanatic smoothie green. A source said it’s because the Phanatic is unlikely to put anything green in his smoothie, which 100% tracks. You don’t get that bouncy belly by drinking kale.
When asked what he thought about the new drink bearing his name, the Phanatic raised his arms overhead then circled his belly around in approval.
The smoothie is made with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream, salted caramel syrup, and sea salt pretzel pieces. It comes in a limited-edition cup featuring the Phanatic’s eyes and the tip of his snout and it only comes in one size — phanatically large — clocking in at 970 calories.
Zack Sminkey of Woodstown, N.J., who wore a matching red shirt-and-shorts combo featuring repeating patterns of the Phanatic, brought his 7-year-old daughter Zoe to the event. Both approved of the new smoothie in the big green guy’s honor.
“It’s really good. It’s very ballpark-tasting,” Sminkey said. “I almost feel like it tastes like Cracker Jacks. It’s delicious.”
Jennifer Bertolet described it another way as she and her sister toasted their free samples of smoothie.
“It tastes like World Series win with a sprinkling of Mets tears,” she said.
Phillies ambassador Scott Palmer with a tray of new Wawa limited-edition Phanatic Caramel Curveball Cream Smoothies.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
When Wawa released a limited-edition Gritty Smoothie in the spring in honor of Philly’s prince of chaos, it was only a matter of time before the OG mascot king got one of his own, too.
The partnership between Wawa and the Phillies solidified Wawa as the team’s official hoagie in June. Wawa hoagies now come wrapped in Phillies-themed paper, and the chain is selling red-and-white striped Phillies doughnuts and Phillies-themed kids meals, which come with stickers of the Phanatic and Wally Goose. A portion of the proceeds from the kids meals go to Philabundance.
In turn, Wawa has an increased presence at Citizens Bank Park with new advertising and ballpark activations.
Wally Goose and the Phillie Phanatic represent Wawa and the Phillies at a news conference on Monday about their recently-announced partnership. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
But the Phillies and Wawa were in a situationship long before they made things official this summer. Whenever the Phillies make the playoffs, Wawa brings back its Kyle Schwarber-themed Schwarberfest, a Hoagiefest spinoff featuring discounted hoagies. And in 2024, Bryce Harper was fined by MLB for showing his love for the chain by wearing custom-made Wawa cleats and a headband during a game.
The Phillies and Wawa collaborations, including the Phanatic smoothie, will be available at stores in the region through Sept. 28.
No word on if the offers will be extended in the event of a Red October.
Today while interviewing a woman inside of a Wawa whose baby was dressed like Wally Goose, I was surprise-attacked from behind by the Phanatic, who put me inside of his shirt.
That is a sentence only a Philly journalist could write – and believe and live through.
DYERSVILLE, Iowa — They wandered in from the corn, paused for a beat at the right field warning track, gazed around, and kept walking. Soon, 26 — 26! — Hall of Famers joined them on the field.
But that was the performative, made-for-Netflix part.
If only everybody could have seen them hours earlier, before the cameras rolled here Thursday night. A few hundred feet from a refurbished 8,000-seat stadium, the Phillies stood on the original Field of Dreams, the one that sits alongside the white farmhouse and tilted red barn and was the set of the 1989 Oscar-nominated film that brings people to this little Iowa town in the first place.
Andrew Painter and his parents walked the outfield made famous by Costner and Liotta. Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott took pictures in front of the house. Brandon Marsh maneuvered between the cornstalks. Don Mattingly had a catch with his 11-year-old son, Louie, near his older son, Preston, the Phillies’ general manager.
And for a few minutes, nobody talked about back-to-back losses this week in St. Louis. Or five losses in eight games. Or a 10-15 record since the All-Star break. Or a playoff spot that is slipping through their fingers.
For a few minutes, they all smiled. They … relaxed.
“I don’t think our guys have a problem relaxing, honestly,” Mattingly said. “But I do think guys like coming to these kind of games. They do break up the monotony. You know, this is a game you don’t really forget.”
But it was a game nonetheless. And before the end of a long day that started in St. Louis and ended on a plane to Minneapolis, Kyle Schwarber homered twice — including a leadoff shot into the corn, as if it had been ordered up by a Hollywood script — in an easy, breezy 7-1 victory over the Twins.
Schwarber played a prominent role in the pregame script. He took the microphone and joined Twins star Byron Buxton in announcing the arrival of the Hall of Famers, who also entered through the corn.
Then, Schwarber stood alongside Mattingly on the first-base line and kibitzed about the legends in their midst.
“Molly’s out there and I’m like, ‘This guy could really hit,’” Mattingly said of Paul Molitor. “And he knew Hawk [Andre Dawson] from Chicago a little bit, and I knew him from Miami. A lot of the guys, I played with. So, it was interesting to be able to talk about that.”
Schwarber went further, calling it “once in a lifetime.” And once the unscripted part of the event began, he hit Twins starter Taj Bradley’s third pitch out to right field.
While Schwarber looked authentic in the Phillies’ gray, red, and navy 1939 throwback uniforms, Aaron Nola threw it back to a time when the Phillies relied on him atop their rotation. He’s more of a supporting actor now, but the Phillies still need him down the stretch.
And in five solid innings, Nola gave up only a homer to Luke Keaschall. Don’t look now, but he has a 2.91 ERA in his last four starts and has allowed three runs or less in seven of his last eight.
Schwarber made it 5-1 in the fourth inning with a two-run shot off a leaping Keaschall’s glove in right field. Marsh homered in the seventh.
Kyle Schwarber celebrates his two-run homer — his second of the game — with Brandon Marsh in the fourth inning on Thursday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
It all came at the end of a 14-game stretch without a day off. There were times when the bullpen was fried and the lineup didn’t produce runs. The Phillies woke up Thursday in a tie with the Diamondbacks for the last National League wild-card spot.
There was a sense, then, that this Iowa excursion — a “pop-in and pop-out,” as Mattingly called it — couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Actually, it was quite the opposite.
“Maybe the boys needed a little shock like today,” Marsh said. “Really didn’t get to get our routines in. Not complaining, but it was just a quick day, a lot of stuff going on. Maybe the boys needed it.
“We haven’t been playing, like J.T. [Realmuto] said, our brand of baseball that we talk about here. Hopefully today, that’s a little spark for us to turn it on for this push.”
Indeed, sometimes the best way to break out of a rut is to change the routine of a six-month grind. So, the Phillies flew into nearby Dubuque a few hours before the game and took a bus to the Field of Dreams site. They took it all in. The entire front office met them here, too, with owner John Middleton sitting behind home plate.
Even Nola walked around the field with Zack Wheeler and pitching coach Caleb Cotham before studying the scouting report on the Twins.
“We were talking about just how the experience was from when we got here, having the opportunity to go over to the movie set, walk around, see it,” Schwarber said. “We all watched the movie as kids growing up, so it’s really cool to be able to see exactly where it was.
“It’s a unique thing to do, and it’s something that you’re going to bring up to your kids. I’m going to watch that movie together with my kids one day, and to be able to say, ‘Hey, dad got to play there,’ or, ‘Dad got to, you see that house out there in this movie,’ it’ll be really cool.”
Brandon Marsh watches his seventh-inning two-run home run on Thursday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Wait until Schwarber tells his kids about hitting two homers in front of more than two dozen Hall of Famers.
And maybe even giving the skidding Phillies a jump-start.
“It’s kind of a little pinch, right? A little reality pinch,” Schwarber said. “Overall, just an unbelievable experience. And obviously we’re happy we walked away with a win.”
Do rich guys have to ruin everything? Apparently so. There came a time about 15 years ago when my soccer obsession got to the point where I felt I needed to pick an English Premier League team to root for, in addition to the U.S. national teams and the Union. Long story, but I went with Liverpool, in a city many consider the Philadelphia of the U.K., and it’s been a good ride, including a couple of trophies. On Monday, it was reported Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos is buying 30% of the team. I’m officially out. Go, Leeds!
When did Trump’s ballroom become a national security fortress? We need answers.
Construction continues on a helipad and the White House ballroom on the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 5.Tierney L. Cross
Donald Trump’s originally stated 2025 scheme to demolish the East Wing of the White House to make way for an oversized ballroom to hold state dinners and whatnot was bad enough: an unneeded, unwanted, gilded, and presumably tacky callback to Louis XVI, a massive monument to a modern let-them-eat-cake regime.
A year later, the project is better describedasan alleged ballroom — another bait-and-switch scam by America’s first grifter president. The fact that the public really doesn’t know how much this project actually costs — estimates have soared from the initial lowball of $300 million to now at least $600 million, but possibly more — or how much of that will be dumped on U.S. taxpayers is just the beginning of the problem.
Nearly 10 months after the president shocked Washington, D.C., and the rest of America by taking a wrecking ball to the history-packed East Wing, Trump has all but stopped talking about a black-tie party venue and instead rebranded the project as essential to national security.
When the D.C. federal appeals court on Friday ordered the White House, which never got congressional approval for either the demolition or the ballroom addition, to halt aboveground construction, Trump took to Truth Social and described the ruling as akin to treason.
“The Military and Secret Service are viewing this horrendous, politically motivated, and unlawful ruling as a National Security threat to our Nation in that the entire Complex is being built for the protection of our Country and, additionally, all future Presidents,” Trump posted, using language that’s probably never previously in human history been used to describe a “ballroom.”
Trump didn’t say in his post anything about crystal chandeliers, or great acoustics, or things you might expect in a world-class ballroom. Instead, he said the facility will have bomb shelters, a state-of-the-art hospital, top-secret military facilities, protective missile-resistant steel, columns, roofs, and beams, drone-proof ceilings and roofs, military-grade venting, and bullet-, ballistic-, and blast-proof glass.
It sounds like somebody is expecting a last tango in Washington.
Trump’s post was alarming — shocking, really — but in case anyone missed the point, or doesn’t know how to read, he also posted some AI-created renderings, which again did not depict waltzing diplomats, but instead showed a rooftop “DronePort” that was packed to thegills with ominous-looking military drones, manned by troops and also with armored vehicles that somehow drove up there. The vibe was Darth Vader’s Death Star, except with “military-grade venting” this time around.
There are two very different ways to look at all of this, and let’s start with the more benign one. Ever since the beginning of his second crack at the presidency, Trump — when he’s not pursuing his main projects of making billions of dollars, punishing his enemies, and staying out of prison — has been obsessed with placing his personalist stamp on Washington. Maybe that’s for his legacy, or maybe he just wants a Mar-a-Lago-by-the-Potomac to comfort his octogenarian mind.
Trump might not be able to crash weddings as he does at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate, but his ballroom idea would be close enough. Although he’s also sought and received donations for the project from the usual suspects of friendly billionaires and favor-seeking corporations, Trump also wants both additional dollars and — more importantly, in light of the appeals court ruling — a stamp of approval from Congress. That’s been a thwarted agenda item for GOP leaders on Capitol Hill for months.
But if Trump can’t sway Congress, he hopes to win over a U.S. Supreme Court where he has appointed three of the nine members. The White House knows that both Congress and the high court tend to fall in line whenever national security is invoked, while there is no constitutional right to foxtrot. So maybe all the military bluster is just political posturing for Trump’s latest real estate development.
But as the project enters its second year, it seems to have morphed into something a lot more disturbing than that. The pictures, descriptions, and accounts of Trump’s game here are sounding a lot more like the impregnable mountain lair of a Bond villain.
This is a man who fomented an attempted coup the first time he was asked to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and who saw how South Korea’s corrupt right-wing president was ousted after a massive throng of protesters overwhelmed key government buildings. Wasn’t it Chekhov who said you don’t put drones up on the roof unless you intend to deploy them by the third act? The two most likely scenarios for actually using Trump’s bunker — Civil War II, or World War III — are less than optimal.
This national security bunker isn’t the only thing that’s worrisome as Trump looks to the second half of what’s supposed to be his final term. As noted in this space recently, Trump has also extended the presence of National Guard troops in Washington through Jan. 20, 2029, which coincidentally is the scheduled last day of his term.
Since their arrival last year, the Guard troops — many from units in pro-Trump red states, and costing U.S. taxpayers at least $1.4 billion and possibly more — have often been spotted hanging around, or picking up trash as a kind of busywork. But residents and some advocates like Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, are already complaining Trump is “treating [D.C.] like a police state.”
It raises the same questions as the alleged “ballroom.” The president is entitled to state-of-the-art security, and while the public doesn’t need to know all of the operational details, American taxpayers also can’t be expected to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars for these projects without truly knowing what they are for.
Democrats on Capitol Hill need to start demanding answers. On Monday, there was an encouraging report by the New Republic’s Greg Sargent that the opposition party is working to demand communications from the Justice and Interior Departments to explain why several people were wrongly criminally charged with vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool when the actual damage was a botched repainting contract.
Congress can, and should, also flex its muscles over this ballroom fiasco — first by denying any public money for the project, and then by launching a similar investigation into the hasty demolition, the political fundraising, and the sketchy purposes for the project. Someone owes America the truth, and it’s not going to come from the current regime without a fight.
Whatever happens, the woman or man who hopefully succeeds Trump and sends those guard troops back to their own private Idaho in January 2029 is also going to have a giant mess in their backyard. But it’s better to have the ruins from a botched, halted construction project than from the Battle of Armageddon.
Yo, do this!
The California journalist Gil Durán has been paying attention to the political craziness coming out of Silicon Valley years before anyone else was, and now comes the big payoff in the form of a book that is not only incredibly timely but has the best title of the year: The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Durán explores the strange beliefs of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and their friends, their obsession with building their own private “networked cities,” and their unlikely alliance with Donald Trump. I’ve been waiting on this one for a while.
August is always a great month for books. While Durán drills down on the high-tech enemies of liberty, the great writer Dave Zirin has a new tome about one of democracy’s heroes, the late historian Howard Zinn, his former mentor. Public intellectuals are still arguing about the merits of Zinn’s 1980 masterwork, A People’s History of the United States, but nobody disputes his influence on the national conversation. Zinn rejected American exceptionalism, but also spotlighted everyday heroes like labor leaders or civil rights activists who expanded our freedoms over two centuries. I’m looking forward to reading The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn.
Ask me anything
Question: Data centers are the flashpoint but the root problem is the unregulated AI that is sweeping up every keystroke and every written document then repackaging it as if original thought. How do we get a federal government mired in 2020 to begin legislating on AI? — Suzi (@wanderponder.bsky.social) via Bluesky
Answer: Great question, Suzi, and I think we all know the main reason why the body politic — and I’m talking about both Democrats and Republicans — have been so painfully slow to respond to voters’ widespread anxiety not only about noisy, polluting, resource-wasting data centers, but also to artificial intelligence itself. The reason is money. Silicon Valley AI developers have raised an unbelievable $220 million to spend on November’s election, and — while there are some disagreements within Big Tech about policy — most of the cash will go to the politicians least likely to regulatean industry badly in need of it. Cognitive computing is not only stealing our intellectual property, as you noted, but also our jobs, as well as our children’s ability to learn.The good news is that public backlash against AI is so strong that even a quarter-billion dollars may not be able to stop the movement. But it’s way past time to get money out of politics.
What you’re saying about …
I should have guessed that newsletter readers don’t have much more of a clue than Donald Trump about what to do about the giant mess in the Persian Gulf. I did get one thoughtful response from an emailer with a “cbluff” handle (Reminder: Please sign your real name to these responses) who said the Trump regime needs to send skilled negotiators — and be realistic. “I believe the U.S. will have to cede the Strait of Hormuz, allow Iran and Oman to collect protection money, remove sanctions and pay them so we can declare victory and leave,” they wrote. It’s hard to disagree. Once again, the United States has lost a war.
📮 This week’s question: Since the Democratic Senate primary win by Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed last week, the mainstream media has been obsessed with the question of whether this year’s progressive surge, including candidates (although not El-Sayed) tied to the Democratic Socialists of America, is hurting the Democrats. What do you think? Are leftists bringing needed energy to a moribund party, or are they too out there to defeat the GOP in November? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “Democrats and the left” in the subject line.
Backstory on the day Trump left his press corps for dead
Catering trucks are parked at Air Force One on the tarmac as the motorcade carrying President Donald Trump arrives to depart following the NATO summit, at Ankara International Airport in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8.Alex Brandon
It was appalling enough back in late July when we watched a room full of some of America’s highest-profile journalists break bread with Donald Trump at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, where the president got up and hurled crude insults at several of the media members. Many of us were disgusted that some of the nation’s most respected journalists would platform a man who has repeatedly called a free press “the enemies of the people.” But the White House press corps was in the dark about an even more disturbing plot twist.
Just 16 days earlier, Trump had left some of those journalists for dead — at least potentially — as human decoys who might be blown from the skies in a feared Iranian plot.
The stunning story came out late Monday night as I was writing this newsletter, with a scoop by the Washington Post, matched shortly, with some additional details, by the New York Times. The articles revealed a modern-day Air Force One kind of thriller that essentially involved a shell game with three different aircraft. It was triggered by what officials deemed was a credible Iranian assassination threat against the president when he traveled to a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey — just over 700 miles from the border with the U.S. enemy.
This launched a series of events, beginning with a plan to abandon Trump’s new, $400 million gift-from-Qatar iteration of Air Force One for an older version that actually has more advanced defensive capacities. Trump was filmed boarding the replacement Air Force One, followed by the White House press corps and some traveling aides for the departure from Ankara to a U.S. air base in Great Britain. What those passengers could not have imagined was that Trump had somehow been spirited out “via a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane,” and switched to a C-32A military plane for the flight to the U.K.
Then they kept the unwitting journalists and aides on the ground for a couple of hours before it was revealed POTUS was safely in Britain and the Iranians had been thwarted and … haha, of course that’s not what really happened. No, the press corps took off as human decoys — the latest sitting ducks in an idiotic war that never should have been launched in the first place. Thankfully, no one was hurt … this time. Journalists wondered why they’d been ordered to keep the airplane’s window blinds closed, which inspired this now ironic exchange between Trump and some journalists when they reunited for the flight from Britain back to the U.S.
Trump lied that he didn’t know of any specific plot against Air Force One, and then added: “I’m No. 1on their list, before you. But if I go, you go. Right?”
Apparently not.
Even as I write this in the middle of the night just hours after the Post and Times scoops, the internet is already flooded with memes depicting Trump crammed into one of those airport serving carts, or pigging out on the adjacent airline food. It’s funny to see that your president isn’t Harrison Ford punching out the terrorists, but, in reality, slinking away in a food truck, leaving other Americans in the line of fire, right?
No, it’s not funny at all. This whole episode is a grand metaphor for a careless president who smashes up things before retreating into his money or whatever keeps him going — not thinking twice about the fate of human beings in a squalid ICE detention camp or an Iranian girls’ school. Or bantering with the gaggle of journalists whom he abandoned after drawing a big target on their backs. The first media question at the next Oval Office event ought to be, “Why did you treat me like cannon fodder?” But I wouldn’t bet on that happening.
What I wrote on this date in 2016
It’s almost funny now, in a dark-comedy kind of way, to look back on the fateful summer of 2016 and remember what it felt like to be stubbornly convinced that something, anything, was bound to happen to stop the obvious insanity of a Donald Trump presidency. It seems so incredibly naive now to read what I believed exactly one decade ago, when I actually thought the success of a diverse and incredibly talented U.S. Olympics team in Brazil would expose the Big Lie of Trump’s racism. I wrote, “The exclamation point is the remarkable women’s gymnastics team led by individual gold medalist Simone Biles — so dominant you will easily forget they also celebrate the kind of diversity that is America’s best feature, not the bug that’s described by the bitter and the disaffected back home.”
The fight for America’s future is waged on many fronts, and I’m trying to keep up. Last week, I wrote about a fascinating political development that’s been largely flying under the radar screen: a movement out west to knock off GOP incumbents by creating one-on-one contests with feisty, populist independents. That means long-shot Democrats need to drop out — which has happened in Nebraska, Idaho, and South Dakota, but not in Montana. It’s both a bold plan to end the Republican majority on Capitol Hill and a sad commentary on the failed Democratic Party brand in the American heartland. This weekend, I wrote about the Trump regime’s latest assault on higher education — denying loans for students who major in fields linked to lower-income jobs — and the increasingly bleak future of a liberal arts education. I wondered why Democrats won’t fight harder to end runaway careerism and preserve college campuses as bastions of critical thinking.
This August feels like the calm before the storm in Philadelphia sports. Some of that is the excitement over the Eagles finally beingback in training camp and looking to regain that Super Bowl mojo as 76ers fans try to process, if that’s the right term, a once-in-a-lifetime offseason rebuilding project. But much of it is angst over the Phillies, who are clinging by their fingernails to a playoff spot despite adding the National League’s batting champ to a lineup that already includes home run king Kyle Schwarber, future Hall of Famer Bryce Harper, and one of baseball’s best pitching rotations. None of that matters when the Phillies don’t have a relief pitcher who can carry a lead past the 7th or 8th inning. The Inquirer’s ace sports columnists like David Murphy and Marcus Hayes have all asked the same question: Can this team be saved? The answers are just over the paywall, and you can leap over it just like Saquon Barkley at the first-down marker; all you need to do is subscribe to The Inquirer.
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With several hours still to go before Thursday’s first pitch against the Nationals, a stifling humidity settled around Citizens Bank Park. To get his pregame swings in, Kyle Schwarber could have easily retreated to the air-conditioned batting cages underneath the stadium as he normally does.
But instead, the Phillies slugger shifted his daily routine to take an early hitting session with coach Kevin Long outside on the field. As he searched for the end of a slump that had reached 0-for-18, Schwarber wanted to see the ball fly.
“Sweating bullets out there. That was fun,” Schwarber said. “But being able to try to find the little reset there.”
The extra work seemed to pay off, as he later delivered a pair of singles and drove in a run in the Phillies’ 7-3 win over Washington. One thing Schwarber didn’t do was hit a double. But his teammates more than made up for that, setting a season-high with eight total doubles from seven different Phillies.
Schwarber hopes his results on Thursday are a sign he’s turning the corner from a slow start since the All-Star break. The power is still a work in progress. His homer drought has stretched to 15 games.
“Once I got into that third, fourth at-bat there, and even the fifth at-bat — even though it did result in a strikeout — I felt like that I was starting to get into the positions that I wanted to get into, and the field that I wanted to get into,” Schwarber said.
Even when he’s at his hottest, Schwarber doesn’t step into the box trying to hit a homer. In fact, he’s usually thinking about staying in the middle of the field and hitting line drives. It just so happens that when he makes that kind of contact, it often goes out beyond the fence. While that hasn’t happened lately, Schwarber is hopeful that it’ll come if he sticks with the process.
“I just want to try to have the best at-bats I can, keep the quality contact there, keep the chase to a minimum, and find a way on base for our guys,” Schwarber said.
The Phillies offense racked up 16 hits, knocking around Nationals starter Miles Mikolas for six runs. Luis Arraez started the double party in the first inning, driving in Trea Turner and Bryce Harper with a line drive to right field.
Justin Crawford was the only other Phillies starter to finish without a double, but like Schwarber, he contributed in other ways. Crawford laced an RBI single in the second inning, and executed a sacrifice bunt in the sixth. After Bryson Stott hit his second double of the game, Crawford’s bunt advanced him to third and he scored on Schwarber’s single.
“It was nice to see the guys swing the bats tonight, kind of up and down,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “Everybody with contributions, getting out there early was nice, and to be able to keep scoring was one of those things that you feel good about.”
The Phillies’ early lead could have been even bigger, but both Arraez and Crawford were waved home on aggressive sends from third that backfired, as each were thrown out at the plate.
Starter Cristopher Sánchez didn’t look as sharp as usual, but he held the Nationals to two runs. He gave up six hits, including a solo homer to Andrew Pickney for his first major league hit, and walked two. Sánchez allowed baserunners in every inning he pitched except for the first.
He wasn’t making many bats miss with his sinker, which only generated one swing-and-miss on 23 swings. But Sánchez still struck out six, five of which came on his changeup.
Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sánchez allowed baserunners in every inning he pitched except for the first. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“I try to pitch as good as I can when I have traffic on the bases and try to get out of those jams, and I always go out there trying to put the team in the best position to win,” Sánchez said through team interpreter Diego D’Aniello.
In the fifth inning, Sánchez loaded the bases on a single and two walks. Pitching coach Caleb Cotham came out to the mound to give him a chance to steady his breathing in the heat, and afterward Sánchez rebounded with a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning.
But the long at-bats and long innings had driven his pitch count up, and his night ended there at 98 pitches.
“Just seemed like he was tick off tonight,” Mattingly said. “They’ve been tough on him all year, it feels like. They’ve put the ball in play. They single him, foul him off a little bit. I thought the fifth was huge. Him getting out of that jam was huge for us. You can tell he kind of emptied the tank there at the end.”
It was not an ideal situation for a club that used eight bullpen arms in an extra-innings loss the night before, but the offense provided enough of a cushion. Orion Kerkering, José Alvarado, Jonathan Bowlan, and Jhoan Duran made appearances after also pitching on Wednesday.
“We wanted Sánchy obviously to be able to go further and keep more guys out of the game. But obviously, good to see those guys bounce back,” Mattingly said.
A run scored on Kerkering in the sixth after he gave up a triple to Jacob Young and a single to Keibert Ruiz. He battled back with consecutive strikeouts to strand runners on the corners.
The Phillies played some solid defense, too. The new-look infield turned a double play to help out Sánchez in the fourth. Over at third base, Stott caught a foul pop-up just before his momentum took him a few steps into the Nationals’ dugout.
In the ninth inning, Bryan De La Cruz entered the game in right field as a defensive substitution for Bryce Harper, and made a sliding grab on a line drive.
The Phillies infielders celebrate after their 7-3 win on Thursday night.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The Phillies have won their second consecutive series since getting swept by the Marlins last week. They did it without a single homer from their home run leader. But they expect those to come along soon.
“I think it’s just a matter of time with him,” Mattingly said of Schwarber. “He’s not one of the guys that I sit there and think about, worrying if he’s going to bounce back or not. He’s going to catch fire again.”
Luis Arraez is neither an outfielder nor a right-handed hitter. But he is the Phillies’ solution for scoring more runs.
Even though it puts Bryce Harper back in right field.
Welcome to the Phillies’ brave new world.
Amid an underwhelming market for righty-swinging outfielders, Dave Dombrowski made a trade-deadline splash Monday, acquiring Arraez — a lefty-hitting second baseman — and reliever Caleb Kilian from the Giants for two minor leaguers, including breakout pitching prospect Ramon Marquez — and in the process, uprooting three-quarters of the infield and transplanting Harper to the outfield for the first time since April 2022.
Then, in an almost concurrent trade, the Phillies picked up veteran lefty reliever Brooks Raley from the Mets for minor-league outfielder John Spikerman and right-hander Luke Gabrysh.
“Obviously,” Harper said, “it’s been a good deadline. I think [Dombrowski]’s done a great job.”
Harper said he didn’t know the Phillies were talking to the Giants about Arraez when he texted Dombrowski on Sunday night, after a conversation over the weekend in Baltimore with manager Don Mattingly. In both cases, he reiterated what he has said for years: For another productive hitter who played in the infield, he would make a short-term move back to right field.
With Harper clearing the way, the Phillies pivoted to Arraez, a contact-hitting savant and three-time batting champion with a bead on a fourth. He’s leading the National League with a .324 average and has struck out only 21 times in 464 plate appearances.
In short, he’s like almost no other modern hitter.
Luis Arraez has more walks (25) than strikeouts (21). Gregory Bull
“He’s kind of like the modern day like Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs,” said Mattingly, who played with both. “The guy just hits. He’s always hit, [won] batting titles, and just continues to do it. Obviously a huge addition to the lineup.”
But in pivoting to a hitter whom they believe will have a bigger impact than any of the righty-hitting outfielders they were scouting, the Phillies threw into flux an infield that already ranks among the worst defensive groups in the majors.
Arraez wants to stay at second base, where he improved defensively this season under Giants infield coach Ron Washington. Mattingly said the Phillies “wouldn’t have made the trade if we weren’t going to put him at second,” but really, they had little choice. The out-of-contention Giants assured Arraez they would only trade him to a team that would use him there.
Effective Tuesday night, then, when Arraez joins the Phillies, second baseman Bryson Stott will move to third base, third baseman Alec Bohm will go to first, and yes, Harper will shift back to the grass.
“The key for me is Harp,” Mattingly said. “Harp moving to the outfield is really the key to this.”
Said Harper: “I’ve said it in years past — I mean, I know everybody thinks it’s crap when I say it, but it’s not. Any chance that we have an opportunity to win, I’d do anything for this organization. And they know that.”
In the weeks leading up to the deadline, the Phillies focused on three areas: a right-handed bat, a late-inning reliever, and a starting pitcher. With so many needs and few assets in the farm system, it seemed like a challenge for Dombrowski to get everything.
As a team, the Phillies entered the week tied for 28th in the majors in on-base percentage (.304). In particular, they have gotten less production than any team from the right side of the plate, with a worst-in-the-majors .280 on-base percentage and .644 OPS.
But neither Mike Trout nor Byron Buxton has signaled a willingness to waive their no-trade rights. (In Buxton’s case, the Twins are a playoff contender in the American League.) The Reds’ Spencer Steer injured his wrist and may miss the rest of the season; the Royals traded Lane Thomas to the Braves; the Angels’ Jo Adell has a .279 career on-base percentage; and the Orioles were noncommittal on trading Taylor Ward.
(Adell and Ward were ultimately dealt to the Guardians and Mariners, respectively, Monday.)
Given the state of the market, the Phillies felt they needed to get creative. So, they widened their search over the weekend, according to major league sources, and landed on Arraez, who has a .360 on-base percentage and figures to help set the table for Kyle Schwarber and Harper.
“He’s a guy that won the batting title a couple of years and somebody that’s going to put the bat on the ball,” Harper said. “Exciting player, you know? I think he just brings a lot to our lineup. He’s got that hit tool, and it’s somebody that can be really good for us.”
The Phillies also acquired Kilian, a 29-year-old righty, to add depth to the middle of the bullpen. He has a 4.26 ERA in 46 games this season, but hasn’t allowed a run in eight of his last 11 appearances.
The move comes at a cost for a farm system that was already ranked among the worst in baseball.
Marquez, a hard-throwing 20-year-old right-hander, has emerged this season, prompting debate among scouts about whether he or 2025 first-round pick Gage Wood was the best pitching prospect in the system. Scouts are impressed by Marquez’s changeup and an uptick in his fastball velocity. He has a 1.50 ERA in six starts since moving up to high-A Jersey Shore.
Marty Gair, a 23-year-old, was recently promoted to Jersey Shore. He has a 4.50 ERA and six saves in 30 appearances overall this season.
Raley is shaping up as an important addition, especially given the powerhouse Dodgers’ lefty-heavy lineup. In 41⅓ innings with the Mets, the 38-year-old veteran had a 1.96 ERA. A pending free agent, he will join José Alvarado as the lefty weapons to combat Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and Kyle Tucker in the middle and late innings.
“I see him more towards the back end,” Mattingly said. “Obviously we’ve got Alvy, who’s throwing the ball really good. But we’ll take all the arms we can get out there.”
On his way home for the All-Star break last Sunday, Trea Turner spent some time pondering his season so far.
It has been a disappointment for the Phillies shortstop overall, on both sides of the ball. He was especially frustrated with his performance on the team’s last road trip before the break, where he felt like he was making the contact he wanted but the results weren’t following.
“Looking up expected numbers, and have the guys tell me what it looks like, and I’m getting half the production that I should be getting,” Turner said. “That’s just frustrating.”
After winning the National League batting title in 2025, Turner entered the break with a subpar .236 average. He spent the plane ride mulling it over, and then tried to turn his brain off for the next three days he spent with his family.
Perhaps the reset did him some good at the plate. Turner’s 414-foot homer in the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-1 win over the Mets was his second home run in as many games after the break. He also picked up two singles for a three-hit, three-run day.
“Obviously, he’s hit a couple balls out of the ballpark, but he’s kind of controlled the zone a little better, where he’s getting the ball in the strike zone,” said interim manager Don Mattingly.
There is room for improvement defensively, though. In the second inning, Turner botched a routine ground ball for his 14th error of the season. It also happened to be his second error in as many games after the break, after a misplay during Thursday’s series opener.
Turner committed just eight errors last season. He did extra drills with infield coach Bobby Dickerson ahead of Saturday’s game as he tries to recapture the improvements he made in the field last year.
“I just want to, I think, read the ball a little better,” Turner said. “I feel like physically, I feel good. I feel like I’m making moves that I want to make. It’s the last few mistakes I’ve made has just been judgment on a hop I think I’m going to get, and then the second or third hop’s not exactly what I envision, and I just put myself in a bad spot.”
Saturday’s error did not wind up biting the Phillies much, as starter Jesús Luzardo struck out the next two batters to end the inning. Along with the back-to-back walks he issued in the first inning, though, it did cost Luzardo some pitches and he was lifted at 90 after the fifth.
A solo homer from Tyrone Taylor was just one of two hits the Mets managed against Luzardo, as he struck out seven. Juan Soto, one of the most disciplined hitters in the game with just a 12.7% strikeout rate, accounted for two of those.
The first time, Luzardo got Soto to chase his signature sweeper low and away in the third inning. The second time, in the fifth, he stunned Soto with a left-on-left changeup. Luzardo and Soto, who briefly coincided earlier in their careers in the Nationals minor league system, both smiled as they walked off the field.
Jesús Luzardo allowed just two hits and one run in five innings on Saturday.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“Hadn’t struck him out in a couple years, I think, so that was nice,” Luzardo said. “But finding any way to get him out is always a pleasant surprise.”
The Phillies capitalized on a sloppy Mets team that committed three errors on Saturday, but the win was a positive sign for their bats overall. They racked up 12 hits in a game that was delayed for just over 45 minutes due to heavy rain during the bottom of the seventh.
Kyle Schwarber gave the Phillies some breathing room with a towering 399-foot two-run blast in the first inning. And after Turner’s homer in the fifth, they continued to tack on. Schwarber drew a walk and advanced from first to third when catcher Francisco Alvarez’s pickoff attempt sailed high and wide. He then scored easily when Alec Bohm punched a single to left field.
A single from Edmundo Sosa and a J.T. Realmuto walk kept the line moving, but the rally ended when Derek Hill struck out to strand the bases loaded.
“Had a couple innings there that type of innings that make you nervous,“ Mattingly said. ”Leadoff double, we don’t score. First and third, we don’t score. You look at those and you feel like sometimes they’re going to come back to haunt you. Today it didn’t. Obviously, we were able to keep pushing.”
The Phillies loaded the bases again in the sixth inning, and this time they capitalized. Bryson Stott tripled and Turner and Schwarber drew back-to-back walks against Mets right-hander Kodai Senga to put three on for Bryce Harper.
He got hold of Senga’s signature forkball for a two-run single that gave the Phillies’ bullpen a comfortable cushion.
Not that they needed much. Orion Kerkering had pitched a 1-2-3 sixth, striking out Carson Benge with a 97.8 mph fastball. José Alvarado sidestepped an infield single for a scoreless seventh, and Chase Shugart retired six consecutive Mets in the eighth and ninth to seal it.
Bryce Harper (right) delivered a two-run single in the sixth inning.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Following the rain delay in the bottom of the seventh, Turner picked up his third hit of the day on an infield single against Mets reliever Xzavion Curry.
“Once you get some of those infield singles and hits to fall, you start having stuff to build on,” Turner said. “I feel like early on, I didn’t have anything to build on. I feel like in the last 30, 40 games if I have something wrong, I can fix it real quick, and hit the ball the other way or whatever it may be, and make the adjustments faster. And that’s the way I am.”
