PHILADELPHIA — As the dust settled from a chaotic 11-9 Phillies loss in 10 innings, a game that featured many self-inflicted wounds, there was one prevailing thought in the clubhouse.
Bryce Harper said it out loud.
“We could have laid down and just said, ‘Hey, we won the series already,’” Harper said of Sunday’s defeat against the Arizona Diamondbacks. “And we didn’t do that. Just a really good hard-fought game. I know we lost, but I thought we fought till the end.”
He wasn’t wrong. The Phillies overcame a six-run deficit, then ran out of pitching. They settled for a 4-2 homestand and two series wins. A good week. At this time last season, they did not misfire when they had chances to secure series sweeps. So far, that is one difference between the 2025 version and the one that preceded it.
There are others.
The Phillies’ first and third basemen last season ranked second in MLB with an .811 OPS. They collected 95 doubles — 19 more than the next-closest team. This year, Harper and Alec Bohm have yet to discover consistent power strokes. Bohm hasn’t had it, period.
The infield corners have produced a .664 OPS in 2025. That ranks 17th in baseball.
Harper homered in Sunday’s loss. Bohm smacked a double to the opposite field; it was his first extra-base hit since April 20.
Bohm hit a ball 399 feet to dead center in Saturday’s 7-2 win. It was a long out. But at least it was in the air. Bohm has seen increases in his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate, but so many of his batted balls are on the ground. He has one extra-base hit to the pull side — even that was more left-center than left — and it came in the first game of the season.
The Phillies need more.
“He had a ball (Saturday) night that I thought had a chance to go out,” manager Rob Thomson said, “and he’s hit a couple balls like that lately. So, hopefully, it’s coming.”
Alec Bohm has a .550 OPS and has yet to homer this season. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
They’ve been waiting for a Harper hot streak. He had not homered since April 18. On Sunday, he was more upset about chasing two pitches in the ninth inning against Shelby Miller and a hard flyout to center in the 10th inning with the tying runs on base. He is hitting .234/.364/.422.
Harper is “really the last guy I worry about,” Thomson said. But the failures in important moments have hurt.
“Especially a guy like him because he puts a lot of pressure on himself,” Thomson said before Sunday’s game. “His expectations of himself are higher than anybody else. And he knows how important he is to the ballclub, to the city and the franchise. And so he wears it. He really does. That’s who he is. But I can tell you this: He’s handled it a lot better than he has in the past this year.”
How so?
“Staying calm, you know?” Thomson said. “He’s been a really good teammate, even when he goes through struggles. He’s been really good.”
Taijuan Walker, the Phillies’ new long man
Taijuan Walker has a 2.54 ERA in six starts. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)
It wasn’t until the middle of the ninth inning Sunday that Taijuan Walker traveled to his new home, the bullpen. Walker had thrown 85 pitches Thursday against the Washington Nationals, then used Sunday morning for a side bullpen session. A few hours later, in the 10th inning, he started to warm up because the Phillies had no one else.
How this whole arrangement will work is unclear, but Walker is the long man for now. The Phillies are happy to have a scheduled off day Monday because the entire bullpen could use it. But Thomson has a difficult balance to strike.
He has a few late-inning relievers he trusts. He has numerous pitchers who can provide bulk. But there isn’t much in the middle.
So, Orion Kerkering entered in the fourth inning with the Phillies down big. Thomson had to use all of his high-leverage relievers while trailing Sunday. He pushed José Alvarado into a second inning for the third time this season, and that is not a healthy habit.
Ranger Suárez retired the first seven batters he faced but allowed seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. (Hunter Martin / Getty Images)
The bullpen mix is subject to change. The Phillies opened a roster spot for Ranger Suárez by placing José Ruiz on the injured list with neck spasms. That kept Carlos Hernández in the bullpen, and while his raw stuff entices the Phillies, they could soon reach a point where they use that bullpen spot as a rotating tryout for minor-league arms. Joe Ross, who pitched well Sunday in the second of back-to-back days, could ascend in the pecking order. But he has little experience as a traditional reliever.
Walker has stated his preference: He’d like to be a starter. The Phillies do not want to run a six-man rotation right now; Walker could make a spot start during their West Coast trip later in the month.
They will try to do with Walker what they could not do with Spencer Turnbull at this time last season — keep him sharp and healthy as a long reliever.
It’s unlikely the Phillies would ever use Walker as a traditional setup man who can go on back-to-back days or three out of four days. He does not feature swing-and-miss stuff. Maybe his arsenal ticks upward in shorter bursts.
“He’s so strong and he’s such an athlete,” Thomson said, “that I think he’d transition well to it, to tell you the truth.”
Thomson would point to Walker, available in an emergency only Sunday, heading to the bullpen in the ninth inning to prepare for a hasty appearance as proof that he’s willing to adapt.
“Being the competitor that he is and the teammate that he is, I think he’d do anything,” Thomson said. “It’s not that he’s happy going to the bullpen. But I think when it gets right down to it, he’ll be there.”
Limiting Max Kepler’s looks at lefties
Max Kepler homered Friday and Saturday. (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
The Phillies are slated to face six right-handed starters during their six-game road trip to Tampa Bay and Cleveland. That means a long runway for Max Kepler, who is hitting .277/.368/.494 against righties this season. He did not start Sunday with a lefty on the mound; Weston Wilson effectively replaced him in the lineup. Wilson struck out in his first two at-bats against lefty starter Eduardo Rodriguez, then crushed a three-run homer against righty reliever Juan Morillo.
While Thomson has resisted calling left field a platoon, the Phillies stand to benefit from minimizing Kepler’s looks at lefties. “It’s not going to hurt him,” Thomson said when asked about sitting Kepler. “I want to keep him right where he’s at. He’s in a really good spot.” There might be a temptation to let Kepler face more lefties, given that he took a key swing in Friday’s win by homering on a hanging breaking ball from lefty reliever José Castillo, who was pitching in the majors for the first time in two years.
But Kepler’s at-bats against righties have been far better. He’s hit the ball at a 91.5 mph average compared to an 86.1 mph average exit velocity against lefties. Kepler attributed some of it to not seeing lefties with any frequency. Maybe that is true. But a platoon isn’t always a curse word, so long as the Phillies have a suitable partner for Kepler.
When asked if Kepler could earn more time against lefties, Thomson said, “I hope so.” But the manager’s actions indicate the Phillies are committed to the platoon advantage. They have sought it at second base with Bryson Stott sitting so Edmundo Sosa can face lefties. The Phillies probably have a platoon in center field, too.
“I usually try to approach lefties just like righties,” Kepler said. “It just gets a little harder when you don’t get to see them as routinely as you do the righties. I think the righties on the bench would say the same things about seeing righties because they only get to see lefties.”
That’s the risk teams take with platoons. But they are more common than ever because pitching is better than ever. In an ideal world, a team has nine regulars who play every day and bat in the same spots in the order.
No team in MLB this season has built a roster like that.
“I hope,” Kepler said, “I get some more shots here in the near future against lefties.”
(Photo of Bryce Harper: Hunter Martin / Getty Images)