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Phillies bats come alive to snap five-game losing streak in 10-4 win over Cubs

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on

Published in Baseball

CHICAGO — In the midst of a five-game skid that dropped the Phillies’ record to .500, Rob Thomson pondered a way out of the offensive fog that draped over the entire lineup.

“It might take a bloop hit at some point,” he said. “And then it just kind of explodes.”

Maybe the manager wants a crack at the Powerball, too.

Because after a week of struggle and frustration, all it took for the Phillies to hang a six-pack of runs on the Cubs in the fourth inning Saturday was a 197-foot pop fly that got caught in a whipping wind at Wrigley Field and fell inside the left-field line.

Max Kepler’s bases-loaded single — the textbook definition of a bloop — drove in the game’s first run and continued a string of four consecutive singles in a 10-4 victory that sent the Phillies’ losing streak over and out.

Alec Bohm followed with an RBI single before Johan Rojas lifted a sacrifice fly, Bryson Stott singled in a run, Bryce Harper knocked in two with a gap-splitting double, and everyone in the dugout exhaled.

It was the Phillies’ biggest inning since a six-run third on April 6 against the Dodgers.

And considering they hadn’t won a game in exactly a week, it couldn’t have been more cathartic.

The Phillies kept hitting, too. After killing Cubs starter Ben Brown, a former Phillies 33rd-round draft pick, with singles, Kyle Schwarber doubled in two runs in a three-run sixth inning before Kepler drove a solo homer out to right field in the seventh.

It was the Phillies’ first home run since … checks notes … Monday — and only the second in the last seven games. Kepler hadn’t gone deep since March 31 in the home-opener at Citizens Bank Park.

Thomson, known for his evenhandedness, stuck with the lineup that he typically uses against righties, even though the Phillies entered the game having scored a grand total of 13 runs in the previous games.

 

Sure enough, every starter except Rojas had at least one hit. All but Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto drove in at least one run. The Phillies, who inched back over .500 at 14-13, scored 10 runs for only the third time in 27 games.

It was more than enough for starter Jesús Luzardo, who didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning. The Phillies didn’t even have to sweat out their bullpen on a 49-degree day, even though Matt Strahm loaded the bases in the seventh inning and gave up two runs in only his second appearance since last Sunday.

Schwarber insisted it was only a matter of time before the offense awoke. Even after the Phillies got shut out in the series opener Friday, they maintained that the runs would start to pile up.

“If we keep getting guys on base and we keep finding ways to get guys into scoring position, things are going to start going our way,” Schwarber said. “It’s not always going to be a homer, right? The good thing about our team is that I feel that we can score runs many different ways.”

But big hits have been elusive. And for three innings, the Phillies’ frustrations continued.

With two on in the second inning, Bohm rolled into a rally-killing double play. Stott singled with one out in the third but was left on base after Trea Turner grounded out and Harper struck out.

The Phillies got Brown on the ropes again in the fourth, loading the bases when Schwarber got hit by a pitch and Castellanos and Realmuto singled. Maybe things would’ve gone differently if the Cubs caught Kepler’s fly ball.

Instead, for a change, the Phillies got a break. The ball fell in, and the floodgates opened.

Just like Thomson predicted it would.

“Sometimes you try too hard,” he said. “You’ve just got to kind of relax, put your body on Autopilot, and go compete.”


©2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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