Philadelphia Phillies Weekly Trends: All Signs Pointing Upward

The surging Philadelphia Phillies suddenly have a solid lead in the NL East. Their four-game sweep against the San Francisco Giants improved their record in the last nine series to 7-0-2. A tough weekend for the Atlanta Braves has Philadelphia riding high.

Zack Wheeler threw his seventh quality start in eight tries in a victory over the Giants on Monday. He looks like the confident, efficient staff ace the Phillies are paying him to be.

The 33-year-old struck out 11 over seven strong innings. He now sits just one behind Tyler Glasnow of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the MLB lead in strikeouts.

Opponents are hitting a weak .173 against Wheeler, and his 11.68 strikeouts per nine (SO/9) blows past this season’s league average of 8.6.

Wheeler spoke with frustration after waiting six days for his start against the Los Angeles Angels on May 1. He bounced back furiously with excellent velocity and command of his fastball on Monday.

The Giants countered with an intriguing pitching matchup at Citizens Bank Park on Monday to finish the weekend wrap-around series. Scranton, PA native Mason Black made his major league debut with a loud barrage of family and friends in the stands.

Black matched Wheeler out of the gates. He kept the Phillies off the board for three innings before the cream rose to the top. Wheeler got rolling and set up Bryce Harper to break the game open with a three-run home run to left-center field in the fifth inning.

Alec Bohm went 0-4 on Monday to snap an 18-game hitting streak that turned some heads around the majors. His success is certainly not a thing of the past, however.

The former third-overall pick hit .464 during the historic streak with an outrageous 1.264 OPS (2024 MLB Average- .696). He’s established himself as the cleanup hitter for a team in World Series contention.

Bohm has always shown the ability to cover the entire plate with his swing and hit to all fields. However, he’s taken his power to a new level in 2024. Expect Rob Thomson to pencil his third baseman into the cleanup spot on a regular basis.

His local and national profile will only keep growing after the “I Love This Place” t-shirt giveaway at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday and the Brandon Marsh mic’d up segment on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball about their apparent bromance.

A 5.68 ERA in 134 games didn’t seem too inspiring, but the Phillies signed Jeff Hoffman with the advice of quasi-GM Bryce Harper in 2023. The 6-foot-5 righty made it worth their while with a career season.

However, regression seemed inevitable.

His 2.41 ERA unquestionably had something to do with a fortunate .232 opponent batting average on balls in play (BAbip). The statistic usually trends back toward the league average (.297 in 2023) over longer periods of time.

Matt Gelb reported that the Phillies had “harbored enough internal skepticism not to engage in substantive negotiations with Hoffman about a contract extension” during the offseason.

Hoffman has somehow only looked stronger in 2024. He’s kept opponents off the board in 15 of his 16 appearances to post a microscopic 1.13 ERA.

He announced his dominance to a national audience with a shutdown eighth inning on Sunday Night Baseball. The 31-year-old consistently hit 97 miles per hour on the gun with his fastball while mixing in a slider in the mid-to-high 80s. He's struck out 15 of the last 24 batters he's faced.

Hoffman has been the most consistent reliever among a talented group that’s had trouble avoiding early-season hiccups. Expect that organization's skepticism about a contract extension to change.

The Phillies have only won two World Series in 120 years. They recently snapped a brutally long playoff drought, and their fans might have heard once or twice that they’re watching the first professional sports franchise to lose 10,000 games.

It’s all irrelevant right now. The Phillies have seized the top spot in the NL East. They have looked like a powerhouse on their way to a 25-11 record, the best in baseball.

Things will change in many ways before October.

A long-term injury to Trea Turner brings the first real adversity of the season to Rob Thomson and the Phillies. The schedule will toughen up over the summer. The Atlanta Braves provide excellent competition for the NL East pennant.

However, Phillies fans to be happy about a team steamrolling their opponents and the opportunity to watch a contending team at Citizens Bank Park all summer. The most passionate and demanding MLB fan base couldn’t have asked for a better start from the Fightin’ Phils.

Enjoy it while it lasts because it hasn’t happened often enough since 1883.

The Philadelphia Phillies will play nine full series on their schedule during the month of May. Five of them will come at Citizens Bank Park. The other four will come on the road.

The early months of the past two seasons haven’t been kind to Philadelphia. However, Rob Thomson’s squad has reversed the narrative.

The Phillies enter the month of May after one of the best Aprils performances in franchise history because of their ability to take advantage of a weaker schedule. They swept lesser opponents in the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox before traveling west to do the same to a more formidable San Diego Padres team.

The May 2024 schedule includes three National League East rivals. The Phillies and the New York Mets will play consecutive series with two games apiece at each respective team’s home park. It will provide a nice tune-up before the MLB London Series in June.

The Washington Nationals will host their former star Bryce Harper, and the Miami Marlins will look to stay afloat against a World Series contender in what’s been a disastrous start to 2024.

The Toronto Blue Jays might not have Joe Carter anymore, but they still provide a good draw in Philadelphia. The defending champion Texas Rangers will also visit the City of Brotherly Love.

Road series include trips to the Bay Area to face the San Francisco Giants and a Memorial Day Weekend set at Coors Field in Denver. 

The Phillies will also face the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park for one game on May 31 in the first game of a weekend series that stretches into the month of June.

The Phillies return to Citizens Bank Park after a 10-game road trip for an extended weekend set. The uncommon Friday-Monday schedule includes the featured game on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

Fans also receive the ironic Alec Bohm “I Love This Place” t-shirt on Saturday.

Gabe Kapler had been the storyline in recent Phillies-Giants series, but veteran skipper Bob Melvin replaced him this offseason.

The Giants added reigning NL Cy Young Blake Snell during spring training, but the Phillies will miss the nasty lefty during an IL stint.

The Blue Jays have a good developing group of core players led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. They’ve cracked the playoffs in three of the past four seasons.

The strangely controversial Hatfield Phillies Franks BOGO Night (NOT Dollar Dog Night) will draw a crowd for the two-game set in Philadelphia.

What percentage of the home crowd is passionate enough to hold a grudge against the visiting Jays for a fateful series loss 31 years ago?

The Phillies will get back on the road for a weekend set in Florida on May 10. The Marlins have had a disastrous start to the 2024 season that’s buried them in last place in the NL East.

Speculation surrounding Jesus Luzardo and other potential trade chips will draw more attention than the ballclub this season. A World Series hopeful team like the Phillies should push themselves to dominate a last-place team like the Marlins.

The Mets have impressively stayed in reach in an NL East race with two elite teams like the Phillies and Braves at the top. First-year manager Carlos Mendoza has squeezed some wins out of a flawed roster.

The Phillies play the front half of a four-game series at Citi Field before returning to Philadelphia. It’s the only matchup between the two division rivals before the MLB London Series on June 8 and 9.

The Phillies will make the quick drive south for the second half of the four-game set. Another New York franchise recently dominated a Philadelphia venue.

Mets fans have shown up at Citizens Bank Park in recent seasons with big numbers and passionate noise in regular-season matchups. Will they follow the precedent set by the Knicks fan base at the Wells Fargo Center?

The Nationals made it through the first month of the season with a respectable record. Many MLB analysts picked them to finish at the bottom of the NL East, but they’ve at least kept pace in what looks like a powerhouse division in 2024.

Strong starts from CJ Abrams and Jesse Winker deserve some recognition. However, the Phillies have an unquestionably stronger roster than Washington.

The defending World Series champs will travel to Citizens Bank Park for their only matchup against the Phillies in a three-game weekday set. Corey Seager didn’t get off to his strongest start in 2024. Fellow centerpiece Adolis Garcia has helped the Rangers linger toward the top of the AL West.

The Phillies will close out the homestand with two night games and a Businessperson’s Special on close-out day.

The Phillies dominated the hapless Rockies in Philadelphia in an April sweep. Weaker opponents on the early-season schedule provide an opportunity for a playoff contender to build an advantage at the top of the standings. That’s not easy to do with the regular-season juggernaut Braves in the mix.

A Memorial Day Weekend series in Denver offers the chance for a trip to one of the most beautiful downtown ballparks in the majors, if you have the means.

The series at Citizens Bank Park in early May gives both teams an opportunity to learn the competition. The Phillies will travel back to the Western time zone for the final full series of the month.

San Francisco will return the favor of uncommon start times. They’ll play two afternoon games in the City by the Bay. Monday’s game will start at 5:05pm EST, and Wednesday’s game starts at 3:45pm EST.