PHOENIX — The lull was nearly a month long, but the Phillies look like they're back to playing the brand of baseball that has kept them atop MLB the entire summer.
The only thing hotter than the 108-degree temperatures when they arrived in Arizona was the Diamondbacks' offense and the Phils cooled them off in a 6-4 win, batting around in the top of the sixth and maintaining the lead with four different relievers.
They scored all four of their runs in the sixth inning with two outs, working quality plate appearance after quality plate appearance. And once the Diamondbacks answered back with two in the bottom half, the Phillies offered a response of their own in the seventh for insurance.
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"We kinda lost ourselves for a little bit," Trea Turner said. "We had a stretch the last 15 games or so where we faced a lot of good teams. I think the last three, four, five games we played better, competed harder and the results are showing."
Their two coldest hitters, Turner and J.T. Realmuto, were able to take deep breaths after finally coming through in big spots.
Turner singled between short and third with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth to untie the game.
Realmuto ended a seven-pitch at-bat in the seventh with a no-doubt homer to left-center, his first extra-base hit in 13 games since returning from the injured list. He picked up his second the next time up, doubling and scoring on a two-bagger from Edmundo Sosa in the top of the ninth.
Philadelphia Phillies
"It felt good to barrel a couple of balls up finally," Realmuto said. "I was watching video with (hitting coach Kevin Long) yesterday and we found some things mechanically. My bat just wasn't staying in the zone very long, kinda losing my barrel. I was late on fastballs, early on off-speed so just kinda in between. I just tried to work on cleaning my bat path up."
It was timely, too. Realmuto officially reached 10 years of major-league service time on Thursday, a milestone for any player. There were balloons in his locker postgame.
"He is one of the finest catchers I've ever been around and his toughness physically, mentally, emotionally is second to none," manager Rob Thomson said. "He cares about his pitching staff, he prepares like nobody else. He's just, he does everything. He's a complete catcher."
Johan Rojas stranded five baserunners in his first two at-bats out of the nine-hole but for the second straight night, his patience paid off. He worked a walk with two outs in the sixth and Kyle Schwarber was just as selective, doing the same to load the bases for Turner's knock.
Rojas and Weston Wilson will see an uptick in playing time with Austin Hays sidelined by a hamstring injury. The Phillies were still awaiting the results of testing on Hays' hamstring when Thursday's game began. Wilson had a productive night, singling off Jordan Montgomery in the second inning, missing a three-run double by a literal centimeter in the fourth and doubling in the Phillies' first run in the sixth.
The game was on the brink of slipping away after the Phillies took their three-run lead when Orion Kerkering went walk, two-run homer, single, walk to the first four batters he faced in the sixth. But Kerkering dug deep and navigated his way out of the jam, inducing a groundout and striking out the next two.
What began as a worrisome inning might be a building block.
"Kerk's a perfectionist. He was a little down after giving up those two runs but that's gonna happen, especially when you're pitching in high-leverage situations like he's gonna be his whole career," Realmuto said. "Being able to get through that and then end up having a really clean inning after that, getting in some more trouble but being able to get out of it and knowing he can pitch that deep into an inning and be successful, I thought that was encouraging."
Jeff Hoffman, Jose Alvarado and Carlos Estevez closed out the win against a D-backs offense that had scored 99 runs over a 12-2 stretch. The Estevez addition has been doubly beneficial in allowing both Kerkering and Hoffman to appear earlier in games. Without him, the Phillies might have used someone like Jose Ruiz when they used Kerkering and Kerkering when they used Hoffman.
Left-hander Kolby Allard pitched the first five innings and did his job, holding the D-backs to one run on a solo homer by Eugenio Suarez. Allard has pitched 13 innings as a Phillie and 10 have been scoreless. This might have been his last start with Taijuan Walker potentially back on Tuesday.
“Great poise. He throws strikes, he’s not afraid of contact,” Thomson said of Allard. “His strike-throwing ability, his command is really good. He’s shown us something during this time.”
The Phillies are 69-46. They've won four of five games after losing 13 of 17. Their division lead is eight games over the Mets and 8½ over the Braves. They're 2½ games ahead of the Dodgers for the best record in the NL and 1½ ahead of the Guardians for the best record overall.
Thursday's series opener was the first the Phils won since July 9 against the Dodgers. They're building momentum again and will look to keep it rolling Friday night behind their ace, Zack Wheeler.
"We're feeling a lot better right now than we did a week ago because we're playing a better brand of baseball, we're putting together better at-bats, our starters are giving us a chance to win every game," Realmuto said. "We're feeling good right now.”