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The Philadelphia Phillies boast the best record in baseball, but they sure aren’t playing as if they are the majors’ top team.

After losing two of three games in each of their past three series, the Phillies look to reverse course on Friday when they play the opener of a three-game set against the visiting Cleveland Guardians.

“Obviously, I thought the A’s kicked the (stuffing) out of us the last game (before the All-Star break),” Philadelphia star Bryce Harper said, referring to Oakland’s 18-3 romp on July 14.

“But we can’t let two games get away from us in the last two series like that. It just can’t happen if you’re going to be a winning ballclub. It just can’t happen.”

The two games in question are the Phillies’ 8-7 setback to the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 19 and a 5-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. Philadelphia failed to hold a pair of three-run leads in the first contest before seeing another three-run advantage vanish in Minneapolis. In those games, the Pirates and Twins both scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

“I think we’re just going through a down stretch right now with our offense and certainly throwing strikes with our bullpen,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “But these guys are talented enough. I have no worries that they’re not going to come out of it.”

Philadelphia shortstop Trea Turner is enjoying a sterling month. His solo homer in the Wednesday setback marked the 10th time that he had gone deep in July. He is batting a robust .356 with 22 RBIs and 18 runs in 18 games this month.

The Phillies will turn to left-hander Cristopher Sanchez (7-5, 2.97 ERA) on Friday.

Sanchez, 27, retired both batters he faced in the All-Star Game on July 16, then endured a hard-luck setback against the Pirates on Saturday. He allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings during a 4-1 loss.

Like the Phillies, the American League Central-leading Guardians are enduring some difficult times. Cleveland took its eighth loss in 12 games on Thursday afternoon, a 3-0 setback against the Detroit Tigers.

The shutout loss was the Guardians’ fourth in a 10-game stretch and 10th of the season.

“We’ve had games where we’ve scored, we’ve had games where we haven’t, but I wouldn’t call it a funk,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “I would just say we’ve lost more games than we’ve won the last couple of weeks.

“I like our bats. I like where we are. Everybody needs to relax and be themselves.”

While that sounds well and good, the trade deadline is looming on Tuesday.

“We have an idea of what we’d like to accomplish going in,” Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said, “but how we’re able to execute, that’s hard to predict.”

Cleveland star Jose Ramirez has six hits — including two doubles and a homer — to go along with three RBIs in his past five games.

Guardians right-hander Ben Lively (8-6, 3.57) will look to snap a two-game losing streak on Friday. Lively, 32, permitted two runs in 5 1/3 innings in both of those outings.

Neither starting pitcher has faced the opposition in his career.

–Field Level Media