Standings-watcher Don Mattingly must like what he sees.
Mattingly, the interim manager of the Phiilies, has guided an impressive turnaround for Philadelphia, which will continue a three-game weekend set with the visiting Chicago White Sox on Saturday afternoon.
Philadelphia was 9-19 and 10 1/2 games back in the National League East when the team fired manager Rob Thomson in late April and replaced him with Mattingly. Since then, the Phillies are 25-10, including four straight wins.
In the division, they are in second place, 8 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves, who have baseball’s best record. More importantly, the Phillies occupy a wild-card position.
“To be honest with you, I pay attention to (the standings) from the very first day,” Mattingly said. “I see who’s winning, and I watch the races all the time. But also with some perspective of knowing how many games are left, knowing what we have to do to take care of ourselves and just try to keep getting better and better all the time, so that as the end of the season is coming, we’re playing our best baseball.”
Indeed, the Phillies are hot, with eight wins in their past 10 games. They topped the White Sox 8-6 in Friday’s series opener, thanks, in part, to home runs by Brandon Marsh and Adolis Garcia and four hits by Kyle Schwarber.
“If we want to get to where we want to go, we’re going to need those guys — and all of us,” Marsh said of key contributions from Garcia and Alec Bohm (two hits, two RBIs).
The surprising White Sox also occupy a wild-card slot despite the Friday loss. Chicago fell behind by three runs early before rallying to tie the score at 6-6 in the seventh. Randal Grichuk was the hitting star for the White Sox with a pair of home runs, although the team still fell to 1-3 in its past four contests.
“Getting down 5-2 … in this place with the pitchers that we faced today, is not an easy task,” Grichuk said. “So coming back, tying it up, ultimately obviously losing, but it’s positive vibes for the offense.”
The White Sox hope the positive vibes continue Saturday against Andrew Painter (1-6, 5.74 ERA), who has not won a game since his major league debut on March 31. The rookie right-hander was limited to 3 1/3 innings Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the shortest start of his young career.
Painter gave up four runs and seven hits in a 9-1 defeat, failing to build off back-to-back quality starts.
“Just continue to be aggressive in the zone,” said Painter, who has not faced the White Sox in his career. “Not shying away from the competition. But the reality is, falling behind a lot of those guys, that’s kind of where they do their damage.”
Chicago will start Saturday’s clash with left-hander Brandon Eisert (1-0, 3.55 ERA), who will serve as an opener with an eye on Philadelphia’s left-handed sluggers Schwarber and Bryce Harper at the top of the order. From there, the White Sox are expected to turn to Sean Burke (2-3, 3.72), who has a 2.65 ERA over his past three starts.
It will be his first appearance against Philadelphia. Most recently, Burke gave up one run in 5 1/3 innings in his team’s 2-1 win against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday. He did not figure into the decision.
“I love playing for this group, I love the guys in there,” Burke said.
“I look forward every single day to coming to the ballpark. This year there’s a day where I go to bed and I’m so excited to pitch the next day with the way the fans are showing up and the way we’re playing. I wake up every day and thank God that I get to play with the Chicago White Sox.”
–Field Level Media
