Certainly, the Phillies have a history of strong finishes in the past few years, making deep playoff runs after strong late-season performances.
However, their slow starts in the previous Aprils and Mays have concerned the team. They wondered why a team that ended the last two seasons as one of the best in baseball struggled at the beginning of each season.
Now, they seem to have found an answer, and it may all come down to their schedule. The Phillies have kicked off this season exceptionally well, largely because they’ve been winning against some of the weakest teams in baseball.
Thanks to Aaron Nola’s impressive eight innings on Sunday, the Phillies wrapped up their homestand with a convincing 8-2 victory over the struggling Chicago White Sox.
What’s more, they’ve been winning the games they were expected to win at Citizens Bank Park. After splitting two games with the Pirates, they went on to sweep both the Colorado Rockies and the White Sox in consecutive three-game series.
Combined, the Rockies and White Sox have only managed seven wins out of 41 games this season.
Manager Rob Thomson expressed his satisfaction with how the team responded to facing struggling opponents, emphasizing the need to maintain this momentum.
With a six-game winning streak and a 13-6 record in April, the Phillies are off to one of their best starts in years, standing seven games above .500 in April for the first time since 2018.
Their record of 14–8 marks a significant improvement from their starts in the previous two seasons, where they were 11-11 and 10-12, respectively, over their first 22 games. In Philadelphia, sometimes things just seem to fall into place.