Optimism abounds for Phils after opening month

HOUSTON -- Win or lose on Sunday, the Phillies were guaranteed to end the first month of the season with a winning record. Following a 4-3 defeat to the Astros in the finale at Minute Maid Park, the Phils concluded April with a 15-14 record, and plenty of optimism about how they’ve progressed in the past couple of weeks.

Wins in the first two games of the three-game set in Houston stretched the Phillies’ streak of series wins to four, and they continued trends that are key if they’re going to stay in the mix in a tough National League East race: The starting pitching is getting on track, the lineup is looking a bit more balanced and the bullpen, which stumbled through the first two weeks of the season, has become the strongest component of Philadelphia's roster.

“It shows the resiliency of this group of guys,” manager Rob Thomson said before Sunday’s game. “It was Groundhog Day every day. Just do the same thing, prepare the same way, compete the same way. It shows the importance of throwing strikes -- we were walking guys earlier in the year and it wasn’t good. Consequently, there were long innings and it kind of snowballs. You have to throw strikes, be aggressive and attack hitters.”

As the Phillies shift their attention to the West Coast, where they’ll open a three-game set with the Dodgers on Monday, here’s a look at where they stand, a month in:

Starting pitching on track

Bailey Falter’s pitch count against the Astros on Sunday got too high too quickly, resulting in his shortest outing of his six so far this season. But the subpar performance -- he yielded four earned runs over 4 1/3 innings -- was the only blip over three games at Minute Maid Park.

Aaron Nola took the mound in the series opener seeking his first truly dominant outing of 2023, and he ended up shutting down the Astros over a season-high eight innings. The next night, Zack Wheeler, who in his prior two outings had endured one blow-up inning that threatened to derail the game, had no such issues versus the Astros.

Over their first 13 games, Phillies starters compiled a 4.64 ERA. Over their past 16 games, they’ve shaved off more than half a run, compiling a collective 4.03 ERA.

“We’re getting adjusted to the [pitch] clock, we're getting our legs under us,” Wheeler said after Saturday’s win. “We started out a little slow, but the past few games have been better. Hopefully we can continue that.”

A more balanced lineup, with help coming

Even if Bryce Harper isn’t quite cleared to play Tuesday, he’s still expected to obliterate the original timetable of returning around the All-Star break after undergoing Tommy John surgery in November.

That’s good news for a lineup that both needs him and has been doing relatively well without him. And the production is coming from all over: while the bulk of the burden still falls on the marquee names, the Houston series featured big moments from the bottom of the order, too. Kody Clemens homered again Sunday, his third longball in his past four games, and Jake Cave was 3-for-4 out of the nine-hole in the Phillies’ 6-1 win on Saturday.

“I've seen many times in my career, the good teams have that depth and past that five hitter -- 5-6-7-8-9, those guys have to contribute and it's pretty much carried us for the last few days, at least,” Trea Turner said. “They've been really, really good and playing great baseball, and they take pride in it.”

An impenetrable bullpen

Bullpens don’t get a lot of attention -- until they blow it. Perhaps that’s why Phillies relievers have been a relatively under-the-radar group, given they have spent the past two weeks as the best bullpen in baseball.

They recorded another 3 2/3 scoreless innings on Sunday, lowering their ERA over the past 14 games to an MLB-best 0.83 ERA with 54 strikeouts. It’s helped that the starting pitchers are going deeper into games, which helps steady the bullpen’s workload.

Over the first 15 games, Philadelphia relievers posted a 7.19 ERA.

“I think it's always been there for us,” said reliever Connor Brogdon, who threw 1 2/3 scoreless frames Sunday and has allowed two earned runs over his past 12 appearances. “It was just a matter of just getting it going. And then once we got it going, it's just been rolling since then. Sometimes you just get off to a slow start. Everything worked itself out.”