Brandon Marsh says it was only a matter of time before the Phillies started clicking. | @WapnerNewman<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Marsh has a point. Led by star players in Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner, Philadelphia was 96-66 in 2025.<\/p>\n Despite a horrid start to the season, Philadelphia is not out of it yet. Baseball-reference.com\u2019s playoff odds<\/a> have the Phillies at 38.3% to make the postseason.<\/p>\n While that isn\u2019t high considering Philadelphia\u2019s expectations going into the season, it\u2019s better than it was a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n While the Phillies have a lot of work to do to retake the NL East, their play under Mattingly is encouraging.<\/p>\n Philadelphia is now 8.5 games back from the Atlanta Braves<\/a>, and three games back in the Wild Card standings.<\/p>\n But is it for real? All signs point to yes!<\/p>\n After a slow start to the year, Harper is back to his normal self with a .922 OPS. But it\u2019s been Marsh who has helped guide this Phillies team back into the win column.<\/p>\n Marsh leads the Phillies\u2019 position players in bWAR with 1.3, showing how valuable he has been to the team.<\/p>\n Part of that has been his improvement against left-handed pitchers this season. Thought to be a platoon bat, Marsh is quickly showing he can hit lefties.<\/p>\n In 27 plate appearances, Marsh is batting .280 against left-handers. While the power hasn\u2019t been there against southpaws, it doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be.<\/p>\n In 127 plate appearances, Marsh has a .336\/.362\/.513 slash line with four home runs. His batting average ranks fourth in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n On the pitching side of things, Cristopher S\u00e1nchez has once again been a revelation.<\/p>\n After S\u00e1nchez finished as the runner-up in NL Cy Young voting in 2025, he followed it up with another solid start.<\/p>\n He leads the National League with 2.0 bWAR, and has pitched to a 2.42 ERA in eight starts.<\/p>\n With ace Zack Wheeler finally back from injury, the Phillies pitching staff is much improved.<\/p>\n With everything going right for the Phillies since Thomson\u2019s departure, Philadelphia\u2019s resurgence is for real.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\t\tMatthew Singer<\/strong><\/a> Matthew Singer is a sports reporter covering MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2025, and has two years of experience covering local professional, collegiate and high school sports, including writing for Cronkite News and Arizona PBS. More about Matthew Singer<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhat Is Leading to This Resurgence?<\/h2>\n