Mattingly was hired on April 28<\/a>. They\u2019d lost six consecutive series. As we mentioned, they haven\u2019t lost one since. And that stunning boomerang act puts them \u2014 and Mattingly \u2014 in even more historic territory.<\/p>\nOnly one other team since 1900 \u2014 Dave Parker\u2019s 1975 Pirates \u2014 has turned around and won seven series in a row immediately after losing their previous six in a row. Mattingly\u2019s 2026 Phillies can still join them if they win this series against the Reds on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
But those \u201975 Pirates didn\u2019t change managers. So Mattingly\u2019s Phillies team has already carved out its own place in history among teams that did that in the middle of a season that seemed to be spinning out of control.<\/p>\n
So how do we explain this?<\/p>\n
Well, for one thing, baseball is as strange and mysterious as ever. For another, there was too much talent on this roster to explain the 9-19 mark in the first place. The men now playing for Mattingly had done nothing but win their way into October every season under Thomson. So much of this is strange and mysterious for them, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cRob was more than capable of managing us and doing a great job of it,\u201d Trea Turner said Tuesday. \u201cHe proved it his whole time here. So it wasn\u2019t necessarily him. I think Don\u2019s very similar in the sense that he\u2019s pretty even-keeled. Obviously, he\u2019s got great experience, having played the game a long time. He\u2019s seen a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there is also a low-ego, big-presence quality to Mattingly that resonates with the players around him. One thing he has done relentlessly is remind his players \u2014 and everyone else \u2014 that this is a team, with great starting pitching and so many good players, that it should expect to win every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u00a0should expect to win,\u201d Mattingly said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cI know it\u2019s a long season and you\u2019re not going to win every game. But there\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t (expect to win) that day \u2014 and it\u2019s just one at a time that way. To me, I\u2019ve always expected to win, even when I\u2019ve had teams that I probably shouldn\u2019t have expected to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
So there he was last Friday night in Pittsburgh, stalking to the mound to take the ball from Aaron Nola after the Phillies had fallen behind 6-1 in the fourth inning. With his infielders gathered around him, Mattingly calmly said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to come back\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I believed him,\u201d Bryce Harper would say later, after the Phillies had done exactly that, climbing out of that ditch to win 11-9.<\/p>\n
For the last three weeks, they\u2019ve done nothing but believe \u2014 and win. So now here is the company Mattingly finds himself hanging out with in the history books:<\/p>\n
WON FIRST SEVEN SERIES AFTER TAKING OVER IN MIDSEASON \u2014 If the Phillies take this series on Wednesday, it will only be Mattingly in that club. Think of that this way: More than 800 men have managed in the major leagues. But none of them have done this. Amazing.<\/p>\n
WON FIRST SIX SERIES AFTER TAKING OVER IN MIDSEASON \u2014 Just one other manager in history has done what Mattingly has with the Phillies. That was interim managerial legend Joe Morgan, who also won his first six series after taking over Wade Boggs\u2019 1988 Red Sox.<\/p>\n
Beyond Mattingly and Morgan, only two other managers in the last 100 years have won their first five\u00a0series after taking over in midseason. Their names will sound familiar in Philadelphia:<\/p>\n
Rob Thomson \u2014 also won his first five after taking the helm of the 2022 Phillies.<\/p>\n
Jim Fregosi \u2014 took\u00a0over Tony La Russa\u2019s 1986 White Sox and won his first five in a row.<\/p>\n
STARTED 16-4 IN HIS FIRST 20 GAMES \u2014 In the annals of great 20-game starts to a managerial tenure, nobody can touch Morgan\u2019s \u201988 Red Sox. They ripped off 12 wins in a row and went 19-1 after axing John McNamara and handing the job to Morgan, their longtime Triple-A manager. But Mattingly is next on that \u201cFirst 20 Games\u201d list in the modern era. And to find the last managers before this to start out 16-4 after a midseason change, you\u2019d have to travel back in time nearly a century and a half.<\/p>\n
Dorgan went 16-4 for those 1880 Grays. But the last to do it in any league was Fred Dunlap, who took over Buttercup Dickerson\u2019s 1884 St. Louis Maroons, of the old Union League. He also won 16 of his first 20.<\/p>\n
WHAT ABOUT 21 GAMES AND BEYOND \u2014 Sportradar also looked into the best 21-game and 22-game starts by managers who took over in midseason. Here is where Mattingly stands on those leaderboards.<\/p>\n
* Best Records in First 21 Games After a Midseason Manager Change<\/p>\n
\u00a0TEAM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0MGR\u00a0RECORD<\/p>\n
1988 Red Sox\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joe Morgan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
19-2<\/p>\n
1880 Grays\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mike Dorgan<\/p>\n
17-4<\/p>\n
2026 Phillies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don Mattingly<\/p>\n
16-5 <\/p>\n
2009 Rockies\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jim Tracy\u00a0<\/p>\n
16-5 <\/p>\n
1932 Cubs\u00a0<\/p>\n
Charlie Grimm\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
16-5 <\/p>\n
1912 Naps<\/p>\n
Joe Birmingham\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
16-5 <\/p>\n
\u00a0Best Records in First 22 Games After a Midseason Manager Change<\/p>\n
TEAM\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0MGR\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0RECORD <\/p>\n
1988 Red Sox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joe Morgan<\/p>\n
19-3<\/p>\n
1880 Grays<\/p>\n
Mike Dorgan\u00a0<\/p>\n
18-4<\/p>\n
2026 Phillies\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don Mattingly\u00a0<\/p>\n
?-?<\/p>\n
2009 Rockies\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jim Tracy\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
17-5<\/p>\n
1932 Cubs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Charlie Grimm\u00a0<\/p>\n
17-5<\/p>\n
1912 Naps\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joe Birmingham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
17-5<\/p>\n
So what does this mean?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll get back to you on that one. Is Mattingly headed for his second Manager of the Year award? Are the Phillies headed back to October?<\/p>\n
For what it\u2019s worth, that Charlie Grimm team wound up in the World Series. That Joe Morgan team climbed back from fourth place to win the AL East. That Jim Tracy team dug out from 10 games under .500 to make the playoffs as the NL wild card.<\/p>\n
But in this sport, past performance is no guarantee of future success. So making history is a beautiful thing. But explaining how you make it is never as easy as it looks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Turner said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to pinpoint. Because we were doing everything bad, and now we\u2019re doing a lot of things well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earl Weaver never did this. Joe Torre never did this. John McGraw never did this. Whitey Herzog never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2365,85],"class_list":["post-684139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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