PHOENIX \u2013 August is over. What a month it was for the Phillies.<\/p>\n
They completed it with a tight, 2-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Monday night.<\/p>\n
The victory left them with a final August record of 21-7, the best in the majors. What could have been better than that, especially after the team sputtered to a 9-15 record in July?<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-two and six would have been all right, too,\u201d manager Don Mattingly joked.<\/p>\n
Entering the final month of the regular season, the Phils are tied with the Chicago Cubs for the top National League wild-card spot and are just four games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East with 24 games to play. The Phils and Braves play seven times in the next two weeks, starting with the opener of a four-game series Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
While the Phils hope to chase down the Braves, they remain focused on the step in front of them and that meant Monday night\u2019s series opener against the Diamondbacks, who are right in the thick of the wild-card chase.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s day-to-day business at this point,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cYou can\u2019t worry about tomorrow. Just take care of today. Arizona is a difficult club. We have to win games. It\u2019s as simple as that. We can\u2019t look past anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phils earned Monday night\u2019s win with a solid start from Aaron Nola, excellent bullpen work and a couple of big hits from Bryson Stott and Bryce Harper.<\/p>\n
Stott belted a 464-foot home run, the longest of his career and the eighth-longest in the majors this season, in the second inning, and Harper extended his on-base streak to 33 games with an RBI double in the third.<\/p>\n
That was the extent of the Phillies\u2019 scoring, but the pitching made it all stand up.<\/p>\n
Nola picked up the win with five innings of one-run ball. He has a 2.50 ERA in his last seven starts.<\/p>\n
The right-hander threw 92 pitches through five innings. He took the mound in the sixth with a one-run lead and quickly gave up a single and a walk. Mattingly went to Alex McFarlane in a pressure situation and the 25-year-old rookie right-hander delivered three outs to keep the lead intact.<\/p>\n
McFarlane was most impressive coming back from a 3-1 count to strike out Nolan Arenado on a 99-mph fastball and a sweeper for the second out.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a kid who debuted a month ago, the demeanor he has on the mound in a situation like that is pretty incredible,\u201d catcher Garrett Stubbs said. \u201cArenado\u2019s a really good hitter. You want to attack him and not be afraid of him. In that moment, you look out at him on the mound and he didn\u2019t show anything but wanting to attack the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nola was impressed by McFarlane\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s pretty special right there. Pretty awesome,\u201d Nola said. \u201cI left him in a tough spot, two guys on and no outs. He navigated through it really nicely. The strikeout of Arenado was pretty awesome. He\u2019s got a lot of composure out there. He doesn\u2019t really pitch like a rookie. He fills up the zone. I know he had a couple of three-ball counts, but that didn\u2019t faze him. He\u2019s electric.\u201d<\/p>\n
McFarlane knew who he was facing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing Arenado in the box is a great thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThe respect I have for that guy, watching him over the years. He\u2019s a great hitter and Hall of Fame player. I love the opportunity to face those guys. It was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
McFarlane has allowed just one earned run in his first 10 1\/3 innings in the majors. He has pitched four times in the first seven games of this road trip and racked up four scoreless innings. He hasn\u2019t allowed a hit. He\u2019s walked two and struck out five.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s handled everything we\u2019ve thrown at him,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cWe\u2019ve put him in some tough spots lately. That was probably the toughest spot tonight. His stuff plays. When he\u2019s in the zone and attacking, he\u2019s pretty good. He doesn\u2019t seem to be overwhelmed by anything at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the games get bigger, McFarlane could be a serious factor for the Phillies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a big game,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cHe was a factor tonight. He\u2019s got stuff. He\u2019s throwing strikes for the most part. He\u2019s got weapons. When you throw 102 (mph) with a good slider and can sink it, as well, you\u2019ve got weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
After McFarlane, the Phillies got a scoreless seventh from the tandem of Orion Kerkering and Brooks Raley. Jose Alvarado walked a tightrope but put up a zero in the eighth and Jhoan Duran survived two infield hits in the ninth to notch his 29th\u00a0save. He got the final out with the potential tying run on third.<\/p>\n
The Phils have won 14 of their last 16.<\/p>\n
Now, it\u2019s on to September. Jes\u00fas Luzardo gets the ball Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
ROSTER ADDITIONS<\/p>\n
Rosters expand to 28 on Tuesday. The Phillies will add two players, catcher Rafael Marchan and right-handed reliever Grant Holman. Marchan, who went on the injured list in late July with left knee tendinitis, had been on a rehab assignment at Triple A Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
Holman, 26, was claimed by the Phillies off waivers from Detroit in May. He pitched in 20 games at Lehigh Valley and had a 3.12 ERA with 25 strikeouts and five walks in 26 innings.<\/p>\n
Holman, who has big-league time with the Athletics, has packed a lot of suitcases in 2026. The Phillies are his fifth organization this year. He was waived four times.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2013 August is over. What a month it was for the Phillies. They completed it with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,201779,99],"class_list":["post-832901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}