The Phillies came home Thursday at 6-6 and still looking for their first run in 20 innings, a flat start to a season that has already pushed manager Rob Thomson toward lineup changes for Friday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The second homestand began after a West Coast swing that left Philadelphia with more questions than runs.
The offense has not been able to cover the gap. Entering Thursday, the league was hitting.256 with runners in scoring position and carrying a.741 OPS in those spots, but the Phillies ranked 29th in batting average and 26th in OPS with runners on. That is the kind of early hole that can make a 12-game sample feel heavier than it is, especially when a club spends a night without a breakthrough and then has to explain why.
Bryce Harper has still been getting on base, which is part of why the Phillies are not treating the first two weeks as a disaster. He had 52 plate appearances early in the season, had walked seven times and had not reached that total until April 15 last year. His chase rate was 34.6 percent through the first 12 games, down from 35.6 percent in 2025, and his whiff rate was also down two percentage points from a 30.7 percent mark last season. Those are not empty numbers. They suggest a hitter who is still seeing the ball well enough to force pitchers to work.
But the rest of the lineup has not matched him, especially against left-handed pitching. In three games against lefties this season, the Phillies’ right-handed hitters were batting.130 with a.458 OPS. Otto Kemp was 2-for-13 overall, and both of his hits came against lefties. Those splits are small, as the club knows, but they are also part of the reason Friday’s lineup is expected to look different.
The bullpen has been the counterweight. Over 18 innings of relief during the six-game trip, Phillies relievers allowed eight hits, one earned run and four walks while averaging 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings. Across the season, they had allowed 40 hard-hit balls, sixth in MLB, but only two home runs, also sixth in MLB. That balance has helped keep the team afloat while the bats have stalled.
There was also a small but telling moment in Wednesday’s sixth inning, when Rafael Marchán challenged a ball four call with Matt Chapman at the plate. The call was overturned and the sequence ended in a strikeout. It was the kind of edge-the-margin play that fits a team searching for a little friction to turn into momentum.
It is hard to make too much of the first 12 games, and the Phillies know it. Still, the early numbers point in one direction: the bullpen has done enough, Harper has done his part, and the lineup has not yet found a way to make those pieces add up.
