The Phillies’ surge under Don Mattingly has been impossible to miss, but it still wasn’t enough to keep them from sliding in this week’s MLB power rankings.
Philadelphia sits at No. 7 in The Athletic’s latest list, a spot down from No. 6 last week. The rankings were assembled by Chad Jennings, Grant Brisbee and Levi Weaver. The team the Phillies were bumped by was the Chicago Cubs, who climbed from No. 7 to a tie for No. 5 with the New York Yankees.
That move stands out because the Phillies have been one of baseball’s most consistent teams since Mattingly replaced Rob Thomson as interim manager. Thomson was let go 28 games into the season after Philadelphia stumbled to a 9-19 start. Since then, the club has worked its way to 50-41 and sits just three games back of the Atlanta Braves in the National League East.
The drop is not a major setback in the standings picture. Philadelphia is only a half-game behind the Cubs for the No.
1 Wild Card spot in the NL, which may have factored into the placement. Still, Chicago’s leap is a little easier to question when you look at how its week ended.
The Cubs were coming off a series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
They were beaten 17-0 in Game 1, then shut out again in Game 2, 3-0. Chicago did salvage the finale with a 6-4 win before heading out on a road trip that takes it to the Baltimore Orioles and through the All-Star break.
Philadelphia’s own week ended on a sour note as well. The Phillies opened their series against the Kansas City Royals with a 6-1 win, then dropped Game 2 behind Aaron Nola, 5-2. The finale was the roughest of all, with Cristopher Sanchez turning in the worst start of his career in a 15-1 loss.
That marked the first series the Phillies have lost since June 12-14, when they dropped two of three on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers. Chicago has been playing well, too, but a two-spot jump in the rankings after finishing the week with a series loss is a tough one to square.
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The list of sidelined pitchers is long enough to shape how the Cubs think about July, from Justin Steele and Cade Horton to Hoby Milner and Daniel Palencia. Jameson Taillon is at least moving in the right direction after a rehab outing in which he worked 3 1/3 innings and 45 pitches, and he is expected to make one more rehab start before rejoining the rotation after the All-Star break. Even then, Chicago may have to manage him carefully early on, which only underscores why the deadline pressure around pitching keeps building. [Read more 🡒]