With a series finale that concluded in extras, the Phillies somehow managed to hang on to the win, giving the Cubs their first series loss at home all season long. After a rough skid, the Phightin’s are starting to see some key players begin to shine, and not the ones you would expect.

After nine innings in a 1-1 stalemate, the Phillies and Cubs embarked on a tenth-inning duel, both teams in search of the win. With Castellanos as the ghost runner on second to begin the inning, catcher JT Realmuto stepped in the box. After quickly falling 0-2 in the count, JT then saw seven more pitches. Pitches three through five were all sliders from Cubs reliever Julian Merryweather, all of which were just off the bottom left corner of the plate. Once his initial plan of sitting offspeed and away didn’t catch him, with the count now 3-2, Merryweather quickly switched over to throwing four-seamers towards the top of the zone. The first 96 mph fastball clipped the top part of the zone, resulting in a foul ball from Realmuto; the seventh and final pitch of the at-bat was somewhat of a gift from the home plate umpire as it just barely missed the outer corner of the zone.

Now with runners on first and second, lefty Max Kepler stepped up to the dish, quickly falling into a hitter’s count at 3-0. After Merryweather had missed with his first three pitches, Kepler decided to take the fourth, looking for a walk, but met with a 95 mph fastball down the heart of the plate for a called strike. After fouling off another heater, he was met with a ball high and inside, thus loading the bases for Alec Bohm. On just one pitch, Bohm blasted a fastball out to right field, scoring Castellanos and moving the Phillies’ runners to the corners. Now, Johan Rojas might not be an outstanding hitter, but one thing he should know how to do well with such elite-level speed is bunting. You don’t see it much anymore, but there was a time when a sac bunt was the craze, especially for players who could outrun a throw to first, even if the ball would roll right in front of a fielder. Rojas didn’t execute this bunt perfectly, as they chose to go for the out at the plate; however, this allowed Rojas’ speed to keep him on the bases, as he occupied first while Max Kepler remained at second. After a four-pitch walk, the hot-hitting Bryson Stott managed to load up the bases once more for Trea Turner. Now, before we dissect what is going on with Trea, it should be mentioned that his elite speed also played a part in this win over Chicago as he blooped a gentle infield single over to third and managed to outrun it before Vidal Brujan could make a play. Thanks to Turner and his wheels, the Phillies headed into the bottom of the tenth up 3-1 as opposed to just a thin two-run lead with just a Castellanos run manufactured from second.

Then came the most challenging part: seeing if the bullpen could hold the ghost runner at second long enough for the Phillies to secure the win. With Jordan Romano desperately needing a redemption arc after several blown save opportunities, he found himself heading out to the mound to hopefully lock down a win for his team. Coming into the save opportunity with a 13.50 ERA in eleven plate appearances, it was evident that the work Romano has been doing outside of game time gave him the chance to go 1-2-3 to end the game. The Phillies’ staff revealed that with the initial changes he made to his delivery resulted in Romano tipping off pitches, but that seemed to end last night when he handled the heart of the Cubs’ lineup after he struck out leadoff batter, Michael Busch, Romano quickly went to work on Dansby Swanson, and after seven pitches, got him to fly out to left, and fittingly enough ended the night with a grounder from Nico Horner right back to him as he tossed it over to Harper for the final out of the game.

The true MVP of the game last night, however, was none other than homegrown pitching stud, Aaron Nola. Nola pitched an absolute gem last night. He started the game out by retiring five straight hitters. If it weren’t for a miscue in the outfield from Rojas and Castellanos, Nola woud’ve most likely gone through his start without a run; however, that defensive mistake from the Phillies would end up costing Nola and the boys as one of the hottest hitters in baseball, Pete Crow-Armstrong, stepped up to the plate and knocked in the first, and only, run for Chicago. After that one hiccup in the second, Nola shut it down, only allowing one hit for the rest of his outing. He was replaced by Orion Kerkering in the bottom of the 8th, but finished the game with a stat line of seven innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, one walk, and six strikeouts.

Nola wasn’t the only one feeling himself last night, though, because Trea Turner is finally starting to heat up, which is something to note. Coming off a three-hit game, one of which allowed that third run in the tenth to come in, Trea started to look more like himself offensively. In both at-bats that produced runs, he didn’t hit the ball hard, but got the job done thanks to his elite speed. In the last at-bat while he was running out the bloop to third, he got his sprint speed up to 31.4 feet per second, which is the fastest he’s been all season. When the Phillies envisioned the keys to success in 2022, with the hope of bringing the World Series trophy back to Philly, they knew they needed an elite shortstop to move Bryson Stott over to second base effectively. When they signed Turner to his 11-year $300 million deal, they imagined him to be the Turner whose slide took the sport by storm while playing for MLB’s coveted Los Angeles Dodgers; however, in his 302nd regular season game with the team, he just hasn’t reached the potential they initially envisioned for him. He’s hit .277/.329/.452 since joining the Phillies, and while that modest sample is fine, it’s not where they need him to be, nor where Turner wants to be in his career. After last year’s upset to the Mets, Trea was the one who said the Phils were, “getting themselves out,” and since that statement has walked at the highest rate in his career, and has started to play better defense, but he’s seemed to have lost that pop he once had at the plate. With only one home run on the year so far, Turner continues to adjust and will hopefully find his stride for longer than a few weeks or months. While streaky hitters do exist (hello, Kyle Schwarber), Trea’s confusion and delusion at the plate made him have a rough adjustment that many hoped would just be growing pains, with it having been his first season playing for the City of Brotherly Love. Still, it seems as though his on-and-off hitting abilities are just a part of his playing style. Let’s hope that last night’s win is the beginning of a long and successful run for Trea, because without him, the Phillies will just be carrying around $300 million dead weight.

The Phils are heading back home for a series against the Washington Nationals, opening up tomorrow around 6:45 PM. Hopefully, these two good wins, where the bats are swinging and the pitchers are throwing, can be enough to keep this momentum rolling.