A month ago, Otto Kemp was making himself undeniable up in Triple-A Lehigh Valley. There just wasn't a clear spot for him to progress into the majors.
Then Bryce Harper went on the Injured List, the Phillies had an opening, and the big-league call came in for Kemp last week.
The 25-year-old infielder has kept undeniable since, but for a different reason now: He's making it impossible for the Phillies to send him back down.
A few days after Kemp's 3-for-5 performance at the plate helped rally the Phils to a badly needed win over the Cubs in extras, he went 2-for-4 in Friday's shutout of Toronto and then 4-for-5 in Sunday's blowout to close out the series and the three-game sweep of the Blue Jays.
Through eight games so far, he's slashing .345/.387/.379 with a double, a walk, five runs scored, and four runs knocked in, which all coincided with the Phillies having snapped out of a slump to win five of their past six at home.
He had only been at Citizens Bank Park for a week, but right away, Kemp became a new fan favorite in South Philly, and just the kind of spark the club seemed to have needed after stumbling through the end of May and early June.
"A lot of energy," manager Rob Thomson said of what Kemp has brought to the Phillies' clubhouse following Sunday's 11-4 win over the Blue Jays. "He's had great at-bats, really has, and I've talked about it before, whenever a guy comes up for the first time, it just creates some energy in the clubhouse because guys are excited for him."
He's justified it.
Kemp singled in each of his first four plate appearances on Sunday, which all led to runs scored for the Phils as they piled on. In the fourth inning, in particular, he got a hold of an 0-2 breaking pitch way low and outside, yet managed to loft it into left field anyway to bring Max Kepler and J.T. Realmuto across for a 4-0 lead.
Still only a few games in, the major league stage hasn't proven too big for Kemp, and the right-handed bat has settled into an early groove of covering the plate and getting on base for the mostly veteran hitters around him.
The results have been a booming 37 runs across this past week's six-game homestand. All according to plan.
"They've been really good with me," Kemp told the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast of the Phillies' clubhouse after Sunday's final out. "They've been teaching me when I need to be taught, giving me a hard time at some points, just having fun with it. That's what it's about, so these older guys are really taking the reins and I'm just trying to be a table-setter for these guys."
Which has helped all the bats get surging again.
But then there's the tricky part on the horizon.
Kemp has split his starts between first and third base so far. At some point, Harper will come back to take his regular spot at first, which for Kemp only leaves third, where Alec Bohm is not so easily removed from.
Eventually, health is going to make the available at-bats shrink, but so long as Kemp is producing the way he has, the Phillies will have to keep him around somehow – maybe in the outfield?
It's just part of the Phillies' new spark being undeniable now.
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports