The Phillies were riding high entering a weekend set with the Milwaukee Brewers, as winners of four series in a row and owners of the best record in the National League.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, the surging Brewers represented a tougher challenge than the Atlanta Braves and a trio of last-place clubs the Phillies had beaten down. With Bryce Harper (elbow) unavailable all weekend, things were even trickier.
In Friday night's series opener, Taijuan Walker labored through four innings and Brewers star Christian Yelich outpaced the entire Phillies offense on his own, slugging a pair of homers in a 6-2 Brewers victory. Jesús Luzardo took the mound on Saturday afternoon and followed up the best 11-start stretch of his career with the worst start he has ever made, allowing a dozen runs in what became a horrid 17-7 loss.
Then came Sunday's series finale, and the red-hot Ranger Suárez continued to look strong. The left-hander had tossed six innings of one-run ball, but the first batter he faced in the seventh inning hit a double that Weston Wilson likely should have caught in left field. Orion Kerkering entered the game and got the job done to end the inning — except Trea Turner booted a routine ground ball with two outs. The tying run scored, and the following batter laced a two-run double to right field. The Phillies should have been out of the inning with their 2-1 lead intact; instead they suddenly trailed 4-2. The Brewers eventually pushed an additional run across in the ninth inning against Jordan Romano, handing the Phillies a 5-2 loss to complete the sweep. Here is what stood out from an ugly weekend of baseball from the Phillies, who are now 36-23:
Rhys Hoskins leaves a mark in second return to Philadelphia
When Hoskins came back to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since the end of his 10-year run with the Phillies organization last June, he received multiple rousing ovations… until he took Zack Wheeler deep, at which point he became just another adversary.
Hoskins received a few more nice cheers from the crowd in his second return, but it all felt a bit more normal this weekend. Case in point: when Hoskins blasted a three-run shot to left-center field against Luzardo in the first inning on Saturday afternoon, he was met with a chorus of boos:
Rhys Hoskins 3-run homer against his former team 💥
📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/Z9WBsdiQ0j— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 31, 2025
After allowing the first four batters he faced to score in the opening frame, Luzardo was in a 4-0 hole when a combination of poor execution on his part and lackluster defense in the fourth inning ignited another Milwaukee rally. So, the crowd was even more restless when Hoskins came to bat in the fourth inning. Shortly after Phillies manager Rob Thomson had been ejected for arguing a balk called on Luzardo, Hoskins stepped to the plate with the Brewers suddenly leading 8-0 and two runners on base.
As if things were not already out of hand, Hoskins teed off once more, putting the Brewers up 11-0 and devastating a capacity crowd:
What a homecoming for Rhys Hoskins!
His 2nd home run of the day gives him 6 RBI 🤯 pic.twitter.com/z8C4EP2ezt— MLB (@MLB) May 31, 2025
After a very disappointing debut season with the Brewers in 2024 — not entirely surprising as he came off a torn ACL which forced him to miss the entirety of the prior season — Hoskins has been stellar for Milwaukee so far in 2025, one of the key pieces of a surging offense. Hoskins was such a valuable component of Phillies lineups because of his valuable blend of plate discipline and power, and he has found it again for the Brewers.
There has seemingly been plenty of debate recently regarding whether or not the Phillies should trade for Hoskins. While he is the exact type of hitter they need, perhaps it would be wise to hold off on those discussions until the Brewers have any reason to move him — or the Phillies have an opening at a position he can play.
Brewers go with an unconventional pitching tactic — then abandon it
Before veteran left-hander José Quintana took the mound on Sunday, the Phillies were set to face young right-handers Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick on Friday and Saturday. But the Brewers made late changes before both games. On Friday, lefty DL Hall threw three no-hit innings to open the game for Milwaukee before handing the baton to Priester, who was excellent for six innings to finish the game.
On Saturday, the Brewers made a late change from Patrick to another left-hander, Rob Zastryzny, who appeared primed to open the game for Milwaukee. Thomson shuffled his lineup less than an hour after it was posted, moving Bryson Stott back to the top and essentially using his standard lineup against right-handed pitching. But with Harper still out of the lineup, Milwaukee seemingly opted against it and reverted back to the initial plan of starting Patrick:
The thinking on this was quite simple. Brewers planned on Bryce Harper being in the lineup; thus, Rob Z starting. When the lineup came out and he wasn’t in there, Pat Murphy called Rob Thomson to tell him they were going with Patrick.
— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) May 31, 2025
Patrick ended up cruising for Milwaukee, only scattering five hits and two runs across six innings. Zastryzny took over in the seventh inning with a 17-2 lead.
Milwaukee is a team that likes to seek any marginal advantages, and last season they used left-hander Jared Koenig as an opener in the first two games of a series in Philadelphia, maximizing their number of times putting a lefty on Harper and Kyle Schwarber at the top of the lineup. Koening retired seven of the eight hitters he faced in that pair of outings.
While most teams will not attack Harper and Schwarber this aggressively — Schwarber's unfathomable dominance of left-handed pitching in 2025 may play a part in this as well — it is an interesting preview of sorts when it comes to how teams might try to plan for the Phillies in potential postgames games, where every single matchup is magnified.
Odds and ends
Some additional notes from this series:
• It is difficult to quantify just how brutal Luzardo's start was on Saturday. But I'll do my best: with his line of 3.1 innings pitched, 12 hits and 12 earned runs, his season-long ERA ballooned from 2.15 to 3.58. It was 11 starts of Cy Young-caliber pitching, turned into a just a solid dozen outings with one horrifying turn of the rotation.
• Between Luzardo's disastrous outing, a spent bullpen and José Ruiz surrendering five runs in one inning of work, things were so out of hand that Wilson did not just pitch, but he took down a pair of innings. He received a hearty round of applause after working two scoreless innings.
Weston Wilson throws a 14-pitch shutout inning despite subpar velocity and a questionable extension to the plate.@TJStats pic.twitter.com/BIpPVThNH7
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) May 31, 2025
The Phillies actually strung together some hits in the bottom of the ninth inning to lose by the slightly-more-respectable score of 17-7, and the fans still in attendance enjoyed it quite a bit, making plenty of noise in the final frame. It may have been somewhat sarcastic, but was still amusing.
• While Harper missed the entire series, Thomson indicated on Sunday morning that progress had been made. Perhaps Harper will be back in the lineup on Tuesday.
Up next: The Phillies will have Monday off before embarking on a six-game road swing, beginning with three contests against the Toronto Blue Jays.
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