Don Mattingly saved the Phillies’ season

Four years ago, the Philadelphia Phillies' president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, fired then-manager Joe Girardi after a 22-29 start to the season.

The team from the City of Brotherly Love then played much more inspired baseball, winning fourteen of their first sixteen games under new manager Rob Thomson, which propelled them all the way to the World Series.

Four years later, the Phillies began the 2026 season with a 9-19 record, and Dombrowski once again made a managerial change by letting Thomson go and bringing in Don Mattingly.

And it feels like Groundhog Day in Philly. Indeed, Mattingly's team completed a sweep during the rivalry weekend against the Pirates yesterday (Sunday), securing their fourth straight win.

Philadelphia now boasts a record of 15 wins to just four losses since Mattingly took the helm, allowing the Phillies to reach the .500 mark and climb to second place in the National League East—a feat that seemed impossible not so long ago.

The Atlanta Braves' lead in the division has been cut to eight games, and the final playoff spot is now just three and a half games away.

This is a remarkable turnaround, even though the Phillies have had a slightly easier schedule during this stretch, having faced the San Francisco Giants, the Miami Marlins, the Sacramento A's, the Colorado Rockies, the Boston Red Sox, and finally the Pirates.

It remains to be seen whether this season will end the same way as 2022. And it starts now, as Philadelphia takes on the Cleveland Guardians, the San Diego Padres, and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the coming days.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.