PHILADELPHIA — The seventh-inning at-bat started with two pitches out of the zone, and Bryce Harper did not chase. He waited, the bases loaded in a one-run game, then took a strike and fouled off a pitch before grounding out on a changeup.It was unideal, but the Philadelphia Phillies could have few quibbles about Harper’s performances. Three innings earlier, he sent a ball deep to center to dig the club out of a two-run hole en route to a 3-2 win against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday. He is one of only three hitters in the Phillies’ starting lineup with an OBP over .300. The Phillies’ chances to score, bases loaded or not, seemingly rely on Harper and those he’s surrounded by at the top of the lineup.“I don’t think, over a course of a season, it’s super sustainable,” Harper said of the Phillies’ offense. “Obviously, we’ve done a good job of late. Our starting pitching has been lights out, and our bullpen has been very good. So obviously, as an offense, we want to score more runs. And we need to score more runs. We’ve just got to keep going, keep plugging.”This has been the refrain for a while now. And the Phillies’ offense, 60 games into the season, has yet to find an effective solution beyond leaning on Harper, Brandon Marsh and Kyle Schwarber. Now, home from a weeklong West Coast swing, the club’s 3-2 win looked about the same as what they showed in Southern California: little offense, effective pitching.There is so much to be addressed, that players are trying to address, in the latter half of the lineup. The Phillies are now the first team since the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics to feature a lineup with four regulars with a sub-.300 OBP (Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, Trea Turner, Adolis García). J.T. Realmuto and Justin Crawford are not far off being qualified, so the Phillies’ typical lineup really features six hitters with a sub-.300 OBP. The formula of leaning on Marsh (.332/.362/.482), Harper (.262/.363/.519) and Schwarber (.231/.349/.588) has had relative success despite this.It is not exactly pretty or thrilling, but the Phillies are back to winning. They are two games over .500 with five wins in their last seven games and have the best record in one-run games in the majors (13-5).“Sometimes you blow a team out,” said Harper, who hit his 377th career homer, moving him past Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk and into a tie for 81st. “Sometimes you’re going to have to fight and win a one-run ballgame.”Blowouts have been hard to come by. The Phillies have not scored five or more runs in two weeks, and their average runs per game (3.88) ranks in the bottom five in the majors. They’ve scored four or fewer runs in 12 straight games — their longest such streak since 2017.And the bottom five hitters in the Phillies’ lineup combined to go 2-for-17 with a walk and three double plays Tuesday. In the absence of those players doing the big things well, the Phillies point to little things in hopes they are the beginning of something better.“A lot of good stuff,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “Bohm’s play (on the rundown) there in the eighth — heads-up. … (I) thought Adolis was better tonight. Good swings, lines out to center, gets to a ball in, so there’s good signs there.”García’s 106.4 mph lineout to center was among the hardest-hit of the 130-plus balls he’s put in play this season. The last time he hit a ball that hard was May 6. Then he singled in the next at-bat before chasing hard on a strikeout in the seventh. It’s a work in progress. He came in to hit during Monday’s off day — a rarity for any hitter — and came in early Tuesday, too.“I know he’s struggling,” Mattingly said. “I think everybody knows that. But the fact he’s wanting to get better — and we need him, if we can get to his upside, (to have) a better team.”García is only one part of the issues further down the lineup. Bohm grounded into two double plays. Stott also grounded into a double play and struck out twice. But the Phillies will have to look for silver linings where they can get them: a successful Crawford bunt, working more at-bats, better decision-making from García. And, of course, solid performances from those at the top of the lineup and efficient starting pitching — because a win would not have been realistic without them.For now, the Phillies will continue to search for answers.Jun 3, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms