As Phillies win streak reaches 7, maybe it’s time to reconsider some assumptions

PHILADELPHIA — They packed more people into this ballpark than they have all season — maybe because there was a Kyle Schwarber bobblehead for all fans in attendance — but also because it was a Friday night in August, and the Phillies are doing it again.It’s not just winning seven straight, the latest being a back-and-forth walk-off win over the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s winning games they would have lost a few weeks ago. It’s a chorus of boos after three dispiriting at-bats by the highest-paid players in the lineup, followed by the unexpected calmness of their beleaguered first baseman.There is no way to measure confidence. It manifests in big and small ways. Alec Bohm took a strike with runners on the corners in the 10th inning; he might have swung at the first pitch a few weeks ago. He took two more pitches, both balls but close to the strike zone. He swung through a fastball down the middle. He fouled another.He then drove reliever pitch of the at-bat, a hanging slider, to deep center field. His two-run triple called game, 7-6.

BOHM SENDS US HOME! pic.twitter.com/ec9jBqKEga

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 22, 2026

“I mean, it’s definitely easier to just be a little more relaxed in there and just not try to do too much,” Bohm said. “Just be more disciplined and a little bit more patient. All those things, I think, come a little easier when you’ve seen some success recently. You’re not chasing results and all those things.”This is the paradox of these Phillies. No one wants to believe too hard because they’ve been heartbroken again and again in Octobers past. No winning streak of any length means a thing until it does.There are still 33 games to play in this season. That’s 20 percent of the schedule. The first 129 games have led to one conclusion about these Phillies: No one knows anything.Ten days ago, they were 9 1/2 games back of the Atlanta Braves. They are now four games back. Those two teams play seven more times in September.“It’s going to be fun, going down the stretch and trying to catch up to them,” Phillies lefty Jesús Luzardo said. “I’m fully sold that this team can go as far as we want. We just need to play the brand of baseball that we know we can and that we’ve been playing. Continue to scratch and claw every bit of the way.”If anything, the seven-game winning streak prompts some reconsiderations.Start with Bohm. He might epitomize the perceived staleness that overcame the Phillies; it is — mostly — the same guys being asked to push the same boulder uphill. The Phillies could have made more dramatic changes to the roster over the winter. They could have cast aside Bohm several times in the previous years. At the trade deadline earlier this month, they rearranged the infield to accommodate Luis Arraez, and bumped Bryce Harper to right field to keep Bohm in the picture.Dave Dombrowski on his conversation with Bryce HarperJayson StarkHe has hit .371/.416/.529 in August. It’s one of the best months of his career. He has meaningfully improved his bat speed, according to the league’s tracking metrics. Bohm is hitting more balls in the air, and swinging and missing at a lower rate this month than in any month of his seven-year odyssey.Bohm, for the season, is at or below replacement level. He is a free agent at season’s end. He is probably going through the final stages of a career in Philadelphia that is marked by extremes. But, in some ways, Bohm now embodies the adjustments the Phillies have made as a team this month.They have scored 104 runs in 19 August games. They have won 14 of those games.“We just keep having at-bats, right?” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. “Keep going. Games get hard to win, but I like the fact that we’re kind of passing the baton. Just keep having good at-bats and keep putting pressure on them as much as we can.”Maybe, then, Bohm is a lesson for even the harshest skeptics. By now everyone has a decent idea of who he is. Of what these Phillies are. The core of this roster has been scrutinized and adored and despised for years. It is a vicious cycle, and it should have led to some conclusions by now.Then, Bohm has a few weeks like this. Then, the Phillies win seven straight. Then, a team that not even two weeks ago looked old and tired is gifted with another burst of energy.Alec Bohm, center, has injected new life into the Phillies’ lineup. (Bill Streicher / Reuters)They won a game Friday in which their starter failed to complete six innings. The top three hitters were 0-for-12 with three walks. The bullpen blew a lead in the eighth inning. Alex McFarlane, a rookie pitcher, was asked to navigate the 10th inning and allowed only the placed runner to score. He started an inning-ending 1-4-3 double play.“A lot of times you’ll see a guy throw that ball away,” Mattingly said, “but he was no-panic.”A few weeks ago, maybe that ball flutters into center field. Maybe that ninth inning — when Schwarber, Trea Turner and Harper looked so meek that many of the 44,802 people in attendance, the largest figure for a regular-season game at Citizens Bank Park since April 20, 2025, voiced their displeasure — leaves an imprint on the rest of the night.“We weren’t happy either, you know?” Bohm said. “I mean it’s just a lot of fun to play in front of a packed house and a back-and-forth game like that. … It’s when baseball gets really fun.”The Phillies have a way of making everyone work for that fun. There is one thing this town has not experienced in more than a decade — an honest race for the division in September.The Phillies have not seen the Braves since April 26. That was Rob Thomson’s final game as manager. It was a day that featured a starting outfield of Felix Reyes, Dylan Moore and Adolis García.Things have … changed. Maybe the Phillies — 10 1/2 games back in April and 2 games back in July, then 9 1/2 games back earlier this month — have forced a fight for the National League East.“I mean, anything’s possible, right?” Bohm said.He would know.