How Can the Philadelphia Phillies Gain Back Lost Momentum After Dreadful Stretch?

After an extremely hot start to the 2025 season, the Philadelphia Phillies have started to plateau a bit in the last two weeks. While their 37-25 overall record shows they have been prolific in general, their 1-6 record across the last seven games says otherwise for their recent production. After being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers and losing two of three to the Toronto Blue Jays, there is definitely something that needs to change in their approach.

The most intriguing part about all this is that the team has remained pretty healthy all things considered, with Aaron Nola being the only player on the injured list, alongside the 80-game suspension for José Alvarado and recent paternity leave for Zack Wheeler. While these are most definitely some notable names, they are likely not the sole reason for the team falling apart in the past week and a half.

With this stretch pushing the Phillies into second place in the National League East standings, there definitely needs to start to be some changes being made if they continue to trend in this direction. The question that arises with that notion is, how do they fix the issues they currently have?

What Do the Phillies Need to Do to Turn Things Around?

The first step to this process needs to be figuring out the pitching staff and solidifying it for a little bit. The changes that continue to be made to the rotation are becoming nearly detrimental to the staff as a whole, with Taijuan Walker being put in the bullpen in favor of Mick Abel recently, alongside other moves to change up the group. Continually changing things and moving pieces around is fine early in the season, but the summer stretch is here, and by now, there should be some level of consistency being found in the starting lineup.

Unfortunately, one of the other issues that has arisen in recent starts is the form of Jesús Luzardo, who has been shelled in both of his last two starts, allowing 20 earned runs total in 5.2 innings pitched. This becomes a major concern if it happens again in a third start, and while taking him out of the roster entirely is not an option, finding a way to get him back on track for the later portion of the season needs to be a focus of the staff in its entirety.

The offense has not been a major concern during this span, as while it has been somewhat inconsistent, they have scored 24 runs in those seven games, around three and a half runs a game. So, pitching should be the emphasis over the next few weeks, and then long-term, they can key in on finding the right lineup to produce runs on a day-to-day basis.