The Philadelphia Phillies Haven’t Done This Since 2015

2015 feels like it wasn’t that long ago, but it’s been six years. To refresh your memory, “Uptown Funk” was the number-one song, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the number-one movie, and Barack Obama was still president. In Major League Baseball, the Cubs still hadn’t won a World Series, J.T. Realmuto was a Miami Marlin playing his first full season, and Bryce Harper was a Washington National.

The 2015 Philadelphia Phillies were, to put it nicely, a disaster. They barely avoided losing 100 games, finishing the season 63-99. In June, field manager Ryne Sandberg resigned and was replaced by coach Pete Mackanin, who had previously served as interim manager for the Pirates and Reds after they’d fired managers mid-season. Ruben Amaro Jr. was dismissed from his position as GM in September. In short, 2015 was not a good time to be a Phillies fan, player, or employee.

So why the trip down unpleasant memory lane?

The Phillies did something on Tuesday night that they haven’t done since 2015.

After winning the series opener against the Cubs 13-3 on Monday, the Phillies again upended them on Tuesday night, outscoring them 15-10. The second game of the four-game series included a first-inning grand slam by Andrew McCutchen, Rhys Hoskins’ 20th home run of the season, and Bryce Harper’s first multi-run homer since September 2020.

Neither of these two wins is Philadelphia’s highest-scoring game of the season, either; they put up 17 runs against the Cincinnati Reds on June 1. It was their highest-scoring game since they beat the Marlins 20-1 on April 7, 2018.

According to Matt Gelb of The Athletic, the Phillies haven’t won back-to-back double-digit games since 2015:

Ironically, Jake Arrieta won the NL Cy Young Award that year. He’s the starting pitcher the Phillies lit up on Tuesday night on their way to their second consecutive double-digit victory. He’s also a former Phillie, in between his first and second stints in Chicago.

In fairness to the Phillies, they haven’t been very good over the last decade. Since winning the division in 2011, the Phillies have only been a .500 team in two seasons, and never over a winning team. Even this season, Tuesday night’s win was just their seventh game in which they scored in the double digits.

The Phillies won the division five years in a row between 2007-2011, but haven’t even placed second since. This win puts them at 41-42, with a chance to get back over .500 on Wednesday. Unfortunately, every time they’ve clawed their way back up to .500 this season, they promptly lose a few games and sink right back down.

The Cubs are on an absolutely mindboggling losing streak, now 11 games in a row. Phillies fans might be frustrated with their team this season (and this decade), but their favorite team’s longest losing streak is four games.