CHICAGO — Hours after learning he would start at third base for the National League in the All-Star Game, Alec Bohm made the kind of moves that would allow him to leap forward in 2024, leading the league in RBI and helping the Phillies to baseball’s best record through July 4.
The same goes for fellow All-Star Trea Turner, who scored 93 points higher than last year and was able to engineer rallies against Bohm in the sixth and eighth innings.
Bohm came on in the top of the sixth inning with no outs and the Phillies trailing by a run. Turner had just hit an infield single and Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga worked his way up with a splitter to the outside corner. The next pitch was a low-and-in, 89 mph fastball and Bohm didn’t miss it, driving it to left-center field for a 415-foot home run that briefly put the Phillies ahead.
The Cubs tied the game against Matt Strahm with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but Turner and Bohm came right back with singles to center to start the eighth. They both got on wild pitches, with Edmundo Sosa driving in Turner with a sacrifice fly to shallow center and the struggling Whit Merrifield coming through with an RBI single on the other side of the field to score Bohm for huge insurance in a 5-3 victory.
The Phillies have taken the series and are now 57-29 on the season, having won four of five games since Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber went on the injured list on the same day.
Bohm is hitting .299, leads the majors with 28 doubles and has 11 home runs and 70 RBI. He easily defeated Manny Machado to start at third base in the Midsummer Classic, claiming 70 percent of the fan vote.
Bohm earned this honor with difficulty and deservedly.
“It means a lot because I saw where he started,” manager Rob Thomson said Wednesday afternoon. “I saw his first spring training out of the draft. When you see him then, when you see him now, he’s a completely different guy, a completely different player, a completely different person. I’ve been a development guy my whole life and when you see those things happening, it’s really refreshing.”
Zack Wheeler struggled through six innings, spending most of his night outside the stretch, but limited the damage to two runs, both of which came on doubles by the light-hitting Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. Wheeler eventually retired Crow-Armstrong with a lineout to center to end his night with 102 pitches.
The Phillies star player made a no-decision and is now 9-4 with a 2.74 ERA after 17 starts as he strives for his first Cy Young Award.
The Cubs scored the game’s first run in the second inning before Rafael Marchan answered with a solo home run in the third inning. Somehow, Marchan has hit five home runs in 102 plate appearances as a major-leaguer, compared to eight home runs in 1,673 plate appearances as a minor-leaguer.
The Phillies catching duo of Marchan and Garrett Stubbs have performed admirably at the plate as JT Realmuto has recovered from meniscus surgery on June 12. Phillies catchers have batted .263 with a .461 slugging percentage with Realmuto out. Stubbs led off the Phils’ scoring in the opener with a two-run double.
The Phillies are 18-7-5 in their 30 series and will go for their 10th sweep of the season on Thursday afternoon at 1:20 p.m. ET. National League Pitcher of the Month Cristopher Sanchez, who is on a streak of 16 consecutive scoreless innings since signing his four-year extension, will face Jameson Taillon.