After a tumultuous start to the season, it finally looks like the Philadelphia Phillies have found a groove. The team is coming off a 3-1 series win on the road against the Miami Marlins.
They return to Citizens Bank Park to face their first true test of the Don Mattingly era: the AL West-leading Sacramento A's. The A's come to Philadelphia with an 18-16 record. As their record would indicate, the team has been a bit of a mixed bag.
Far and away their best player this season, Shea Langeliers already has ten home runs on the season. The 28-year-old catcher has hit .336 with a 1.017 OPS. Luckily for the Phillies, Langeliers will most likely miss most of this series as the A's placed him on the paternity list on Monday.
They do still feature a couple of players running high batting averages. Carlos Cortes has been hitting .343 since being called up as a 28-year-old in 2025. In 2026, he's hitting .387. Former New York Met Jeff McNeil has been flourishing with Sacramento, hitting .314. His double-play partner, Jacob Wilson, is also hitting well with a .295 mark.
On the other hand, some of their usual sluggers have been struggling. Despite hitting 99 homers over the previous three seasons, Brent Rooker has gotten off to a dreadful start in 2026. He's currently 100 batting average points off his 2025 average and has a .528 OPS. Although the last time he played in CBP, he hit three homers and had seven RBI in a three-game series.
2025 Rookie of the Year winner and Lancaster, PA native Nick Kurtz has also had a slow-ish start. While he's leading the league in walks with 34, he's hitting an uninspiring .244 with five homers. He'll be looking to get back on track with his 2025 numbers.
While the A's pitching staff hasn't been anything special, the Phillies will face a tough lefty in the second game of this series. Jeffrey Springs had an amazing start to the season in his first four starts. In those four games, he allowed just four runs. He's come down to earth since, allowing 13 runs in his last three games. The Phillies have struggled against lefties, hitting just .190 with a .312 slugging percentage as a team.
Ace of the staff, Luis Severino, has had the opposite start to Spring. Severino struggled to start the season but has had two quality starts in his last two games. Against Kansas City, he threw seven innings of one-run ball, and against the Texas Rangers, he threw 6.2 innings of one-run ball. He'll open the series for the A's on Tuesday.
Before Tuesday's game, the Phillies will activate closer Jhoan Duran from the Injured List. He went down with a left oblique strain on April 18. Before the injury, he was having a great start to the 2026 campaign. He recorded five saves in his first seven games of the season. His ERA was at 1.35 when he went to the injured list.
Duran's return will be a huge boost for the bullpen. Not only is a start returning but specifically a right-handed star. Outside of Orion Kerkering and a surprising Chase Shugart, the Phillies' RHP out of the bullpen have been a mixed bag.
Their big free agent addition, Brad Keller, has a 4.30 ERA. The piece they got back for Matt Strahm, Jonathan Bowlan, has struggled with an 8.31 ERA.
The Durantula couldn't be coming back at a better time for the Phillies.
