Brandon Marsh had a blistering start for the Phillies. Don Mattingly is not worried about his recent cold streak.
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After being the Phillies’ most consistent hitter for the first three months, Brandon Marsh has hit his first real slump of the season in July. In a small sample size of 12 games in the month, Marsh has a .163 batting average and .483 OPS, compared to his .297 average and .819 OPS over the whole season.
He entered Saturday hitless in his last 12 plate appearances.
Interim manager Don Mattingly isn’t concerned.
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“Obviously, everybody’s not going to just keep rolling the whole year. You’re always going to have spots,” he said. “I mean, the last trip in general, we had a few guys that struggled on the road and hit a stretch like that as a team, and it obviously didn’t look as good, but in general, Marsh is fine.”
Mattingly added that he believes Marsh might be adjusting to the higher workload that comes with the everyday role. Now that Marsh has worked his way into starting against lefties — with a .242 average — he is not getting as many days off. Mattingly said he tries to give Marsh a day off his feet whenever he can.
In the first half of 2025, a platooning Marsh started 56 games, though he also missed two weeks in that stretch with a hamstring strain. This year, he started 87 games before the All-Star break.
“For the most part, I think he’s doing fine,” Mattingly said.
Marsh said earlier this season that going through the slump he had in April 2025 — when his batting average dropped as low as .095 to start the year before he turned things around — gives him the confidence that he can navigate another skid.
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“I’ve never been hitting .090 in my life since I picked up a bat,” Marsh said earlier this year. “So seeing that was very humbling, and just seeing where I ended last year, I have that confidence and belief in myself if I go through it again, or go through a bad little stretch, that I can come out of it. And thankfully, last year was at the beginning, not the end, but definitely I learned a lot about myself in that time and leaned a lot on the guys around me.”
But Mattingly is not viewing things as anywhere near that dire.
“I don’t necessarily look at just the numbers,” he said. “I look at it, kind of see the quality of it. I can tell when guys are having good at-bats or bad at-bats or looking like they’re a little bit tired. But you’re basically looking at if they’re controlling the zone.
“In my mind, it’s like you swing at bad stuff, bad results are coming, right? It’s like you keep eating bad food, you’re going to end up in trouble. So it’s kind of that with me. It’s getting good pitches to hit, guys having good game plans, so that’s not really a number. But you can see when guys are having quality at-bats or not.”
Phillies start time pushed forward
Due to anticipated inclement weather in the area, Saturday’s Phillies game against the Mets was moved up an hour to a 3:05 p.m. first pitch.
This marked the second consecutive Phillies game to be moved earlier following the All-Star break. Thursday’s series opener against the Mets was moved up an hour due to poor air quality, and the Phillies ultimately dropped the game, 4-1, to New York.
Extra bases
Alan Rangel (0-2, 4.19 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday’s series finale against Mets right-hander Nolan McLean (6-6, 3.52).
