Is it “Mattingly Magic” or simply reverting to “normal?”

“I think we were all just waiting for that ball to drop, waiting for something to happen,” Harper said. “If Topper was going to get fired or he wasn’t, it was just kind of, ‘We need to get over this hump and get through this,’ whatever that looked like. So as a team, I think it’s just coming out, playing our game, understanding that we didn’t play well the first couple weeks of the season.

April’s behind us. We’ve got to step forward and understand that we’re stacking days and playing better and just keep it going, no matter where we’re at, what’s happening in the game or anything. Just stack the days and be where we want to be at the end.” Perhaps it’s less *magic,* and more the return of outstanding starting pitching. Here is how Phils starters have fared over the past week:

• Jesus Luzardo vs. Giants: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks
• Cristopher Sanchez vs. Giants: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 Ks
• Bullpen Game
• Zack Wheeler at Miami: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 Ks
• Andrew Painter at Miami: 5 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 7 Ks
• Luzardo at Miami: 6.1 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 Ks
• Aaron Nola at Miami: 6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 Ks Over the past week, the Phillies piled up 45 strikeouts against 8 walks and gave up a total of 6 earned runs over 37 innings. That’s a 1.46 ERA. That kind of pitching will make any manager look better. Starting pitching was always supposed to be this team’s strength. That they were so ineffective through the first 28 games was a genuine surprise. Over the past week, the starting five finally began to put together the kinds of performances we were expecting of them. Were Phils pitchers simply not as dialed in under Thomson? Did they focus more after the managerial change? Did Mattingly unlock some mechanical adjustment that helped them throw more strikes and fewer meatballs over the middle of the plate? The schedule also provided some needed relief. While the Phillies’ 12 straight games against the Cubs and Braves were challenging, one of the reasons those teams were so “red hot” was in part because they were facing a struggling Phillies team. That being said, there was an obvious drop off in competition against a Giants team that has scored the fewest runs in the Majors, and a Miami team that is obviously less talented than the Phils. And while the upcoming schedule doesn’t feature a slew of cupcakes, there are three winnable series in a row coming up.
• 3 vs. the Athletics (18-16) at home
• 3 vs. the Rockies (14-22) at home
• 3 vs. the Red Sox (14-21) in Boston It’s a nice respite ahead of another jump in competition thereafter that will hopefully allow the Phillies to creep close to .500 by the time they leave Beantown. The defense has also improved over the last week. It’s still not great, but for a team tied for the 7th-most errors (19), in dead last by Defensive Runs Saved (-24) and tied for 26th in Outs Above Average (-10), the Phillies made their first error of the Mattingly Era on Sunday, his seventh game. Are the players more dialed in? Focusing more? Doing extra drills? Mattingly has talked about stressing more fundamental play, but it’s hard to imagine Thomson didn’t also stress playing fundamentally sound baseball. At the end of the day, the Phillies are winning games for a multitude of reasons. Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm are suddenly contributing at the bottom of the lineup. Bryce Harper remains hot. The starters have been great, and the bullpen, although shaky at times, has largely held up and will welcome closer Jhoan Duran back to the ‘pen on Tuesday. There have been fewer baserunning gaffes, too. It’s hard to ascribe the turnaround to any one thing that Mattingly has done, but perhaps the dismissal of Thomson has had the desired, nebulous effect of re-focusing the team on playing better baseball.