Turner Takes Skenes Deep.
The Phillies Roll Into The Holiday.

PHILADELPHIA — There are nights when a box score tells you everything, and Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park was one of them: Phillies 10, Pirates 6, and Paul Skenes — the reigning Cy Young winner, the most feared arm in the National League — tagged for a career-high seven earned runs.

Trea Turner did the heaviest lifting. In the second inning, Skenes hung a breaking ball, and Turner didn't miss it, lashing a three-run homer to left that scored Justin Crawford and Gabriel Rincones and blew the game open early. When the best pitcher in baseball makes a mistake, good hitters make him pay. Turner has been one of the best hitters in baseball for weeks now — he's batting .350 (21-for-60) over his last 14 games — and right now he's making everybody pay.

Brandon Marsh joined the party an inning later, taking Skenes deep for a solo shot, his 15th of the season, as he keeps building his own All-Star case. Alec Bohm chipped in as the Phillies piled on against a pitcher who simply doesn't have nights like this. Seven earned runs. Skenes had never allowed that many in his career. The Phillies did it in a ballpark full of fans who've spent all summer learning to expect exactly this kind of thing.

Schwarber Hit 30 Before July Was Official

That's the part worth sitting with as we head into the Fourth of July weekend. This lineup is deep, it's hot, and it keeps finding different heroes. Kyle Schwarber set the tone on Sunday, when his two-run shot in the seventh beat the Mets 5-4 and made him the first player in the majors to reach 30 home runs this season. Thirty homers before the calendar flipped to July. My dad and I used to circle guys who hit 30 in a season. Schwarber did it in three months.

Sunday it was Schwarber. Wednesday it was Turner and Marsh. Tomorrow it might be somebody wearing a number you have to look up. That's what good teams look like in July.

None of this erases the questions. The rotation still has a hole, and the front office is reportedly shopping for depth ahead of the deadline. Winning cures a lot, but it doesn't cure everything, and the Phillies know a hot June doesn't hang banners.

But down here in South Jersey, where half the backyards this weekend will have the game on a radio next to the grill, it's hard not to enjoy what this team is doing. They're beating up on aces. They're chasing first place. And they're giving this region the best possible soundtrack for a holiday weekend: baseball that matters, played by a team that believes every night is winnable.

Fire up the grill. The Phillies already brought the fireworks.

Based on reporting from CBS Sports, NBC Sports Philadelphia, MLB.com, and the Associated Press. The Neighborhood Gazette covers South Jersey at neighborhoodgazette.town.