Zack Wheeler's solid six innings, Bryson Stott's homer highlight Phillies' fourth straight victory under Don Mattingly

MIAMI - When the ball disappeared into the bullpen, Bryce Harper walked onto the field and applauded.

It was an appropriate reaction. Bryson Stott‘s three-run homer in the seventh inning here Friday night gave the Phillies a five-run lead, and they held on for dear life in a 6-5 cuticle-cutter over the Marlins.

The Phillies are 4-0, albeit against the lowly Giants and young Marlins, since they fired Rob Thomson and installed Don Mattingly as interim manager. But 4-0 is 4-0, and Mattingly Magic might be real.

But there was a deeper meaning behind the round of applause from Harper.

Nobody with the Phillies knows Stott longer or better. Harper grew up with Stott in Las Vegas. He's like the second baseman's older brother. And it's possible that nobody empathizes more with Stott's early-season struggles.

Stott is making better contact this season (43.7% hard-hit rate) than at any point in his career. But entering the weekend, he had only four extra-base hits, none of which were homers, and a .534 OPS.

It was surely cathartic, then, when he stroked a game-tying triple in the opener of a doubleheader Thursday. And it must've felt even better when he crushed a left-on-left homer into the right-field bullpen against Marlins reliever Cade Gibson.

Stott gave the Phillies a 6-1 lead behind Zack Wheeler, who dazzled in his second start back from thoracic outlet syndrome. Wheeler gave up one run in six innings and struck out eight batters.

The Marlins scored three runs in the eighth inning against reliever Jonathan Bowlan and one in the ninth against fill-in closer Brad Keller. But with the tying run on second base, Keller got Xavier Edwards to line out to center field.

Six nights earlier, Wheeler made his grand return and came out firing in Atlanta. His first six pitches were all fastballs - and five registered at least 95 mph, faster than any pitch he threw in five minor league tune-ups.

Wheeler lacked that power in his second start.

It hardly mattered, though, that Wheeler's heater peaked at 94.7 mph in the first inning and sat mostly at 92-93. He dipped into his index of secondary pitches, throwing his splitter to lefties, his sweeper to righties, and introducing his curveball the second time through the order.

And he mixed them all better than a NutriBullet.

The hardest-hit ball against Wheeler came in the first inning. Otto Lopez smashed what appeared to be a solo homer off leaping Justin Crawford's glove in straightaway center field. But a replay review revealed that the ball hit the top of the wall, then Crawford's glove before caroming over the fence and was ruled a ground-rule double.

Lopez scored anyway one batter later on Edwards' two-out double down the first-base line.

But Wheeler set down 16 of the next 19 batters, enabling the Phillies' bats to heat up in their second time through the order against Marlins flamethrower Eury Pérez.

Entering the game, the Phillies were batting .249 and slugging .398 against heaters. And Pérez has some of the highest octane. He dials up his fastball to nearly triple digits and holds it there. Nine of his 96 pitches topped 99 mph.

Pérez muted the Phillies for three innings. But they took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on Brandon Marsh's one-out single, Stott's two-out walk, an RBI single from Alec Bohm, and Justin Crawford's RBI double.

The Phillies added on with another two-out rally in the seventh inning. After Marsh got hit on the elbow by a 91-mph sinker, Edmundo Sosa ripped an RBI single. And then Stott broke it open with his homer.

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This story was originally published May 1, 2026 at 8:35 PM.