Phillips grows up diehard Phillies fan, grows into solid pitcher

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tyler Phillips missed the 2008 World Series parade, stuck in grade school while Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and the rest of the Phillies enjoyed that celebratory ride down Broad Street.

No matter how much an 11-year-old Phillips tried to convince mom, she said no, school came first.

“I begged her,” Phillips said, laughing. “She’s always been the academics one. My dad’s always been the baseball one. He went to the parade. That’s one I still have to try to figure out how to forgive them for that, for not bringing me.”

Maybe the next time the Phillies win the World Series, Phillips can wave to his parents from a parade float.

The South Jersey kid raised on summer nights at Citizens Bank Park no longer roots for the Phillies from afar.

Like childhood favorite Cole Hamels, Phillips is one of them now.

Those aren’t Phillies T-shirts or a replica jersey pulled from storage from his childhood home in Lumberton, New Jersey, that Phillips wears at the ballpark. That’s a real No. 48 jersey. That’s a real big league locker, not far from where Aaron Nola, Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm dress.

When he takes the mound, the 26-year-old Phillips soaks in the scene of another packed house, the kind of crowd he was part of as a Philly fan.

“I just loved coming here,” he said.

With a perfect record in his first month in the majors, he loves pitching for the Phillies even more. Phillips has been phenomenal in four July outings, the last three as a starter highlighted by his four-hit shutout Saturday against Cleveland.

“I was kind of thinking, I’ve been efficient but I wouldn’t be shocked if they just took me out and said let’s get one of our guys in there and finish this game off,” Phillips said.

With an 8-0 lead and a pitch count in the 80s, manager Rob Thomson instead let Phillips finish the ninth. The rookie stepped out of the dugout to a roaring ovation from 44,356 fans. They went wild as if they had witnessed a playoff clincher when Phillips retired Angel Martinez on a flyball to left to complete the gem.

“My body has never felt that before,” Phillips said. “You get chills, you’re trying not to laugh. You want to tear up, choke up. I don’t know what was going on. I felt like I was able to throw 100 miles per hour at that point and all I wanted to do was sit those guys back down on the bench.”

Phillips improved to 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA and became the first Phillies rookie to toss a shutout since Zach Eflin in 2016. Phillips has won all three big-league starts, giving the Phillies an unexpected second-half boost in place of injured starters Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull.

In his big-league debut July 7 at Atlanta, Phillips struck out seven in four innings of relief.

After getting swept by the Yankees, the scuffling Phillies need Phillips to come through Friday when he starts at Seattle in the opener of a 10-game trip.

He’s kept his cool in his two home starts, probably because Phillips had been on the ballpark’s field before. Phillips and one of his youth baseball teams once were feted at Citizens Bank Park over a decade ago, and he got to meet 2003 All-Star Randy Wolf.

“I still have a hat with his autograph on it. I thought that was so cool,” Phillips said. “My dad has a picture, I’m like front and center. I’m wide-eyed, stars in my eyes, like, oh crap, that’s Randy Wolf.”

Phillips threw his first professional shutout against Cleveland, the peak of a career path that started nine years ago when he was drafted in the 16th round by the Texas Rangers. His minor league career was pedestrian at best, and the Rangers let him go in 2021.

He signed with the Phillies later that year, and again, his immediate results in the minors didn’t show signs he would yield dazzling outings so early in the big leagues. Phillips missed all of 2022 following Tommy John surgery. He went 7–3 this season with a 4.89 ERA with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. OK stuff, but numbers that didn’t necessarily demand the Phillies give him a look.

Cruising with the best record in baseball, the Phillies hit their first hitch earlier this month when injuries in the bullpen and then to starters Walker and Turnbull forced the Phillies to give Phillips a shot.

He’s kept his poise, and his control of the strike zone is the biggest secret of his success. Phillips walked just two batters in his first 25 innings and allowed just eight hits over his last two starts.

“I still think I need to earn every day,” he said. “It’s been three starts here. They’ve gone well for me. But I’m still young. I’ve been here for a few weeks and there’s a lot of years in this clubhouse."

Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said Phillips’ early hot streak has come because he “doesn’t let the moment bother him.”

“He’s kind of got that bulldog mentality,” Schwarber said. “You see him coming up the steps and not looking at anyone in the eyes. He’s really intent on what he’s going to do out there on the mound.”

Added Thomson, “He’s a great guy, until he starts pitching.”

Phillips is caught talking, muttering, cursing to himself between pitches, a habit he can’t stop now, even if family members have told him to cover his mouth on the mound.

“It’s just being a perfectionist,” he said. “That’s just how I stay locked in. Off the field, I’m pretty relaxed, pretty chill, quiet. Once I cross that line I just see red, it’s time to go. I’m ready to kick everyone’s ass.”

Phillips can relive some of his childhood memories through his 3-year-old son Frank. At a recent postgame family day, Phillips introduced his son to everyone’s favorite Phillie, the Phanatic. Frank took his hacks at wiffle balls with a fat-barreled toy bat while dad dutifully collected the base hits and placed balls back on the tee.

“He just wants to run around on the field and the bases,” he said.

Phillips meant his son, of course, though the days when Phillips could only dream of doing the same when he was a kid on the field that Howard and Harper have called home don’t feel like so long ago.

“Every single time that I came here, I was the happiest kid in the world,” Phillips said. “Still am. I still cross the Walt Whitman like the happiest kid ever.”

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