Chicago White Sox at Philadelphia Phillies

For the better part of the past month, the Phillies' pitching staff has been picking up the slack for a sluggish offense. This weekend, however, the offense finally started to return the favor. Despite their starting pitcher allowing at least five runs in all three games, the Phillies earned a series victory over the White Sox with Sunday afternoon's 9-5 win at Citizens Bank Park. That's quite the development for a team that just went more than two weeks (May 19-June 3) without scoring five runs in a single game. The Phils have now done so in three of their past four games, including Sunday's nine-run outburst in which eight of their nine starters reached base at least once. Needless to say, wins like these are a bit more fun. “A lot less pressure, for sure,” said Brandon Marsh, who stayed red-hot by homering for a third straight game. “Just a lot less pressure not being just the one-run games or the tie ballgames late.” Though the Phillies have the second-best record in the Majors since interim manager Don Mattingly took over (26-11), those wins all followed a similar blueprint: Great starting pitching, a few runs typically generated by the top of the order and a shutdown closer in Jhoan Duran. * Mattingly asked by Dodgers' Roberts to be on NL All-Star Game coaching staff But take a look at the starting pitching from this weekend's series against the White Sox: • **Jesús Luzardo (Friday):** 6 IP, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 3 HR • **Andrew Painter (Saturday):** 4 2/3 IP, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR • **Aaron Nola (Sunday)**: 4 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 4 BB, 4 K That's a 9.60 ERA -- and the Phillies still won the series. That would not have been possible the way this offense was performing prior to this weekend.