CHICAGO _ For a few minutes Tuesday, before the Phillies took batting practice, John Mallee stood on the grass at Wrigley Field and chatted with local reporters about some of his former pupils.
Mallee expressed pride in the progress of Javier Baez, who leads the Cubs with 14 home runs. And he delighted in the improvement of Jason Heyward, who has settled into the No. 2 spot in the Cubs' order. As their hitting coach for the past three seasons, Mallee had a hand in their success, and he will always share in the experience of winning the 2016 World Series with them.
But in his first season as a Phillies coach, Mallee is still trying to coax more from his hitters. And entering play here Tuesday night, they had hit their collective nadir, going 29 innings without scoring a run that wasn't driven in by a pitcher.
So, when Nick Williams stepped to the plate in the second inning and clocked a home run to right field, he gave the Phillies more than merely their first lead since last Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. He provided catharsis for manager Gabe Kapler, Mallee and an entire team that hasn't had much to exalt about lately.
Williams' two-run shot against Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks started the Phillies to a 6-1 victory in the opener of a three-game series and the first of 25 consecutive games against teams with winning records.
Rhys Hoskins' fractured jaw has enabled Williams to nudge his way into the lineup on a daily basis. And at a time when the Phillies have been largely muted, Williams has made at least a little noise. He homered in back-to-back games last week in Los Angeles and has seven homers in only 128 at-bats overall. At the very least, he's making a case for more regular playing time when Hoskins returns, especially considering fellow outfielder Aaron Altherr's .184 average and .638 OPS.
The Phillies added three runs in the third inning, and suddenly, they matched their offensive output from the previous five games combined. Save for Williams' swing, they didn't hit the ball particularly hard against Hendricks. But they capitalized on a pair of walks and a bunt single by rookie Scott Kingery, installed as the No. 3 hitter in Kapler's latest attempt to stir the slumbering offense.
After Kingery's bunt loaded the bases, Hendricks forced home a run by walking Carlos Santana. Altherr drove in a run with a sacrifice fly before Maikel Franco singled home a run to give the Phillies a 5-0 lead.
As usual, the Phillies got stellar starting pitching. This time, though, it was provided by No. 5 starter Zach Eflin, who has been the rotation's weak link recently. After giving up five runs against both the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers and failing to make it out of the fifth inning in each of his previous three starts, Eflin blanked the Cubs for seven innings before allowing a run in the eighth on a two-out single by Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo's RBI double.
It helped that Eflin was able to work with a lead, a rarity that Mallee's hitters haven't been able to provide much lately.
