Cristian Pache and the Phillies, 23-7 in their last 30 games, are balling out

MIAMI — A few days ago, as the blissful Phillies caught another wave of vibes, they initiated a new celebration for every hit. “I can’t tell you about our celebrations,” backup catcher and lead entertainer Garrett Stubbs said Friday afternoon. Someone knows how it started; no one wants to take credit. It’s stupid and hilarious and it is the Phillies. Some in the clubhouse did not know what it was and why they were doing it, but they had an idea. The gesture is suggestive enough to infer without knowing its origins from “Major League II.”

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“How do you spell it?” a Phillies player asked after they won their 13th straight road game — a game they should not have won. J-O-B-U. Some of the hitters are more demonstrative than others when they, uh, juggle imaginary … balls. In the movie, a teammate challenges Pedro Cerrano’s fortitude during a slump. He takes it personally. He asks his manager to pinch hit in the ninth inning and, on the first pitch, Cerrano hits a game-winning homer. He turns to his dugout. He does the dance.

Cristian Pache is a 24-year-old former top prospect cast aside by the worst team in MLB before the season. He was, prior to 2023, one of the worst hitters in modern baseball. He is an elite fielder, so he kept getting at-bats. It’s why the Phillies acquired him a day before Opening Day.

Pache had batted nine times in the last 14 days. It had been almost a week since he last took an at-bat. But he pinch hit in the ninth inning Friday night with two outs and the tying run on second base. He took the first pitch. Then, he smashed a slider to deep center. Pache raised his right arm when the ball scraped the center-field wall. Many of his teammates jumped onto the field.

Phillies 4, Marlins 3. Eighty-seven games into the season, the seminal moment had arrived. Pache savored it.

“Nobody’s going to hold him back,” Alec Bohm said. “I feel like that’s what helps guys play their best, right? If you’re just comfortable showing up, being yourself, not trying to act a certain way or do certain things. Just be you. I feel like that’s definitely something that’s helped me and a lot of the younger guys around here perform.”

As Pache floated toward third base, he did it. “Unbelievable,” said Dusty Wathan, the third-base coach and the closest one to Pache. He did the big balls dance more emphatically than any Phillies has done it.

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“I knew that I hit it well,” Pache said through a team interpreter. “It was a real man that hit that ball.”

Phillies have won 13 straight road games.

— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) July 8, 2023

It’s never going to feel like it felt last October because that’s how it is. For months, the Phillies talked about resisting comparisons to 2022. Another slow start did not guarantee a summer revival. Then, they leaned into it. They started playing “Dancing On My Own” again in the clubhouse after wins.

The Phillies are 23-7 in their last 30 games. The 2022 Phillies never had a 30-game stretch that good. These Phillies have done it without a single Bryce Harper homer in 43 days. They have pitched better in the last 30 games than they have in a long time. The bullpen is elite — it has not allowed a run in 25 1/3 consecutive innings — and has been the team’s most consistent unit all season. The Phillies, not just Harper, have failed to hit for power and, on many nights, the offense sleepwalks.

It has not mattered.

“It’s a good vibe,” Zack Wheeler said. “Just riding it. Riding it as long as we can into the (All-Star) break and, hopefully, we can continue that afterward. We’re playing good baseball.”

“It definitely reminds us to just keep playing,” Bohm said. “We can get hot for one inning and make a difference in the game. Winning definitely makes spirits high. We’re stacking some wins together and it’s definitely boosting morale. Guys are excited to show up every day. We’re having fun.”

So, here is Pache. He talked earlier in the season about how welcomed he felt inside the Phillies clubhouse. Then he tore the meniscus in his right knee and went on the injured list before returning as a reserve. He has some flair, but when you don’t play and you don’t have a track record of success, it might feel inappropriate to show it.

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“He’s starting to open up a lot more,” Bohm said. “He was quiet at first.”

While the Phillies were at Tropicana Field to play the Rays, Pache made a bold prediction.

“I told the boys that when I hit the ball out of the park in Miami that I was going to jump and have fun,” Pache said. “And then in my first at-bat, I actually hit it out of the park. I just wanted to jump because it looks sexy.”

Brandon Marsh, who was pinch hit for by Pache, overheard the answer. He laughed, then went to tell other teammates what Pache had just said. Everyone laughed.

But there was real work that went into it. Pache was teammates with A.J. Puk, the Marlins’ lefty closer, last season in Oakland. He knew him a little. In the seventh inning, a Phillies coach told Pache to prepare for Puk. “Before that at-bat,” Pache said, “I went to the cage to get ready and saw some video, I saw how (Puk) was attacking the right-handed hitters.” He wanted to stay inside the ball and try to hit it to right-center field.

He hit it 397 feet to right-center.

“Honestly, I’m getting to know myself as a hitter still,” Pache said. “I’ve got (Phillies hitting coach) Kevin Long on my side, which is just great because I get to work with him every day. Super, super happy to be here.”

The Phillies are happy they took a chance. They have won the trade with the A’s no matter what happens next. “It was a great pick-up by our front office,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “It really was.” Somehow, everyone the Phillies bring into their eccentric clubhouse finds a way to fit. Some embrace the chaos. Others encourage it. A few are content as onlookers.

And there’s Pache. A real man hit that ball and he danced to prove it.

“I love,” one Phillie said, “that he did it rounding third base.”

(Top photo: Jim Rassol / USA Today)