It’s been 399 days since the National League East standings had anyone other than the Atlanta Braves sitting at the top.

But when you woke up Saturday morning and turned on the pot of coffee, there was a new team sitting in the Braves spot – the Philadelphia Phillies.

Thanks to the Phillies grinding out a 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants Friday and the Braves dropping a game in extra innings in the wee hours to the L.A. Dodgers by the same score, the Phillies leap-frogged the Braves by a half game, and now also have the best record in baseball at 22-11.

It’s the first time the Phillies are in first place since being 3-1 on April 11th, 2022 and first time this late into a season since August 14th, 2021.

Only time will tell how long their stay in the cat bird seat will be, but it appears just getting there this weekend came at a cost.

Trea Turner, who has been a huge part of the team’s early season success, made a play that scored the game-winning run that is rarely seen in baseball – he scored from second base on a walk.


Yes, there was a passed ball that was part of it, but it was a heck of a heads-up play by Turner.

“I just felt like they were far from home plate,” Turner said of the decision to not just take the one bag on the passed ball. “I thought it would have taken a great play to get me out.”

And he was right. It was crazy good instincts by Turner. Ultimately, it proved to be the game-winning run.

“It was a great play,” said manager Rob Thomson. “It was heads up. … It won us a ball game. It was a great play.”

But it also cost them Turner for at least six weeks.

Turner came out of the game immediately after that play. The Phillies called it left hamstring soreness. But make no mistake, Turner felt something right away and will be evaluated further on Saturday to determine the severity.

“It happened a couple steps from home plate on that play,” Turner said. “I kind of felt it and then just got real sore. … I’ve never really had anything like this to be honest with you. They seemed pretty positive in the training room, so I was pretty happy with that – or at least more positive than what I thought. I’m definitely (still) feeling it.”

And while his tune was optimistic after the game, a day later, the news was a lot less encouraging.

The Phillies placed Turner on the 10-day I.L. and recalled Kody Clemens fro Triple-A Lehigh Valley before Saturday’s game.

In the short-term, Edmundo Sosa will take over, but the Phillies only view him as a valuable reserve and not a player who can be relied on a more regular basis. His weaknesses were exposed when thrust into regular duty last season as a third baseman.

He came in for Turner Friday and was charged with a throwing error, although replays show that Bryce Harper did him no favors with his positioning on the first base bag, but the throw wasn’t exactly on a line either. Sosa also made a perplexing play in the ninth inning on a ground ball that allowed the tying run to get to second base. He got the out at first but had an easy toss to get the lead runner and passed up on it.

Shortstop is the one position the Phillies don’t have a ton of organizational depth.

Rodolfo Castro can play short, but he’s been hurt in the minors with a shoulder injury. Weston Wilson can play there, but he’s off to a rough start in Lehigh Valley and isn’t hitting the ball with the same kind of authority as last season. Old friend Scott Kingery can play there, and he’s had a decent start in Triple-A, but he’s not on the 40-man roster.

The best solution might be to have Whit Merrifield play second base and move Bryson Stott to short. Stott, a gold glove finalist at second base in 2023, hasn’t played short since Game 6 of the 2022 World Series, but he does take a few ground balls there in practice to keep his arm in shape for longer throws.

And while everyone wants to focus on the defensive side of things – and that is important, especially at a key position like shortstop – replacing Turner’s production is going to be even harder to do.

According to Baseball Reference, Turner has been worth 1.6 WAR for the Phillies so far. Only Alec Bohm has been worth more among position players.

Turner is slashing .343/.392/.460 for an .852 OPS. He also leads the Phillies in hits (47) and stolen bases (10).

No one player – not Merrifield, nor any minor league guy – is going to be able to make up that kind of production. The Phillies are going to need some of their other players who haven’t lived up to the back of their baseball cards to start to do more offensively.

Stott is one of them. Nick Castellanos (another 0-for-4 on Friday) is another. J.T. Realmuto could be better. So could Kyle Schwarber. And although Bryce Harper is getting on base (he walked three times Friday and has a team-leading 22 walks this season) his batting average is certainly not where he wants it to be (.231).

The Phillies have positioned themselves at the top of the baseball world record-wise in early May. But that only means everyone else behind them is going to be gunning for them.

Now they’ll have to stave everyone off without one of their best weapons for an undetermined amount of time.

It’s an unwelcome start to their transition from being the hunter to being the hunted.