Just what are you thinking about Kirkering? Should he still be given opportunities given the state of the bullpen? Just what are you thinking about Kirkering?

So I think you asked what is the million-dollar question where I think everyone sort of has the feeling when it comes to Orion Kirkering that they've sort of seen this before.

And Don Mattingly was asked about what – He's giving him the trust or continues to give him confidence in Kirkering down the stretch.

And he sort of said what you mentioned.

He likes the stuff.

It's good stuff.

It's back-end stuff.

He's coming back today.

I mean, can we keep this up?

I don't, I don't know if it's a thing.

It'd be tough to keep some of this up, y- where you look that Harper has an OPS over 1,000 this month and, uh, Bohm is in, you know, the mid nine hundreds a- and Stott is u- up as high as he is.

Some of that will probably level out, but I think there are certain parts of this that are more sustainable.

A- and I think if they are serious and can keep up just the more on base oriented approach, I think something that's helped them a lot is, I think Bohm, when he's going right, and especially Arraez, just adding him in, and Crawford now that he's swinging the bat a little bit better, along with some other guys, um, they're a, they're a lot more effective with runners on base.

And now everybody's more effective with runners on base.

But when the Phillies are able to do things like put a runner on or put, uh, a runner on third base with, with, uh, no outs or one out a- and the other team is trying to c- bring the infield in to cut down the run, they have certain guys like Arraez or, or Crawford or even Bohm who can kind of slice that single the other way, especially with the infield drawn in.

I mean, j- just what, what do you see? I mean, what are, what are you seeing different on him? Is it, in your opinion, is it mental? Is a combination of mental and reps? I mean, what, what, what is the issue?

More of a wild card type of framework.

Yeah, so the way I look at it right now is I do think they're a playoff team and even after that rough start, I still thought that overall starting pitching that they get on the whole is, it just gives them a really high floor with those two top end guys.

And once Wheeler came back and kept looking like Zach Wheeler, it just makes you think like the, the floor with, with those two arms at the top of the rotation.

And then Lizardo at times has been really back and forth this season with some of the blow-up starts, but when he's going right, he can pitch at that sort of level or near it for stretches, and Nola and Painter are sort of, you don't really know what you're going to get on a given day, and there's been some good mixed with a lot of bad outings for them, but I think that the starters they have give them a really high floor.

I would expect them to be a playoff team, and I don't know if you would expect them to go on a deep run just because of the lineup concerns that we've talked about so far.

I know that maybe makes it feel like it's contradicting my point earlier and going and doubling down on the pitching, but I think the point stands of, it's not that they're one bat away from being a really good offense, at least with how they've performed to start the season.

That's why I would still double down on the pitching and just see if you can pitch your way to a deep run.

And number two, what changes have you seen? What tangible differences have you actually seen in-game or covering him or anything that perhaps this team did or did not have when Rob Thompson was in charge?