Phillies break out of their rut enjoying the sights of Field of Dreams -- and deliver a needed win

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Aug 13, 2026

Published in Baseball

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DYERSVILLE, Iowa — They wandered in from the corn, paused for a beat at the right-field warning track, gazed around, and kept going. Soon, 26 — 26! — Hall of Famers joined them on the field.

But that was the performative, made-for-Netflix part.

If only everybody could have seen them hours earlier, before the cameras rolled here Thursday night. A few hundred feet from the refurbished 8,000-seat stadium, the Phillies stood on the original Field of Dreams, the one that sits alongside the white farmhouse and tilted red barn and was the set of the 1989 Oscar-nominated film that brings people to this little Iowa town in the first place.

Andrew Painter and his parents walked the outfield made famous by Costner and Liotta. Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott took pictures in front of the house. Brandon Marsh maneuvered between the cornstalks. Don Mattingly had a catch with his 11-year-old son, Louie, near his older son, Preston, the Phillies’ general manager.

And for a few minutes, nobody talked about back-to-back losses this week in St. Louis. Or five losses in eight games. Or a 10-15 record since the All-Star break. Or a playoff spot that is slipping through their fingers.

For a few minutes, they all smiled. They ... relaxed.

“I don’t think our guys have a problem relaxing, honestly,” Mattingly said. “But I do think guys like coming to these kind of games. They do break up the monotony. You know, this is a game you don’t really forget.”

But it was a game nonetheless. And before the end of a long day that started in St. Louis and ended on a plane to Minneapolis, Kyle Schwarber homered twice — including a leadoff shot into the corn, as if it had been ordered up by a Hollywood script — in an easy, breezy 7-1 victory over the Twins.

Schwarber played a prominent role in the pregame spectacle. After following Mattingly in leading the Phillies through the corn, he took a microphone and joined Twins star Byron Buxton in introducing the Hall of Famers.

Then, once the unscripted part of the event began, he hit Twins starter Taj Bradley’s third pitch out to right field.

While Schwarber looked authentic in the Phillies’ gray, red, and navy 1939 throwback uniforms, Aaron Nola just threw it back to a time when the Phillies relied on him atop their rotation. They need him again down the stretch, and in five solid innings, he gave up only a homer to Luke Keaschall.

Schwarber broke it open in the fourth inning with his second homer, a two-run shot off a leaping Keaschall’s glove in right field to make it 5-1. Marsh homered in the seventh. And relievers who have been overworked for the past few weeks passed the baton, from Brooks Raley to Jonathan Bowlan to Orion Kerkering and finally Jhoan Duran, the star closer acquired from the Twins just over a year ago.

It all came at the end of a 14-game stretch without a day off. There were times when the bullpen was fried. At points, the lineup didn’t produce runs. The Phillies woke up Thursday tied with the Diamondbacks for the last National League wild card.

There was a sense, then, that this Iowa excursion — a “pop-in and pop-out,” as Mattingly called it — couldn’t have come at a worse time.

Actually, it was quite the opposite.

The baseball season is long. Teams move from city to city, staying for three or four days in five-star hotels. Sometimes, the best way to break out of a rut is to change the routine.

So, they flew into nearby Dubuque a few hours before the game and took a bus to the Field of Dreams site. Team employees met them here. Owner John Middleton was here, too, sitting behind home plate. They took it all in. Even Nola spent time walking around the field with fellow pitcher Zack Wheeler before studying the scouting report on the Twins.

“It breaks it up in the sense that we’re not in Minnesota for [all] three days,” Stott said before the game. “But it’s still a game, and we know we have to win games, especially now and coming down the stretch. We’re going to try to enjoy being here, but also we know that the main thing is to win the game.”

Stott and Harper, who both grew up in Las Vegas, sure looked like they were enjoying this as they walked near the farmhouse.

“Just kind of seeing the house and making sure when I crossed over the chalk line, I didn’t turn into a normal human being,” Harper said. “Seeing just all of it. Just really cool to be able to be part of it, and be here, and enjoy it.”