PHILADELPHIA — With deals swirling around baseball only a few days before the Trade Deadline and the toughest remaining schedule of any team, the Guardians could be on the precipice of a transformative moment. Will the American League Central leaders add a bat before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline? An arm? Or will they stand pat? What will Cleveland’s team look like after Tuesday, and given the gauntlet it will face for the stretch run, will it be enough?

So far at least, those questions remain unanswered. But the club spent Friday night in Philadelphia hardly sweating them. Ben Lively made some small ball run support hold up by keeping his former team in check, and the Guardians opened their series against MLB’s top team with a 3-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Facing the team he made his debut with back in 2017, Lively continued showcasing the kind of starter he’s grown into since then — and why he was such a shrewd pickup for the Guardians last winter. Backed by early run-scoring hits from David Fry and Angel Martínez, Lively held the high-flying Phillies to just a Bryson Stott solo homer across six solid innings, over which he struck out six. Cleveland’s lights-out bullpen then combined for nine outs as the Guardians look to get back on track after a slow start to the second half.

The outing improved Lively, who had never made more than 15 starts in a season and had a 5.38 ERA last year for the Reds, to 9-6 with a 3.44 ERA through 18 starts for Cleveland. The 32-year-old reclamation project has been a stabilizing force for a club that knows it needs rotation reinforcements going forward with many more big games against good teams on the horizon.

That’s more certainty than assumption. The Guardians sit 4 1/2 games ahead of the Twins in the AL Central, but Friday was the beginning of a challenging stretch. This weekend brings two more games against Philadelphia before two at Detroit, four against AL East-leading Baltimore, then seven against Arizona and Minnesota — both winning clubs.

Indeed, entering Friday, the Guardians’ remaining opponents had a combined .526 winning percentage, the highest in the Majors. Lively is one of Cleveland’s only two starters with an ERA below 4.00 (Tanner Bibee, 3.50) — hence its need for rotation help.

But just imagine where the club would be without Lively.