The Phillies survived a rollercoaster.
They beat the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-7, on Sunday and took an early two of three for the weekend series at Citizens Bank Park that could serve as a potential postseason preview between the two National League powerhouses.
Pitching defined the split through Friday and Saturday, and then the bats woke up in force on Sunday when the Phillies' lineup chased Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow quickly and jumped out to a six-run third inning capped by Nick Castellanos' grand slam.
But of course, it couldn't be that easy.
Cristopher Sánchez battled through 5.2 innings and four runs allowed – all knocked in by Teoscar Hernández – to hold a lead, but Jordan Romano's struggles continued once the Phils reached into the bullpen, and L.A. used that to rally ahead with three more runs.
It took a two-run counter in the bottom of the seventh from a Bryson Stott RBI looper and a double-play chance that Edmundo Sosa beat the throw to first on to claw the Phillies' way back, but they made it, and Matt Strahm and José Alvarado combined to shut the door.
The Stott in the arm we needed pic.twitter.com/ATXkHFHxvV
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 6, 2025
The Phillies are 7-2, and handed the Dodgers their first two losses on a young season.
Here's the rundown of how it happened…
It's an arms race
Friday night was a 3-2 Phillies win. Jesús Luzardo was stellar through seven shutout innings, and after Trea Turner worked across the first run, Yoshinobu Yamamoto settled in and gave the Dodgers six solid innings of three-hit ball.
On Saturday, the Phillies lost 3-1. Aaron Nola got dinged for two homers, but pushed through six innings to give the Phils a chance. The bats just couldn't figure out Rōki Sasaki's splitter (just some nasty stuff), nor a much sounder run of L.A. relievers after.
Rōki Sasaki, Wicked 86mph Splitter 🤢
519 RPMs. pic.twitter.com/kaqSJqEtk6— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 5, 2025
Then in Sunday's finale, Sánchez battled through the two homers and an RBI double all from Hernández, to put in 5.2 innings while the Phillies finally put an offensive dent in the series by way of Castellano's grand slam and six-run inning in the third.
Nick Castellanos crushes a go-ahead grand slam! 🔔 pic.twitter.com/OHnFwRYol2
— MLB (@MLB) April 6, 2025
For as star-studded as both clubs' lineups are, this heavyweight bout, should it continue through the season and on into the postseason, may not be defined by offense, but rather by their means to suppress it.
The bats finally had their day on Sunday, but the Phillies' two wins for the series, along with the Dodgers' in between, were backed by excellent, or at the very least, manageable starting pitching performances.
And that could be the actual difference if it ever comes down to a pennant being on the line.
Pitching defined the weekend, and that might hold as the Phillies-Dodgers rivalry continues to reignite.
It's not a slugfest. It's an arms race.
MORE: Luzardo throws 'well-executed' gem in statement win over Dodgers
Reeling Romano
Jordan Romano was struggling to close out the ninth until a strikeout of Max Muncy and J.T. Realmuto's ensuing throw out of Chris Taylor trying to steal second quickly nabbed the last two outs and got the Phillies out of there with a win.
Postgame, Rob Thomson tried to give Romano the benefit of the doubt. The bottom of the eighth lasted only four pitches, so the manager said he might not have gotten enough of a warmup in the bullpen.
Romano, in the clubhouse, didn't fall back on that excuse when it was brought up to him. To him, the outing was exactly what it looked like, but his number was going to get called again.
It came in on Sunday for the seventh, with the Phillies trying to maintain a 6-4 lead.
Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages singled off Romano right away, he walked Ohtani, and then Mookie Betts launched a double to the left-center wall that scored Pages and pushed Ohtani to third with no outs on the board.
Thomson signaled to the pen for Orion Kerkering right away. He took the ball from Romano on the mound, and the reliever walked back to the dugout to a chorus of boos that he had no shot of ignoring.
The Dodgers had the setup to score two more runs off of Kerkering for the lead, but the Phillies did end up clawing their way back from it.
Still, it's been a rough introduction to Philadelphia for Romano, and shortens the Philles' bullpen so long as he's floundering like this.
"It's just the velocity," Thomson said Sunday of Romano's issues. "It's something we gotta check into because everything out of the training room, there's no red flags, he feels fine, so I don't know whether it's kind of a dead arm issue or what. But it concerns me a little bit, the velocity."
Romano's fastball never went above 94.1 miles per hour. He threw it nine times.
"He's got a long track record of success, so we gotta, to a certain degree stay with him, and have confidence in him, and keep pushing him," Thomson added.
Sosa in the outfield
Edmundo Sosa pinch-hit for Brandon Marsh in the eighth inning of Saturday's loss, and then remained in the game at center field after striking out.
In the top of the ninth, Tommy Edman lined a fly ball straight to him, and then Kiké Hernández sent another his way. Sosa caught them both for outs No. 1 and 3 to end the frame.
Not bad, and now another layer to the Phillies' super utilityman off the bench, though maybe not a sign of an extended look for him in the outfield, or at least not directly in center.
"That ball will always find ya, you know?" Thomson said of Sosa in center postgame. "But, no, he got good jumps, good reactions, routes were good."
The center field depth chart is still between Marsh and Johan Rojas, Thomson continued, but he mentioned that he could see Sosa playing left field a bit.
If it's a way to get him in the lineup more, that could be for the better.
Sosa was 9-for-16 with a walk and four doubles through his five games and 17 plate appearances entering Sunday. His OPS, though within a small sample size, was a heavy 1.401. Then, filling in for Alec Bohm at third base in the series finale, Sosa went 2-for-2 through the first three frames – first as the Phillies were trying to crack Glasnow in the second, and then after they opened the floodgates with Castellanos' grand slam in the third – and beat out the double-play throw in the seventh that allowed the go-ahead run to score.
Back on top thanks to Edmundo movin' up the line 💨 pic.twitter.com/CujAAMruPc
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 6, 2025
"We gotta really look at this because, so far, it's real," Thomson said after Sunday's win of finding more playing time for Sosa. "It's two hits every game, he's played great at third, he's played great at short, he did well in center field yesterday, so, yeah, we've really gotta get into the lab and try to figure out some stuff to get him in the lineup."
In a step further from Saturday, Thomson then confirmed at the end of his press conference that he is comfortable starting Sosa in the outfield against a left-handed pitcher.
Nola booting up
Nola did battle through his six innings on Saturday, and Thomson gave him credit for that postgame, adding that on a normal day, the Phillies hit better, score more than three runs, and win.
But they didn't, and those two home runs given up cost them, which doesn't couple well with the veteran righthander's first start in Washington, where he also surrendered two homers and five earned runs in total through 5.1 innings – and a 5-1 loss to the Nationals by the end of it.
Thomson, however, is chalking it all up to a slow start. For Nola, it wouldn't be the first time.
"I think this is Nols this time of year," Thomson said after Saturday's game. "Cooler weather, doesn't have his real good fastball yet, but that'll come in time as the weather warms up. Some guys are just like that. I trust him, though, because he's gonna battle."
"I mean, it happens every year," Nola said from the clubhouse. "I don't know when's the last time I came out throwing 94 or 95 to begin a season, so hopefully that does start kick up a little bit, maybe when it gets warmer. That'd be nice if I get a little bit more juice on the ball and maybe sneak it by a couple hitters."
Here are Nola's monthly splits from March/April to May, for last season and his career more than a decade in:
| ERA | WHIP | SO9 | |
| 2024 | 3.20/2.84 | 1.086/1.000 | 8.2/8.3 |
| Career | 3.88/3.29 | 1.109/1.087 | 8.6/9.8 |
*May's numbers in bold
At this point, it's part of accepting the pitcher Aaron Nola is.
He's valuable within rotation, and when he's on, the strikeouts pile up in bunches.
But when he's off, it's testing, and a dice roll some days as to which Aaron Nola the Phillies are going to get.
The Ohtani effect
Friday night and the series as it proceeded on through brought a lot of attention to Citizens Bank Park and a good amount of No. 17 Dodgers jerseys.
The series, from a baseball perspective, was two of the NL's best (and the defending champions in L.A.) facing off right at the beginning of the season in a potential LCS preview.
But from a broader sports perspective, it was the game's international megastar Shohei Ohtani coming through, who is a major draw all his own now.
The Philadelphia home crowd responded in kind.
He easily got the loudest boos of any Dodger through the weekend, which lined up with an overall rough series for him.
Entering Sunday, Ohtani was 1-for-7 with two strikeouts at the top of L.A.'s order.
Then he ran into Sánchez, who K'd him three times by the fifth inning.
A quick, and very historic, glance elsewhere
Speaking of broader sports and megastars, Alexander Ovechkin scored in the Washington Capitals' game against the New York Islanders on Sunday in Belmont Park, as the Phillies were playing the Dodgers.
And that goal was the big one. No. 895 to pass Wayne Gretzky for the most ever in NHL history.
Ovechkin is now, officially, the greatest goal scorer of all time.
ALEX OVECHKIN IS THE GREATEST GOALSCORER IN NHL HISTORY! 🚨🚨🚨 #Gr8ness pic.twitter.com/NKef3VvNaJ
— NHL (@NHL) April 6, 2025
Alright, that's the quick hockey history pause. Back to baseball.
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
