At least on Opening Day, running it back wasn’t so bad for the Phils

The Phillies' season opener on Thursday was great for fans who believe the Phillies will again be among the best in baseball and have another good chance to get the World Series.

And not-so-great for the "meh, they're just running it back" dissenters.

For one game, running it back was an acceptable recipe for a 5-3 win over the Rangers that got the Phils' season started off the right way, as almost all the damage was done by the usual suspects.

The game kicked off with reigning National League batting champion Trea Turner legging out an infield single in his leadoff at bat, followed by reigning NL home run king Kyle Schwarber going oppo over the left-field fence for a two-run blast.

It was accompanied by reigning NL quality start leader Cristopher Sánchez dazzling for another six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and just three hits allowed and Alec Bohm clubbing a three-run homer in the fifth.

Despite all the consternation about the Phillies again having a powerless cleanup, Bohm channeled his inner Schwarber, going the other way to power a three-run homer in the fifth for a 5-0 lead.

His trademark inside-out swing sent Nathan Eovaldi's final pitch of the game screaming toward right field for a 354-foot dinger that just cleared the wall.

So to recap, here's what the run-it-back crowd did:

• Sánchez: Dominated.
• Turner: 2 hits, 2 runs
• Schwarber: 2-run homer
• Harper: 0-fer
• Bohm: 3-run blast
• Stott: 2 hits
• Marsh: 2 hits
• Realmuto: 0-fer

Sanchez, armed with a new contract that the Phillies didn't even need to redo, became the franchise's first Opening Day starter with 10 or more punchouts since Curt Schilling fanned 11 against the Dodgers in 1997.

"We had really good at bats all the way through," manager Rob Thomson said. "I mean, the Schwarber home run was huge, the Bohm three-run homer was just, to a certain degree, gave us a lot of room to work. Stott had a really good day, Marsh had a really good day. I thought our bats were really good today."

Did those names sound familiar?

There was some public concern about Schwarber, at 33, signing a five-year extension worth $30 million annually coming off a 56-homer season almost impossible to replicate, and there was plenty of excitement from fans during the team's offseason flirtation with free agent Bo Bichette that, had it happened, surely would've meant Bohm shipped out of town.

For at least one day, familiarity didn't breed contempt.

"This is where I wanted to be," Schwarber said, saying Philly was where he "wanted to be from the get-go."

"Happy we're here, happy about this group we have and excited about the journey we're going to be going on."

It might be boring, it might not feel like enough come October, but for Opening Day a lineup full of familiar faces was good enough to get into the Rangers bullpen by the fourth inning.

Even the 44,000-plus at the ballpark on a gorgeous afternoon ran it back some, predictably booing new Rangers leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo every single time the former longtime Met stepped to the plate.

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You could even argue that some of the new additions weren't all that helpful in the opener. About the only newcomer to make an impact in the batting order was rookie centerfielder Justin Crawford, who singled in his MLB debut at-bat and then again in the fifth before coming home on Bohm's three-run shot.

But Crawford also left the bases loaded stranded in the eighth with a foul pop to third base, and new reliever Kyle Backhus – a long-armed sidearmer – served up a titanic two-run blast to Rangers slugger Jake Burger in a shaky ninth that he couldn't even get out of before exiting and handing off to closer Jhoan Duran.

Backhus allowed three hits and only got one out, leaving to a chorus of boos from the Philly faithful, which quickly turned back to cheer as Duran jugged out from the bullpen and then as he blew triple-digit heat past Ezequiel Duran and then got Evan Carter to end the game with a grounder to first base, starting off his season with his first save.

We'll just have to wait and see if the many new bullpen additions really prove that the one area of the team that underwent major change were the moves this team needed to get over its October hump.

For all the grief about the Phillies' cold bats in playoffs past, their middle relief and late-game bullpen has been as much of a nightmare in the postseason.

And, hey, just to really remind you that these Phillies are much the same crew from the past few years, they struck out 10 times against Rangers pitching and got 7 of their 10 hits in two of the eight innings.

The Phillies are back. You know who they are. Being good enough to win it all is a discussion for October.

But on a spectacular March day, running it back was plenty.

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