Winners and losers from Phillies’ sweep of the Rockies

If the Phillies could arrange to face the Nationals and Rockies to start every season, they would in a heartbeat.

The defending NL East champs are up and running at 5-1, thanks to a dominating sweep of Colorado to open their season at Citizens Bank Park this week.

The MLB season is long, winding, often frustrating and at times jubilant. A lot of baseball is left on the ledger ahead, but there are few (if any) complaints so far. Which makes it a little tough to single out winners and losers from a series like this — with a performance that was as flawless as baseball can get.

Still, we took a crack at it, take a look:

Winners

Hit parade

The Phillies entered play for their Rockies finale with the best batting average in the major leagues. They added 11 more hits in their 3-1 victory to clinch the sweep, and it should help keep them in that top spot. In all, the Phils walloped their lowly NL West opponents for 34 hits over three games, which is damn impressive — even though the quality of their competition wasn't exactly elite.

Shoutout to Kyle Schwarber who hit his fourth homer of the season in a tight spot Thursday, giving the Phillies some needed insurance up just 1-0. Every single Phillies offensive regular (except for Nick Castellanos) is hitting .250 or better.

Edmundo Sosa

Phillies' manager Rob Thomson didn't have Edmundo Sosa in the lineup in Thursday's finale. That could have been a big mistake (thankfully it wasn't, as the offense had just enough to win without him).

Here's a look at his game logs so far this season:

He's red hot. I don't care how much you are paying Trea Turner or Max Kepler, Sosa should have been in the lineup after going 9-for freaking 15. He has 13 total bases and five RBI in four games. And he did this to put the Phillies ahead in their home opener Monday:

Edmundo Sosa 2-run double! pic.twitter.com/yrPGmIS48B

— On Pattison (@OnPattison) March 31, 2025

The NL East defense

This might be the earliest ever standings watch, but things could not have gone better for the Phillies over the first two series of the regular season.

A look at the NL East, with all of their rivals idle Thursday:

Closing a 5.5 game gap isn't easy no matter how early it is in the season. We wrote about the winless Braves earlier Thursday.

Basically all of the pitchers

We'd run out of room if we had to highlight all of the light's out pitching the Phils used to obliterate the Rockies. They allowed three total runs in the entire set. But the performance of the three starters deserves a little recognition, as each provided something unique for Philly in the early going.

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In the opener, Cris Sánchez lit up the radar gun and got out of a pair of big jams to preserve 5.1 frames of one-run baseball. Wednesday night, the ace Zack Wheeler was on the hill and did what aces do, a quiet three-hitter with 10 strikeouts over seven innings.

Perhaps most interesting and surprising was Taijuan Walker's turn on the mound Thursday. The oft-beleaguered starter was on the outs after having one of the worst seasons in the majors last season in a starting capacity back in 2024. Out of necessity (and because they owe him $36 million over the next two seasons), Walker started with Ranger Suárez still on the shelf with a minor back injury and was spectacular, posting six blank innings with just three hits allowed. If Walker remains a solid sixth starter, the team could wind up with the kind of rotation depth they've been begging for in recent years.

Losers

The Phillies' elite, winning ways?

Things will get a lot tougher, and fast for the Phillies in the next few weeks. After facing two teams in the Nats and Rockies expected to finish in the doldrums this season, the Phillies are set to…

• Host the undefeated World Series favorite Dodgers this weekend
• Face rivals the Braves in Atlanta (who are surely going to bounce back soon)
• Face the NL Central-leading Cardinals in St. Louis next weekend
• Host the currently 5-1 playoff-hopeful Giants at home for a four-game set April 14-to-17

We'll know a lot more about this team and how good it is in two weeks.

Hopelessly single

The Phillies hit eight singles Thursday through the first four innings against Colorado. That's quite solid, on paper. But on the field it bizarrely yielded zero runs. The Phillies got on the board in the fifth inning thanks to, predictably, a dropped pop up and Bryce Harper double. Baseball is weird.

José Alvarado

The Phils' flame-throwing lefty has been called in the ninth inning a handful of times so far and he looked particularly shaky, surrendering a walk and two singled before retiring a hitter in the finale. His leash as "closer" might not be a long one — though he was able to keep his composure to earn the save with a trio of runners aboard. It took him 35 pitches.

Baserunning blunders

Okay one more knock. Some bad baserunning pestered the Phillies in this series, with a bad decision by Harper unsuccessfully trying to stretch out a double in the opener setting the tone. In Game 2, Sosa was picked off on first base.

In the finale, though it wasn't J.T. Realmuto's fault at all, he was hit by a Bryson Stott single and called out on the base paths. And later, Brandon Marsh (with Philly up by just one), got caught between first and second and was unable to dance long enough to help the runner on third base score with two men out.

Philadelphia is proudly an aggressive team on the basepaths and they earn that right by having frequent runners on base, with a ton of power at the plate. However these miscues can add up and could cost the Phillies against better teams later in the season.

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