The Phillies came out of the gates swinging (and quite often hitting) to start the 2025 regular season, taking two of three games in Washington against the Nationals.
But after dominating for the first two games, familiar setbacks slowed them down in the finale — mainly a lack of timely offense — as they were unable to return home with the ninth ever opening series sweep in franchise history.
Who played like a star and who struggled? Here are five winners and five losers with the Phillies heading back up I-95 to Citizens Bank Park for their home opener Monday.
Winners 🏆
True outcomes
The Phillies appear to be a baseball team that will be relying on true outcomes this season. This certainly can make for some boring baseball. In their season opening win Thursday, a Phillies hitter failed to put the ball in play in 79% of at bats.
Thankfully they regressed toward the mean over the course of the other two games.
Here's a look at their walk, strikeout and home run numbers from their series win against the Nationals. For those who aren't familiar, true outcomes are the only three eventualities for hitters that do not rely on a ball being put into play onto the field.
| Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | |
| HR | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| SO | 19 | 5 | 6 |
| BB | 6 | 8 | 4 |
| Total | 26 | 14 | 10 |
| PA % | 79% | 34% | 26% |
Kyle Schwarber
It doesn't matter where you put him in the batting order, Schwarber hits bombs. In Game 1 of the season, in the cleanup spot, Schwarber hit a go-ahead home run in the seventh inning. On Saturday, not only did he draw a wild pitch that scored the go-ahead run in the sixth, a few pitches later he blasted a three-run shot to break the game open and give Philly a 7-2 lead. He had a single Sunday, making him the leading everyday batter on the squad so far.
Alec Bohm
Name a Phillie who was under more pressure this week than Bohm? All offseason long, the Phillies homegrown third baseman was forced to stay off social media due to nonstop trade rumors. The organization chose to keep him in red pinstripes, and he had a decent spring training. But more importantly, he immediately was the first hero of the 2025 season.
After blowing a late lead and heading to extra innings Thursday, a Bryce Harper walk (and ghost running Bryson Stott) put two men on for Bohm with two out in the 10th. Bohm drove in two runs with the pressure on, like it always is:
Alec Bohm splits the gap in left field and the Phillies take a 5-3 lead in the top of the tenth inning on opening day pic.twitter.com/1V3RMMUhZz
— MLB Clutch Moments And Walk Offs (@MLBWalk_Offs) March 27, 2025
Of course, Bohm couldn't keep it simple — and he probably could qualify for our losers list as well. Why? Well with two men on and one out in the seventh inning Sunday, Bohm grounded into a double play. The team was awful with RISP in the last game of the set.
The starters
For the most part, the Phillies should be pleased with the performances of their starting pitchers this series.
Wheeler went six in the opener, striking out eight with a solo home the only blemish. Luzardo struck out a ridiculous 11 in just five innings, earning a win while — like Wheeler — surrendering just one homer and no other warts.
It was Nola who struggled with his turn. Though he did have the curve working, he made two main blunders, giving up five runs on a pair of homers with runners on base to get tagged with the loss.
Losers 🤢
Chasing less
There was a lot of buzz in Clearwater about the Phillies new approach to the plate. They led the entire league in total walks and were second in on base percentage during the spring — though they still had the eighth most total strikeouts.
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As we documented above, the 19 strikeouts Thursday was not a promising sign. Though they fixed their issue for the middle game of the three-game set, the Phillies were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position in their 5-1 loss. Offensive struggles like that didn't really hurt the team until October. Hopefully this is just an early season show of rust.
Jordan Romano
Four of the first eight Phillies who appeared in relief in this series allowed at least one run, which isn't a great early sign. The headline signing of the offseason for Philly was the one-time dominant closer Romano, who was an All-Star with the Blue Jays in 2022 and 2023 before having down season in 2024.
In his first Phillies' outing, he blew Wheeler's 3-1 lead in the 8th in a particularly ugly affair involving a hit batter, walk, double steal, ground out and single.
Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto
Not only did this duo of star offensive players combine to go 1-for-13 this week (though Realmuto did hit a two-run triple in extra innings Thursday), they both have an early season injury issue. Turner was a late scratch in Game 2 and sat out Game 3 with back spasms, while Realmuto fouled a ball off his foot and missed the finale for it.
Neither ailment is expected to be a serious one — Realmuto had x-rays that came back negative — but it's an early season reminder that there will be stretches this season where the depth of this team is seriously tested. Edmundo Sosa and Rafael Marchán combined for three of the Phils' eight hits in the Game 3 loss.
The Nationals
The NL East is a really tough division and could boast three playoff teams. But as harsh as it is to say, it can only help the Phillies' goal of repeating as division champs to have a team like the Nationals in the division. The Phillies really did more to beat themselves in the only game they lost in the series.
Both the Nationals and the Marlins don't project to be very good at all, giving them 26 games against two of the worst teams in the league. Their next meeting will be a month from now in Philly to close out the month of April.
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