March 26, 2026
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Kyle Schwarber wasted no time blasting his first Schwarbomb of the year on Opening Day.
With so much offseason drama and frustration — from the Phillies general manager questioning whether Bryce Harper was elite, to the team's decision to run back the majority of their NLDS losing team for another run, to their failure to close the deal on free agent stud Bo Bichette — that it may have been easy to forget: the Phillies are a really good team.
In their Opening Day 5-3 win over the Rangers, they flexed the strengths that have made them contenders for half a decade now — dominating pitching and timely hitting. And they also almost blew it somehow. Sound familiar?
They will have their down days and their slumps. And this is Philadelphia, the drama will come, trust me. But the Phillies are 1-0 and looked impressive to start their new campaign. The vibes are good.
Here's a look at just what made them so good, along with a few things that were worrying to see in South Philly Thursday:
• Hey remember when Kyle Schwarber led the National League in home runs with 56 last season? And remember when the Phillies backed up a Brink's Truck to keep him in Philly?
The five-year $150 million investment paid off pretty quickly as he went deep to left center in his first at bat:
An #OpeningDay Schwarbomb for your feed 🔔 pic.twitter.com/yITqirIxHN
— MLB (@MLB) March 26, 2026
The homer plated Trea Turner and gave the Phillies a nice 2-0 lead in the first inning of the season. More of that is likely to come.
• When Alec Bohm got the nod to hit cleanup on Opening Day it was not a particularly exciting spot in the lineup for Phillies fans. Bohm has been on the trade block for years, and while he's been a very solid hitter for most of his career he's only hit 20 home runs once in his career. It's not the kind of protection a top contender would like to have for top tier hitters like Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
But if Bohm does more of this, maybe he can change his perception?
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE BOHM! pic.twitter.com/Yx7NF9WjIl
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 26, 2026
Two bombs, 5-0 Phils. Efficient.
• Congratulations to Justin Crawford, who ripped a single to centerfield on his first major league pitch (and followed with another single in at bat No. 2). The 22-year-old is the youngest Opening Day starter in the outfield for Philadelphia since Richie Ashburn did it at 21 back in 1948. The last few decades have been brutally ugly for homegrown outfielders, with highly touted and drafted prospects like Dom Brown, Mickey Moniak, Adam Haseley and others flaming out and leaving the team with a seemingly never-ending hole in the outfield.
Crawford was a first round pick in 2022 and proved to be a potent hitter for average as well as a slick outfielder in the minors. He earned a starting role with a solid spring and brings with him the kind of youthful expectations that are rare on a team so laden with expensive veterans.
• Bryson Stott became a sleeper pick to make an All-Star team this spring after a torrid .366 batting average (and perhaps just as impressive a .468 on base percentage) and a team-leading 15 hits in Clearwater. He got his first two regular season hits to keep his bat warm and stole a base in the fifth inning too.
• We haven't even gotten to ace Cris Sánchez yet, whose six innings were impressive. Intellectually I understand why he doesn't throw the sinker every time — but why doesn't he just throw the sinker every time?
The NL Cy Young runner-up didn't allow a run, struck out 10 and surrendered just three hits. He induced six ground ball outs — which leaves just two outs that made it to the outfield. He looks every bit as good as last year and could be worth every penny of the $105 million extension he signed last week.
• Kudos to Jhoan Duran for putting out a fire late in the game to earn his first save of the season.
• Bryce Harper struck out twice in the opener, weakly grounded out and popped out. That's an 0-for-4 for the former MVP who has had quite an up and down offseason, stretching back to his taking Dave Dombrowski's "not elite" comments personally, to his spring training slump, to his epic game-tying home run in the World Baseball Classic.
Harper is going to find his groove. His track history is too rich and confidence-inspiring for him not to. But it would certainly have been nice for the Phillies to see him get off to a good start.
• Facing his old team — the team he made two All-Star games and won a World Series and ALCS MVP playing for in Texas — Adolis García looked worse than Harper did Thursday. In a totally lacking Phillies debut, the right fielder went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. He's become a home run of bust kind of player in recent years, like Schwarber but with less power and way less walks.
• The Phillies scored more than enough runs to win — thanks to Sánchez mowing down hitters — but it's worth acknowledging that the Phillies were 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners. With 10 hits and 12 baserunners, the opportunities where there. They were threatening all afternoon but only broke through twice with the pair of homers (which did admittedly come with runners on base).
• After seeing J.T. Realmuto go 5-for-5 in ABS challenges in spring training, battery mate Zach Pop got it wrong in the first ever official Phillies challenge... by 0.1 inches. A Brandon Nimmo walk on a full count in the eighth inning was confirmed after the relief pitcher called for one of the Phillies' two challenges and it was as close as it gets.
• One of the last relievers to make the roster out of training camp, side-armer Kyle Backhus, surrendered a two-run homer to Jake Burger in garbage time, giving the Rangers some last minute hope and forcing closer Duran to get loose on what looked like a sure day off for the closer. A hit one batter later (who would score from third) and there was a mess to clean up. A pretty unusual lapse of judgement followed on a sure double-play ball, when Stott decided not to tag the lead runner and instead set up a two-base error to bring Duran in to close the door in a dicy situation.
Will the bullpen be a problem this season?
• You never like to see 20 swing and misses. Nor is it good to see 10 strikeouts. The Phillies are an aggressive team and that'll occasionally hurt them. They like to take an extra base, put their foot on the pedal when they have a chance to steal a bag, and yes, their chase rate is always a thorn in the side.
It's also worth mentioning that the Phillies did not draw a walk until the eighth inning when the game was well in hand, not long after Harper told reporters he is setting a goal of walking 140 times, 10 more than his MLB best total and career high of 130 in 2018. Plate discipline is going to be a key stress point this season and if times get tough it could be due to their swing-happy tendencies.
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