BY ROCK HOFFMAN
With a 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies in the home opener at Citizens Bank Park, the Philadelphia Phillies continued a trend they've established so far in the young 2025 season - they've feasted on bullpens. In four games, the Phils have plated 25 runs, all but two of them have come off relief pitchers. Through six innings against the Rockies, they didn't have many opportunities with runners in scoring position. They were 0-for-three, coming off an 0-for-nine performance in those situations on Sunday against the Washington Nationals.
That changed in the seventh inning, with two outs, Bryson Stott doubled to the right field corner. Trea Turner, who was cleared to play just before the start of the game after missing all but Thursday's season-opener in Washington, pinch hit for Brandon Marsh - against lefty reliever Scott Alexander - and worked a walk after being down in the count, no balls and two strikes. After Victor Vodnik came into pitch, Edmundo Sosa ripped a double to the gap in right-center. Stott scored easily to tie the game (a solo home run in the six by Hunter Goodman accounted for the Rockies run) and Turner raced home, showing no signs of the stiff back that had kept him out. Next, Kyle Schwarber bombed a ball off the batter's eye, just to the right of the 401 sign in center field to make it 4-1. That's all it took, two batters, five pitches, and four runs had scored.
"I'd like to get to a starter here pretty quick," said Phillies manager Rob Thomson, "because I'm a little anxious coming down to the end."
"It's easy to look at it and [for] everyone to be frustrated, shocked, whatever it is," added Schwarber, "but you've got it in the back of your head knowing that we're capable of doing that and just keep the same mindset throughout the whole game. I feel like we do a really good job of that and we're going to continue to do a good job."
A couple of early walks helped get Phillies starter Christopher Sánchez's pitch count up and he was done with one in the sixth after Goodman's homer. The bullpen pitched the final three-and-two-thirds innings allowing only four baserunners.
"I think it shows the depth of the lineup," said Schwarber when talking about Sosa's contribution in Turner's absence. "We always preach that it's not going to be just one person, two people, or three people. It's a group and it takes a village to go to where we need to go. That's the beautiful thing about our game, it could be a couple of dudes for a week and the next thing you know it's the next couple of dudes or it's the whole lineup or it's the top, or the bottom. Whatever it is it's coming through. That's why you love this game, it's not just one person, it's always going to be someone else on a different day."
Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos hit back-to-back homers in the eighth inning to send the sellout crowd of 44,595 home happy after the Phillies four home opening win in the last five years.
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