It was a beautiful day to watch some baseball in Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and close to 45,000 fans were packed inside the ballpark. The Phillies trailed most of the game, but something magical occurred in the seventh. The team came to life, and the crowd knew it. Each pitch, swing, and cheer culminated in a moment no one could possibly have anticipated.
Phillies Spark A Comeback As Edmundo Sosa And Kyle Schwarber Seize Control
The Phillies had trouble early in the game, as Colorado Rockies ace Germán Márquez held them scoreless for six innings. But that all changed in the seventh. Bryson Stott knocked a solid double against Scott Alexander, which set up the big moment. Manager Rob Thomson made his move and Trea Turner pinch-hit. Turner, who had missed a couple of games with back issues, fought at the plate and kept the inning going. That's when Edmundo Sosa saved the day. With two base runners, he hit a double, scoring both players and placing the Phillies in the lead. The crowd cheered. But this was not all. Immediately after Sosa, Kyle Schwarber hit a home run over center field, widening the Phillies' lead. The team had, in a matter of minutes, turned the entire game around.
Max Kepler And Nick Castellanos Prop Up Phillies' Home Opener Victory
The Phillies weren't finished. In the eighth inning, Max Kepler came up and hit the ball over the field again for another home run. The crowd was still howling when Nick Castellanos hit a home run on the next play. Consecutive homers sent the ballpark into pandemonium. The Phillies’ offense remained tepid against starters earlier in the game, but against the Rockies’ bullpen, they were a different team. They batted .386 against relief pitchers, showing that once they had an opening, they knew how to exploit it. Fans commented, "Go Phils!" "O YEAH that’s my boys," another fan said. "Striking out in style," another fan commented.
With a final tally of 6-1, the Phillies provided their fans with the ideal home opener. It was a game of power, strategy, and moments that would be remembered forever. The team had made a statement, and the fans departed the stadium knowing one thing for certain, this season was going to be exciting.
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PHILADELPHIA - Edmundo Sosa ripped a two-out, go-ahead two-RBI double in the seventh inning and Kyle Schwarber followed with a mammoth homer to center field to rally the Philadelphia Phillies to a 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday. The 2024 NL East champions had a little help in their home opener from their Super Bowl champion friends across the street. Philadelphia Eagles Brandon Graham and Saquon Barkley surprised the roaring crowd with a pair of first pitches.
With two runners on base in the seventh and two out, the Phillies put Graham on the big screen, and he raised his arms exhorting the crowd to get loud. Sosa delivered for the just-retired Graham. He lashed his second double of the game, this one to right-center off Rockies reliever Victor Vodnik to score Bryson Stott and Trea Turner for a 2-1 lead. Schwarber then connected for his third homer of the season, a 434-foot blast that made it 4-1. Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos hit back-to-back homers in the eighth. José Alvarado and Jordan Romano each worked a scoreless inning of relief to preserve the win.
Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings and allowed Hunter Goodman's solo homer in the sixth. Sánchez was immediately lifted for Orion Kerkering. Kerkering got the last two outs, and Joe Ross (1-0) earned the win with a scoreless seventh.
Key moment: Turner missed the last two games with back spasms. He pinch-hit in the seventh with a runner on and two outs against reliever Scott Alexander (0-1). Turner fell behind 0-2 before he worked four straight balls to reach base as the tying run. Key stat: Germán Márquez made only his sixth start over the last three years (four in 2023, one in 2024) because of injuries. He struck out four and walked none over six scoreless innings for Colorado.
Up next: The series resumes Wednesday when the Phillies send RHP Zack Wheeler (0-0, 1.50 ERA) to the mound against Colorado's Kyle Freeland (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
It took two hours from first pitch, but with the weather cooperating and with just under 45,000 fans on hand for the home opener, the Phillies did not disappoint. They trailed by a run entering the bottom of the seventh inning but again exploded vs. the opponent's bullpen, scoring four in the seventh and two in the eighth of a 6-1 win. Rockies starter Germán Márquez gained strength and confidence as the game progressed but departed after six scoreless innings with three lefties due up in the span of four batters in the seventh.
Just like Opening Day, the Phillies quickly made the opposing bullpen pay. Bryson Stott hit a lefty-on-lefty double off of Scott Alexander with two outs to bring up Brandon Marsh, and manager Rob Thomson pinch-hit with Trea Turner. Turner was out of the lineup for a third straight game after feeling his back lock up pregame Saturday, but he took grounders Monday afternoon and should return to the lineup Wednesday. Though he didn't start the home opener, Turner's one plate appearance was extremely important, prolonging the seventh inning for Edmundo Sosa to hit a go-ahead two-run double and Kyle Schwarber to hit an absolute bomb off the ivy wall past center field.
In the eighth, Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos went back-to-back. "It shows the depth of the lineup," Schwarber said. "We always preach that it's not gonna be one person, two people, three people. It takes a village to go where we need to go." Philadelphia Phillies find the latest Philadelphia Phillies news, highlights, analysis, and more with NBC Sports Philadelphia.
The Phillies have hit .386 with 12 extra-base hits in 57 at-bats against relievers compared to .224 with five extra-base hits in 85 at-bats vs. starters. "Going into my fourth year here, if we don't score runs and we get into that bullpen, you feel like you're one swing away," Schwarber said. Thomson's enjoyed the late offense but quipped that he'd "like to get to a starter here pretty quick, getting a little anxious coming down to the end."
Schwarber and Sosa are both off to scalding starts. Schwarber is 6-for-17 with three homers and six RBI. Sosa is 6-for-11 with three doubles and has multiple hits in each game he's played. It certainly wasn't ideal for Turner to miss a couple of games so early, but it also afforded Sosa more at-bats than he would have otherwise received and a chance to find a groove at the plate. "You saw it last year, too, when Trea went down," Thomson said. "When Sosa gets a chance to get some consistent at-bats, he shows what he can do. He's extremely important. You're gonna have injuries over the course of the year and he can fill in almost anywhere. When he gets a chance to play, he plays well."
Castellanos is also seeing the ball well. He singled and homered Monday after walking four times over the weekend in D.C., his most walks in any series as a Phillie. The home opener was a pitchers' duel for five innings with both Cristopher Sánchez and Márquez throwing up zeroes. The run Sánchez allowed came on a solo homer by catcher Hunter Goodman in the top of the sixth. One of Sánchez' strengths is avoiding homers; the first he allowed last season came vs. the 111th hitter he faced. Sánchez pitched well aside from that one at-bat and only added to the offseason hype by averaging 96.5 mph with his fastball, two full mph faster than last year.
It took him a few innings Monday to find his bread-and-butter changeup, but he had it working from the third inning on, striking out five of six batters at one point. José Alvarado, who also had an electric spring, struck out the side in the eighth after the Phillies took their three-run lead. Alvarado threw 16 sinkers, and they averaged 100.0 mph on the dot. Jordan Romano pitched a scoreless ninth to rebound from a two-run outing on Opening Day. The Phillies pick back up on Wednesday against the Rockies, who they've beaten in 11 of the last 12 meetings at Citizens Bank Park. Zack Wheeler will be on the mound for that one. Good luck to Bud Black's bats.
