On Day 1, Phils operate according to the script
PHILADELPHIA » With a breezy glance at the past performances, acknowledgment of John Middleton’s generosity, a surface knowledge of how they have performed in the last few seasons and a pinch of reality, predicting the course of the 2022 Phillies was going to be something less than a brain-teaser. They would hit.
Their starting pitching would be OK.
A complex bullpen would have its moments.
The defense would rest. So it would be, one game into a season scheduled for a buck-62, that it was about how the Phillies behaved in a 9-5 Opening Day victory Friday over the Oakland A’s. Everyone would hit, some would field, Aaron Nola would hit a wall and Joe Girardi would make due with an improved bundle of relievers.
As for what else to expect, that would require evidence.
Would the Phillies be less likely to wilt under pressure than they were in Girardi’s first year and a half? Would they be able to pick up a starting pitcher who had a good day but not a performance likely to inspire an early Cy Young Award candidacy?
Would they work counts, make the defensive plays necessary to win, hit the ball hard with regularity and show a crowd of 44,232 that, well, maybe it will all be different this time?
That, the Phillies did in a day that effectively began with their big-money, freeagent left-fielder rocketing a home run on a 3-2 pitch off a billboard on the facing of the upper deck, and ended with their big-money, freeagent closer working a 1-2-3 ninth to cue the playing of High Hopes.
“It sounds like,” Joe Girardi concluded, “you’d probably draw it up. Right?”
Specifically, the manager was referencing the first-inning, leadoff home run of Kyle Schwarber, and an RBI double from Nick Castellanos in the seventh. But in answering a question about whether a lot of it felt “storybook” considering how some meaningful offseason changes also changed the Phillies’ image, he was onto that, too.
“The great thing about it is that we had the lead and then they got close and we tacked on runs,” Girardi said. “Guys had good at-bats. Everyone contributed. All my guys contributed offensively. There weren’t necessarily a lot of home runs. There were a lot of base hits, big base hits with guys in scoring position. And to me, sometimes you have to manufacture runs like that, and our guys did a great job with that.”
There was one home run, Schwarber’s keynote blast in the first. But from top to bottom of the lineup in the first all-in season for the DH in the National League, everyone either worked long counts or hit the ball hard somewhere. Batting eighth, Bryson Stott, the rookie who snagged Alec Bohm’s thirdbase job, had two hits, including a double. Batting ninth, Matt Vierling delivered a long, sacrifice fly RBI.
And every one of the newly arranged top five hitters — Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper, Castellanos and Rhys Hoskins — did some box score decorating. Schwarber had two RBIs. Realmuto had a hit and scored a run. Harper
made a down payment on another MVP plaque with two runs, an RBI and a double. Castellanos had the big, late hit. And Hoskins was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
Said Harper: “I thought the lineup performed to the best we could there.”
The Phillies hit. Give them that. But their base-running was clumsy. Though he did have some difficult chances, Stott did not elicit images of Mike Schmidt at third. Hoskins will never be a reliable defensive first baseman, evidently. And Aaron Nola was just good enough to win … yet also to keep Oakland involved.
“I just think he got a little
bit tired probably, “Girardi said. “You’re trying to stretch guys out a little bit. He did really well through six.”
Too often in the past, that would not have been enough. Instead of taking on runs, the Phillies would have tried to hang on. And the bullpen would not have been as tough-minded as it was Friday, when Jeurys Familia, Brad Hand, Seranthony Dominguez and Corey Knebel — each with some achievement as a bigleague closer — combined for four strikeouts over the final four innings.
“The bullpen came in and threw the ball really well,” Harper said. “Having Ser come back was great.
And then Knebel came in and closed the door.
“All around, it was a pretty good game. And we’ve just got to keep that going from here on out.”
There are 161 more games, so there is the odd chance they might not all begin with smashing a baseball into an advertising sign and end with a spotless, eight-pitch ninth.
For one day, though, the Phillies showed that was a possibility.
For one day, they showed that they could perform just about as they were designed.