Phillies take a 2-0 lead over the Rockies thanks to Kyle Schwarber sliding home.
Zack Wheeler took the mound Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park for his first home start of the season, where he dominated for seven innings, allowing one run on three hits.
The Phillies' ace collected his first win in 2025 with a 5-1 feat over the Rockies and put a bow on the outing with his 26th-career double-digit strikeout game (10).
What, did you expect anything different?
Rob Thomson certainly knows it's the standard at this point in Wheeler's career.
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"He was great," the Phillies manager said after the win. "It seems like the same thing every night, you know?"
The only standout was Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman hitting a home run off of Phillies starting pitching in back-to-back games. The Rockies have two runs through two games in this series — and they both belong to him.
Now 4-1 on the young season, the Phillies secured back-to-back series wins to open their 2025 campaign. It marks the 20th time in franchise history.
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Slowly — and emphasis on slowly — but surely, the offense is finding ways to score against opposing starting pitchers. Prior to Wednesday, 23 of the Phillies' 25 runs came against bullpen arms.
The club added to that production against Rockies left-hander, Kyle Freeland, who came into the game with a 0.00 ERA after pitching six scoreless innings to open his season against the Rays.
After an Alec Bohm single a la torpedo bat in the fourth inning, Kyle Schwarber kept his early hot streak alive with an RBI double. It's the first time the Phillies scored first through five games.
Schwarber crossed the plate shortly after, when J.T. Realmuto dribbled a knuckle curve a few feet out of the batter's box.
Aggression at the plate, awareness on the base paths and complete consistency early on has shown it doesn't matter where Schwarber's name is penciled in the lineup — the designated hitter is going to produce.
He's currently leading the club in runs batted in (7), home runs (3) and runs (5 — tied with Bryson Stott).
But at the moment, what is somehow more impressive, is the heater Edmundo Sosa is on.
Sosa made his first start at second base this season and collected a mere three hits and two RBI. He now has four consecutive multi-hit games and is leading the team in hits (9).
It's a good, yet difficult situation to be in when a bench player is producing at this caliber. He started in place of Trea Turner for three games while the shortstop was dealing with a hip issue — he's now back. He started in place of Bryson Stott today with the club facing off against a lefty — that won't be the case for the next handful of games. What's a manager to do?
"I'm going to call MLB and see if we can play 10," Thomson jokingly replied when asked if he's going to try to get Sosa in the lineup for Thursday's series finale against the Rockies.
It doesn't hurt to ask, right?
There is still cause for concern regarding the lineup and the inability to do more damage against opposing starters. In the fifth inning, they loaded the bases with no outs in the heart of the order — and left them stranded with three consecutive punch outs from Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm and Schwarber.
But when you're finding ways to win this early and often to start the season — a problem like this can get tossed to the wayside … for now.
