Takeaways from Phillies’ 7-2 start: ‘Concerns’ for Jordan Romano, Edmundo Sosa’s ‘real’ production

Six pitchers lounged in a circle and decompressed over a few beverages. Other players showered and dressed. Staff traversed the room with equipment bags, like commuters hustling through 30th Street Station at rush hour.

And Jordan Romano sat at his locker, staring at his phone.

“Hang in there,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said, walking by briskly.

» READ MORE: Phillies win clash of the NL titans, taking two of three games from the Dodgers

The Phillies are off to a 7-2 start, their best since 2019. They won their first three series for the first time since 2011 and the 11th time in the franchise’s 143-season history. They just took two of three games from the defending World Series champion Dodgers, undefeated through eight games when they got into town.

Yet there are “concerns” — to use manager Rob Thomson’s word — about Romano, whose fastball velocity is down at least 2 mph on average from his career norm.

“It’s something we’ve got to check into,” Thomson said.

The Phillies made a choice in December. With free-agent reliever Jeff Hoffman seeking a multiyear contract, they replaced him with Romano, a two-time All-Star closer for the Blue Jays who accepted a one-year, $8.5 million offer after an injury-marred 2024 season.

Romano looked healthy in spring training. He didn’t have aftereffects from surgery last July to repair a pinched nerve in his right elbow. Thomson doesn’t designate a closer early in the season, but if there was a leader in the clubhouse to assume that role, it was probably Romano.

And with Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts due up in the seventh inning Sunday, Thomson trusted Romano to hold a two-run lead.

» READ MORE: Top prospect Andrew Painter's journey to Philadelphia is set to begin with low-A Clearwater

Romano’s first three pitches registered 92.9, 93.7, and 94.1 mph. He gave up a leadoff single to No. 9-hitting Andy Pages, then walked Ohtani before Betts banged an RBI double.

Out came Thomson to take the ball.

Romano maintains that he’s healthy. Feedback from the training room corroborates that opinion. Clearly, though, something isn’t right.

“Usually when I rear back for one, it’s 96, 98 [mph],” Romano said. “Today it just wasn’t there. I feel fine physically. I’m just not sure. I’m trying to throw a good heater, and it’s just, it wasn’t there today.”

But it wasn’t only Sunday. Romano’s velocity fluctuated dramatically in each of his five outings. Ten of his 89 fastballs were 96 mph or harder; nine didn’t crack 93 mph.

Maybe it’s a matter of mechanics. Like many closers, Romano struggles with controlling the running game. The Phillies worked with him in spring training on a slide step to keep runners closer. But pitchers who aren’t accustomed to the slide step can lose velocity or command, or both.

After coughing up a two-run lead in the eighth inning on opening day in Washington, Romano noted that his velocity began to tick upward later in the outing after his delivery started to feel “more comfortable.”

» READ MORE: Everyone is intrigued by the torpedo bat, including the Phillies. Will it be a revolution or a fad?

Could his delivery be the root of the problem?

“Yeah, you know, it could be,” Romano said. “I’m going to look at some video, really dive in and try to figure this out really quick. I’ve got to get the velo up. Because when the velo’s right, it helps the slider, too. I feel like when the velo’s down, it’s easier to take the slider.”

Until Romano figures it out, Thomson could use righties Joe Ross and José Ruiz in late-and-close situations. But the Phillies ultimately need Romano to handle that role, or else they’ll need relief help at the July 31 trade deadline.

A few other takeaways from the first nine games:

Edmundo Sosa has at least two hits in every game he has started. It follows, then, that he should start more often.

OK, but how?

Sosa is a bench player behind a locked-and-loaded infield. Thomson won’t sit Trea Turner. Or Alec Bohm. Bryson Stott might get a few days off against the best lefties (Chris Sale, for example, Tuesday night in a series-opening showdown with Zack Wheeler in Atlanta), but even then, at-bats for Sosa will be hard to come by.

» READ MORE: In Year 7 of the Bryce Harper era, the Phillies have one last chance to get it right with this core

It was notable, then, what happened Saturday in the ninth inning. With the Phillies trailing 3-1, Sosa hit for Brandon Marsh, then stayed in the game in center field.

And in only his fifth career appearance in the outfield in a regular-season game, he drifted back to haul in Tommy Edman’s sharp liner and tracked down a fly ball by Enrique Hernández.

If Sosa proves to be viable in center field or left, it would provide another avenue to playing time if Thomson chooses to sit lefty-hitting Marsh or Max Kepler against a left-hander.

“We have to really look at this because so far it’s real,” Thomson said. “It’s two hits every game. He’s played great at third; he’s played great at short. He did well in center field. We really have to get into the lab and try to figure out some stuff to get him in the lineup.”

Ohtani went 1-for-11 with five strikeouts in the series, including three against Cristopher Sánchez in Sunday’s finale.

What was the Phillies’ secret?

“I can’t tell you that,” Sánchez said through a toothy grin and team interpreter.

Fair enough. But the pattern seemed clear: Phillies starters went right after Ohtani with their best pitches.

To wit: Sánchez set up Ohtani with hard sinkers and put him away on a changeup, his signature pitch, in the first inning Sunday. He struck out Ohtani on the changeup again in the third, but threw only one in the fifth en route to whiffing Ohtani on a sinker.

» READ MORE: The Bryce Harper conversation: Why he’s open to an outfield return, his love of Pilates, playing past 40, and more

Everything was located down. In each at-bat, Sánchez got ahead in the count.

Aaron Nola used the curveball, his best pitch, to get Ohtani to strike out and ground out Saturday. Ohtani won an eight-pitch duel for a walk by fouling off back-to-back two-strike pitches.

The Phillies might have benefited from good fortune, too. Jesús Luzardo went after Ohtani with fastballs in the first two at-bats Friday night, and Ohtani hit balls that left his bat at 100.5 and 110.1 mph. But the wind knocked down both, keeping them in the ballpark.

No luck was required in the sixth inning, though. Ohtani came to the plate as the go-ahead run, and Luzardo executed a dirt-diving changeup to strike him out.