The Phillies celebrated the Eagles and then got around to their own party in a ‘fun’ home-opening win
Brandon Graham and Saquon Barkley amped up the crowd, which had to wait until the seventh inning to crank up the volume for the Phillies, who powered their way to a 6-1 win over the Rockies.
A few minutes past 3 o’clock Monday, “Fly, Eagles Fly” boomed through the speakers, and Brandon Graham and Saquon Barkley walked on the field, the Lombardi Trophy in tow.
How on earth were the Phillies supposed to top that?
If we’re being honest, that’s the loudest it was ever going to get at the 22nd opener of Citizens Bank Park, even if the Phillies hadn’t snoozed through six innings. But when Edmundo Sosa’s line drive split the gap in right-center field with two outs in the seventh, well, crank up the volume.
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Sosa, the backup shortstop who started his third consecutive game in place of banged-up Trea Turner, lashed a two-run double to erase a deficit and awaken the offense in a 6-1 victory over the Rockies before a sellout crowd of 44,595 paying customers in the first baseball game of 2025 in South Philly.
“It was a fun day,” said Kyle Schwarber, who followed Sosa’s go-ahead hit with his third homer in four games. “That’s the beautiful thing about opening day, especially at home, where you get the crowd going, the juices going, the excitement going. You bring in some big guns there with Saquon and BG and get them going even more.”
The Phillies’ third win in four games followed a familiar script. Cristopher Sánchez provided a stellar start, just like Zack Wheeler on opening day in Washington and Jesús Luzardo one day later. And the offense showed up late, hammering an opposing bullpen after being muted by a starter.
This time, it started with Bryson Stott’s two-out double against Rockies lefty reliever Scott Alexander. Turner, who hadn’t played since Thursday because of back spasms, came up as a pinch hitter for Brandon Marsh and drew a six-pitch walk.
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With Turner in the game and the Rockies going to righty Victor Vodnik, the Phillies could have sent up lefty-swinging Kody Clemens. But Sosa doubled in his previous at-bat, so manager Rob Thomson “decided to stay with him.”
Good call. Sosa jumped on a slider and knocked in Stott and Turner to open a 2-1 lead. Schwarber banged a two-run homer to make it 4-1, and away the Phillies went, with Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos hitting back-to-back homers in the eighth inning.
Before that, though, the Phillies mustered only four hits against Rockies starter Germán Márquez, just as they struggled over the weekend against the Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore and Mitchell Parker.
“Right now, we’re feasting on bullpens, but I’d like to get to a starter here pretty quick,” Thomson said. “It gets a little anxious coming down to the end.”
In all likelihood, Turner will be back in the lineup Wednesday against the Rockies. After getting treatment for two days in Washington and taking grounders before the game, he was cleared to be available off the bench.
Turner’s return will force Sosa back into a reserve role. But Sosa played well last season when Turner missed six weeks with a hamstring injury. He got spiked on a hard slide into second base Sunday, his pants ripping on the cleats of the Nationals’ Jacob Young. Sosa plays with energy and views himself like an NBA sixth man. And Thomson uses him accordingly, sprinkling him into the lineup whenever possible.
» READ MORE: Phillies’ Bryson Stott says torpedo bats aren’t for him, but teammate Alec Bohm is already trying them
Sosa said he feeds off Thomson’s confidence.
“The manager trusts me by putting me in the lineup,” he said through a team interpreter. “It never crossed my mind [that he would be lifted for a pinch hitter]. I was ready for that at-bat, and he entrusted me with it.”
The Phillies trusted Sánchez with the home opener because, in part, he pitched much better last season here (2.21 ERA in 17 starts) than on the road (5.02 ERA in 14 starts).
But it was also a cap-tip to his meteoric rise from also-ran to All-Star.
And in case getting the nod before the first sellout crowd of the season on a virtual holiday in South Philly wasn’t complimentary enough, how about this from Thomson before the game?
“He’s at a point where he’s the combination of power and command,” Thomson said. “Much like Wheeler is.”
Praise doesn’t get much higher than that around the Phillies in 2025.
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Sánchez didn’t disappoint, either. He cranked up his sinker to 98.1 mph to strike out Sean Bouchard in the fifth inning and averaged 96.5 mph. He made Rockies hitters swing and miss 15 times, 12 of which came on his signature changeup.
Through five innings, Sánchez allowed three hits (all singles) and didn’t let a runner advance beyond second base. But with one out in the sixth, he left a full-count slider — his 93rd and final pitch — over the plate to Hunter Goodman for a 1-0 Rockies lead.
Better late than never, though, Sánchez’s teammates excused his only mistake.
And they made sure folks had more to cheer about than just the Eagles.
“If we don’t score runs and we get into that bullpen, the next thing you know you feel like you’re one swing away, and we were able to get that done,” Schwarber said. “It’s easy to look at it, and [for] everyone to kind of be frustrated, shocked, whatever it is.
“But you’ve got in the back of your head knowing that we’re capable of doing that and to keep the same mindset throughout the whole game.”