De George: In whatever order, Phillies’ offensive grit has shown early

PHILADELPHIA Rob Thomson crafted a lineup for Opening Day, that most vaunted and largely symbolic of baseball traditions, and watched the plan last one day.

Subject to the whims of Trea Turners back and J.T.

Realmutos foot, the first starting nine was little more than one of 162 in the 2025 season.

Through its first four installments, the Phillies are 3-1, after Mondays 6-1 home-opening rally past Colorado.

And spoiler alert it hasnt been because Thomson divined some magical lineup, pulled like an Arthurian sword from a stone.

If Thomson had the omnipotence to script the first four games, chances are he wouldnt have alighted on this exact path, injuries notwithstanding.

Mondays effort, clobbering an inferior Rockies bullpen after struggling with starter German Marquez, reinforces what cut through the noise of all the spring lineup bloviating.

Far more important than where everyone hits in the Phillies order is the who, and even more than the individuals, its the relationships between the players and their embrace of whatever passes for pressure on a given day, informing performances like Mondays.

If the opening weekend showed anything, its that Kyle Schwarber can and will mash home runs wherever in the lineup he is placed.

And that Turner can as easily take the collar in the leadoff hole as anywhere else.

But it also proved that once the Phillies lineup gets rolling, they can string together hits in a hurry and expose struggling pitchers (apologies to Colin Poche).

They fight, Thomson said.

Even (Sunday), we had the bases loaded with nobody out in the ninth.

So I always trust them.

Theyre always fighting, always battling.

Theyre always competing.

Mondays spark came from the bottom of the order.

Bryson Stotts two-out double off a lefty in the seventh kicked off a four-run rally.

Turner, pinch-hitting, worked a walk, then Edmundo Sosa scored both by crushing a double to center.

Schwarbers two-run bomb off the batters eye completed it, allowing space for Max Kepler and Nick Castellanos to tack on solo shots in the eighth.

Its easy to look at it and have everyone be frustrated, shocked, whatever it is, Schwarber said.

But youve got that in the back of your head knowing that were capable of doing that, and just keep the same mindset throughout the whole game.

I feel like we do a really good job of that.

The Phillies bats have begun the season with fascinating splits off starters and relievers.

Through four games, they are hitting .231 against starting pitchers and .386 against relievers.

There are sample distortions beyond the miniscule size, namely that they faced the best starters Washington had and a former All-Star in Marquez, and that the two bullpen theyve battered figure to be pretty bad ones when all shakes out this season.

The faulty hitting against starters is a seed of a concern.

The Phillies struck out 13 times in six hapless innings against MacKenzie Gore in the opener, shadows or not.

For five innings, they were neutralized by Jake Irvin Saturday, then held scoreless into the seventh by Mitchell Parker.

Monday, they got nothing against Marquez, an All-Star in 2021 making just his sixth start since the end of 2022 thanks to Tommy John surgery and a stress reaction in his elbow last year.

He got through the heart of the order three times the top four went 1-for-12 against so that the Rockies could target a high-leverage lefty at the bottom of the order.

But then the Phillies went 7-for-10 against the Rockies bullpen.

A Kepler single, Stotts double and Turner pinch-hitting for Brandon Marsh turned the tables on Scott Alexander, an instance of average-defying moxie that some might describe as clutch.

Right now were feasting on bullpens, Thomson said.

But Id like to get to a starter here pretty quick.

A little anxious coming down the end.

Four games is not a representative sample.

Its brief enough for anything to happen.

Its also the length of a certain haunting playoff series from last fall, or the length of time it took for the offense to blink out in the 2023 playoffs, leading to an early and unthinkable exit.

Nothing Thomson can do will change that fundamental math.

The Phillies have the horses, if they remain healthy, to play to the averages over a season and land in the playoffs for a fourth straight season.

Those same talents, particularly on offense, are enough to win games and series in October.

But a game or two of four (out of, to pick a random number, seven) can fall away where the offense underperforms.

When that occurs in the first four games of the season, its a trend.

When it happens over four games in the middle of June on the road in Pittsburgh and Detroit, its just a long season passing.

When it happens against the Mets in the postseason, its a tragedy that calls the whole project into question.

There are no solutions to that latter quandary except for reaching the playoffs and performing there, as they did for most of 2022.

When they get there its officially an if, but shaded heavily toward when what will be most vital to reversing recent history isnt the order that Thomson writes the names on the batting card.

Instead, its the kind of belief and trust in one another shown on days like Monday.

Contact Matthew De George at [email protected]..

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