Did the Phillies win the World Series on April 6th? No.

But they won an early-season barometer-type series against the defending champion LA Dodgers. Great entertainment and a good litmus test, or temperature check, if you will. The Phils improved to 7-2 on the year and haven’t lost a series yet, while on the “what needs to improve?” side we’re learning more about what this team needs if its going to return to the World Series since the gradual decline from 2022.

Let’s go Posidelphia/Negadelphia on the big weekend series, starting with the former:

Positives

1. opponents cannot and should not run on J.T. Realmuto
2. Jesus Luzardo is a stud
3. good at-bats in later innings
4. Edmundo Sosa, you are the man
5. for whatever reason, Citizens Bank Park is Shohei Ohtani kryptonite

J.T. Realmuto essentially closed out Friday night’s win, gunning down a couple of runners in the 8th and 9th innings. Since becoming a Philadelphia Phillie in 2019, nobody in Major League Baseball has thrown out more runners than Realmuto. And among active catchers, only James McCann and Salvador Perez have a higher opponent caught stealing (oCS) rate.

From there, you go to the starting pitching. Jesus Luzardo was excellent in game one, striking out eight batters and walking two over seven scoreless innings. He’s been lights out in two outings since the winter trade. Aaron Nola had his moments in game two while Cristopher Sanchez got through almost six innings in game three conceding four runs on six hits while striking out nine.

RE: the offense, lots of good things, like a low chase rate, but you especially like the late stage at-bats that we saw in this series. The Phils scored four runs in the 7th inning or later, twice being the difference in one-run wins. What was particularly nice was the way they responded on Sunday afternoon, coughing up a 6-2 advantage only to plate two runs in the bottom of the 7th and retake the lead. Bryce Harper opened with a double and Max Kepler walked, then Bryson Stott knocked Harper in with a bloop single to right. Edmundo Sosa came up with one out and was able to leg out a fielder’s choice to score Kepler from third, which wound up being the game-winner.

It was another multi-hit game for Sosa, who was red hot going into the series, yet came out of the lineup. Reinserted on Sunday, he went 2-4 with the RBI and a strikeout. He has 11 hits in the five games he’s started this season.

And on the other end, Shohei Ohtani finished the series 1-11 with five strikeouts. He just does not play well at Citizens Bank Park, which is something you’d like to see in October. Looking at his updated splits, he’s slashing just .250/.365/.296 for a .661 OPS in 12 appearances at CBP.

Negatives

1. Jordan Romano totally stinks right now
2. confidence in the bullpen as a unit
3. Alec Bohm
4. probably still need an outfield bat
5. Aaron Nola, sort of?

Jordan Romano has really had a rough start to his Phillies career. He almost blew Friday night’s game before Realmuto bailed him out, then was dinged for three earned runs on Sunday before Orion Kerkering, Matt Strahm, and Jose Alvarado came in to see out the victory. Romano gave up five of the 12 Dodgers runs scored in this series despite only pitching one total inning on the official box score.

Romano’s struggles are the symptom of a larger bullpen issue. They’ve got some battlers in that group, but it’s thin, and you don’t feel super comfortable with most of those guys in high-leverage situations at this particular moment. It was pretty obvious going into the season that the bullpen was going to be a question mark after the Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez departures, and if this team is what we think it is, they’ll be deadline buyers.

Alec Bohm, meantime, played Friday and Saturday, finishing 0-8. He did knock in a run on a ground out but was quiet otherwise. Notably, Sosa played 3rd on Sunday afternoon and had another good game. Bohm hasn’t started well, just .200/.222/.229 on the slash line for a .451 OPS. Now you’ve got fans and media calling for Sosa to stay in the lineup and not come out, and that either means sitting Bohm down to get Sosa at 3rd base, cycling through infield rest, or experimenting a bit in the outfield. The tricky thing is handling Bohm’s confidence and not overreacting here, considering how poorly he finished 2024.

Speaking of outfield experimentation, Kepler has cooled off a bit. He walked three times in the series but went hitless. Brandon Marsh scored Friday’s game winner via ground out, but finished the series 0-8. As usual, the only reliable offensive production from the outfield is coming from Nick Castellanos, who knocked in half of the Phillies’ runs on Sunday.

Finally, maybe reaching a bit with Aaron Nola Negadelphia, since Saturday’s start amounted three earned runs through six innings with not-irreparable damage. He hasn’t gotten much run support in a 3-1 loss and 5-1 loss in his first two starts. But he did give up a pair of home runs in each of those games and the long ball continues to bite him. His mistakes are punished in a way that other Phillies’ pitcher mistakes are not, and it’s really the one blemish on his game. As his fastball loses speed, the margin for error shrinks, and when he misses, the ball ends up in the bleachers. Maybe we bring back the “is Aaron Nola an ace?” discussion this year, but did the debate ever really go away?

Aaron Nola’s repertoire and skill set are about much more than just velocity, but his fastball the last 4 seasons has gone from 93.1 to 92.9 to 92.6 to 91.7. Every little bit you lose hurts, especially when you’re always around the plate.

— Corey Seidman (@CSeidmanNBCS) April 5, 2025