March 27, 2025

Opening Day observations: Alec Bohm, Phillies' bats come alive in extras to beat Nats

Alec Bohm and J.T. Realmuto drove four runs across with pivotal hits in the 10th to get the Phillies to an opening win.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Reggie Hildred/Imagn Images

Alec Bohm was the Opening Day hero.

It took a while to get going, but when Opening Day reached into extras, the Phillies' bats came alive just in time.

Alec Bohm knocked in the deciding two runs, and J.T. Realmuto drove in two more for insurance as the Phillies took their 2025 opener against the Nationals, 7-3, on Thursday down in Washington after 10 innings.

Zack Wheeler was stellar again, Bryce Harper homered in his old stomping grounds, too, and Kyle Schwarber also hit a solo shot in the cleanup spot, but the Nationals had enough opportunity to stay with them through nine innings.

The Phillies, however, were able to outlast them.

Here are the running observations from Game 1 of 162...

• Trea Turner led off and struck out swinging to start the game. Put Kyle Schwarber back.

• Schwarber hit cleanup and lined a single into center to begin the second after a 1-2-3 opening frame. Nevermind, leave him there.

• Schwarber was then thrown out taking a lead and trying to steal second...He really is a leadoff hitter...

• Between Schwarber's base hit to start the second for the Phils and Keibert Ruiz's single to begin the bottom of the third, Zack Wheeler and Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore tossed eight consecutive strikeouts combined. Gore collected five of them through a run of J.T. Realmuto, Max Kepler, Nick Castellanos, Bryson Stott, and Brandon Marsh, while Wheeler K'd a Washington side of Josh Bell, Nathaniel Lowe, and Paul DeJong.

• Through four innings, Gore was carving up the Phillies' lineup with nine strikeouts and just that single hit from Schwarber allowed. Harper went down swinging twice in his first two plate appearances, and after Gore fanned Alec Bohm on five pitches, the left-hander walked back to the Nationals' dugout with only 62 pitches thrown. After five, Gore was up to a career-best 12 Ks from setting a side of Schwarber, Realmuto, and Kepler down.

12 hitters up
9 players down via the strikeout

MacKenzie Gore is dealing on #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/PfRySpGk7Y
— MLB (@MLB) March 27, 2025

• Wheeler matched Gore beat for beat with five strikeouts and an ultra-efficient 52 pitches through four innings, but the pitchers duel started slipping into an eerily similar feeling from several months ago, albeit with much lower stakes. Back in Game 1 of the NLDS, Wheeler was shutting down the Mets, but the Phillies' bats never got going, so the pressure fell on him to hold everything together, all while New York sat and waited for the Phils to eventually reach into their bullpen. Wheeler couldn't go the whole day, the Phillies couldn't outlast that approach, and that game, along with the series, fell apart. Thursday in D.C. could've fallen into the same trap, with concern over the Phillies' free-swinging bats persisting, and especially after Ruiz broke the scoring in favor of the Nationals with a two-out solo home run in the fifth. Wheeler recovered quickly, though, and got out of the inning in the next at-bat, then made quick work of the sixth.

• For the seventh, Washington made the first reach into the pen, and pulled Gore for reliever Lucas Sims. Harper got a first-pitch fastball on the low-inside corner and crushed it for the 1-1 tie to wake the Phillies up...

Bryce. Harper. Delivers. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GyjzOT3vAh
— MLB (@MLB) March 27, 2025

Then Schwarber, after another Washington swap to Jose Ferrer two at-bats later, saw his pitch right away and launched it into the right-center seats for the 2-1 lead...

An #OpeningDay Schwarbomb for the lead 😤 pic.twitter.com/RfJDf7sNGs
— MLB (@MLB) March 27, 2025

OK, maybe Schwarber will be alright in the cleanup spot, though no one was on base for him for some real damage like the Phillies had in mind for this one.

• Wheeler's day was done after six innings of one-run ball, with just two hits, two walks, and that lone homer allowed. The Phillies' ace struck out eight in total to begin his 2025 campaign. Orion Kerkering took over in the seventh inning and held the line despite a fielding error in shallow center and then a Nathaniel Lowe hit to short putting runners at second and third with one out. Kerkering sent DeJong down swinging and then forced Ruiz into a groundout to end the frame. He also got Ruiz to bite on a sweeper that hit him in the shin.

Swinging at a ball that doinks you in the shin.

Ball is back. pic.twitter.com/OEbWfttv1P
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) March 27, 2025

• The Phillies looked like they were sitting relatively pretty after escaping that jam. Kepler led off the eighth with a double for his first official hit as a Phillie, and then Castellanos worked an eight-pitch at-bat before reaching for a low changeup that he looped into left to push Kepler to third. A wild pitch from Ferrer brought the new outfielder home and put the Phillies up, 3-1.

• Jordan Romano, however, couldn't preserve the lead. He walked Dylan Crews and then hit Jacob Young with a pitch to start off his first appearance as a Phil. The two executed a double steal to get themselves into scoring position with no outs, and a CJ Abrams ground out to first was opportunity enough to get the first run across. Romano got the Nationals' James Wood called out on strikes for a huge second out, and backed Luis García Jr. into an 0-2 count quickly, but the second baseman battled the count back even, then dropped the fifth pitch into center field to bring home the tying run.

• The ninth presented the chance for the Phillies to put a major dent in the game and needing only three more outs after. Bohm singled off Kyle Finnegan right away, then, after a Schwarber groundout and a Realmuto strikeout, Kepler and Castellanos both worked walks to load the bases. Stott, with two outs, stepped up and worked his own nerve-racking way into a 3-2 count, but on the payoff pitch, he got too far under it inside and popped out to end the chance there. José Alvarado tore through the Nationals in the ninth, sending the game into extras.

• And that's where Bohm came up big. Colin Poche took over on the mound for Washington and worked the first two outs, but Stott as the ghost runner stole third, Harper managed a walk, and then on another first-pitch look, Bohm took it all the way to the wall in left-center as Stott and Harper both crossed the plate.

Get the RBI machine goin' pic.twitter.com/0HWq1vi8GE
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 27, 2025

Schwarber followed up with a walk, and after the Nationals made another pitching change to Eduardo Salazar, Realmuto sailed a ball down the right-field line that Crews couldn't fully get his glove on. Bohm and Schwarber reached home, too, Realmuto got to third for a triple and that was more than enough.