It’s Opening Day and Connor Brogdon pitched.
There were plenty of great moments on opening day. Charlie Manuel threw out the first pitch to Larry Bowa after overcoming a serious stroke. Zack Wheeler opened his 2024 season with six scoreless innings and five strikeouts. Brandon Marsh started his season off strong with a two-run home run off a tired Spencer Strider.
The rest of the Phillies collapsed with bad defense, a combined 0 for 14 with two walks from one through four in the lineup, and awful command from the bullpen.
Spencer Strider pitched four dominant innings with his fastball looking strong, his slider as sharp as ever, and a new curveball that Phillies hitters just couldn’t sit back on.
It was the fifth inning where the Phillies offense got going off two of Strider’s only mistakes of the afternoon.
After Bryson Stott fell behind 0-2, he fouled off a couple of tough pitches before getting a hanging curveball to knock a single right past a diving Ozzie Albies. Brandon Marsh got a terrible two-strike fastball right down the middle. When he makes contact, good things typically happen.
MARSH MADNESS#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/wGG4B8su3D
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 29, 2024
After six strong innings from Wheeler that included a jam in the fifth because of a bad Trea Turner error, the newly extended Matt Strahm came in against the bottom of the Braves lineup.
Michael Harris slapped a single off the end of his bat into center field right away. After Sean Murphy had to leave the game and a Travis d’Arnaud strikeout, Strahm missed his inside fastball to Orlando Arcia for a double that went right over a leaping Marsh.
Brian Snitker went to Adam Duvall off the bench for Jarred Kelenic and Rob Thomson left Strahm in. He missed a slider badly over the heart of the plate for a two-run double to tie the game.
Jeff Hoffman came in right after to face the top of the Braves order. He walked Ronald Acuña Jr. on four fastballs but found his command to Albies and Austin Riley. The garbage man took out the trash with a perfect down-and-away splitter to Albies for a ground out and a Riley strike-out.
José Alvarado got the ball to begin the eighth inning against the middle of the Braves order and got a bit unlucky in the beginning. Matt Olson took a sinker down the left field line for an 82.2 mile-per-hour double.
Marcell Ozuna moved him over with a flyball to right and the infield played in when Harris came up. Alvarado gave him some gas over 100 mph but Harris was able to ground the ball very hard into the ground to bounce over the shaded infield.
What happened next was not unlucky. d’Arnaud walked on five pitches followed by a strikeout from Arcia. With two outs, Duvall didn’t need to swing his bat to walk down to first. Acuña then hit a 109.4 mph single past Turner for a single into left field and Alvarado’s day was over.
Connor Brogdon came in with the bases loaded but just needed to get one more out. He started with a wild pitch that scored d’Arnaud to make it 5-2 and then walked Albies to load the bases again.
After a walk to Riley that made it 6-2, Matt Olson pulled a changeup down the right field to clear the bases and put the final nail in the coffin.
Nick Castellanos drove in Alec Bohm in the ninth like Chris Paul hitting a game-seven three and that’s all she wrote.
Aaron Nola gets game two against Max Fried. Both pitchers started their teams’ opening days the previous year. There are 161 games left to play.
Here are some other notes from today’s game:
Zack Wheeler looked fantastic through six innings. His fastball sat around 94-95 mph which is a tick lower than last year but he still generated plenty of whiffs.
The stuff surrounding his fastball also made up for it. He got Harris to chase multiple curveballs early in counts and his splitter generated plenty of soft contact to left-handed hitters.
Now that he has a bunch of options to attack left-handed hitters, he didn’t need to throw his cutter very much. After throwing it 14.4% of the time last season, he threw just two against the Braves in 89 pitches.
He also threw a couple of back-door sinkers that generated ridiculous run. He barely missed getting them off the plate but it’s still something to monitor. These sinkers looked Aaron Nola-like.
Zack Wheeler juussst missing with this Two Seamer than ran 23 inches.
A couple more inches of break and this would’ve been the prettiest pitch of the day. pic.twitter.com/bM0iPGTwaz
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 29, 2024
The Bryce Harper-Spencer Strider matchups were a joy to watch. First was a Strider strike out where Harper went to attack early on high fastballs. After falling behind 0-2, Harper was able to lay off a 98 mph fastball up and in, a slider right off it, and a spiked curveball. Strider finished the job by jumping the fastball right by him for a strikeout.
Next was again Harper going fishing early on a fastball for a chase out of zone but he laid off three tough sliders inside before Strider lost him for a walk. Strider usually generates chases on those sliders as they play right off his fastball.
One through four in the lineup went a combined 0 for 10 with seven strikeouts and two walks and Nick Castellanos chased several out of the zone breaking balls—the offense combined for just five hits today, two of which from Alec Bohm.
Johan Rojas kept the bat on his shoulders for a six-pitch walk and he then stole second base. Speed is the best part of his offensive game and he should steal 40+ bags if he plays enough.