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Philadelphia Phillies kicked off their 2025 season today down at Nationals Park and a few guys on the roster Really stuck out to me in game one of 162 we're gonna get into all of that today on the newest episode of Phillies digest But before we do do that, I do want to remind you guys if you have not subscribed to the channel already to please do So just over 35% of our viewers have subscribed so far as I mean 164 basically 65% of our viewers from our videos have not hit the subscribe But we want to make sure the Phillies digest continues to grow here We are now over 3,000 subscribers in under six months of really being a channel so I want to make sure you guys are continuing to subscribe continuing to watch and Continuing to stay with Phillies digest for all things Phillies here on YouTube the number one place For all sorts of Phillies content, but the Phillies got their first win of the 2025 season today down at Nationals Park. It was a 7-3 win in some free baseball Yes, the Phillies and Nationals went to extra innings today after a pretty Dominant start from both pitchers obviously the standout of today's game If you guys did not watch was Mackenzie Gore of the Washington Nationals six innings one hit no runs No walks 13 K's Mackenzie Gore had it going today for the Nationals in the first six innings of The game he was on track at some point to finish with the most strikeouts on opening day by one pitcher in the history of Baseball this is from Paul Gosella of MLB comm Mackenzie Gore has 12 strikeouts through five innings pitch Obviously, he won't go the distance on opening day, but to put 12 K's into perspective Here's how many K's each pitcher had through five innings pitch in the only 20 K games in MLB history Scherzer 11 Randy Johnson 11 would 11 Clemens 12 Clemens 12 That is some pretty insane company Mackenzie Gore was practically on pace for 20 strikeouts at some point today And yes, I I know a lot of you guys probably hear that and say oh man Bottom line is the Phillies are 1-0 and while the first 5-6 innings didn't look that great The last 4 to 5 really did the Phillies offense really got it going late in the game the second that Gore got out of the game Bryce Harper obviously tied this game up at 1-1 with his first career Opening day home run as a Philly and then two batters later Kyle Schwarber gave the Phillies the lead with the first Swarm of the season, but one of the bigger things from today, and I know a lot of guys talked about this after the game And it's tough Because yes this happens for all players and everyone's playing on the same field And it was obviously the case for the Nationals as well Zach Wheeler had an unbelievable day today six innings pitch Two hits one earned run two walks eight K's He was dealing early Five of his first six outs were strikeouts and those first five strikeouts the last pitch of that strikeout Was a different type of pitch from Zach Wheeler every time But I will say the shadows were not in the favor of either team today This was from Alec Bowman sort of a jokingly manner after the game I will say this this quote got a little blown up on my Twitter a lot of people were kind of making fun of bone because of the quote, but Realistically he was just kind of joking around hence the 30 times, but he said after the game. You can't see the ball That's why we struck out 30 times. We should probably stop playing at four o'clock So there's a good product for people that come to the stadium But would eventually go on to say that it is really really hard for these hitters to hit in these shadows It's basically you can't see any spin on the ball The ball is coming at you like a little black dot if if the hitter is in the shade and the pitcher is in the sun It's hard to get that sort of, you know translation there, but nonetheless the Phillies won today and that is what matters Alec Boehm a Big hit in the 10th inning obviously a name that was sort of on the block all offseason Bryce Harper spoke after the game and and he was asked by one of the reporters about Seeing that for Bowman and seeing after the offseason that Boehm went through of trade rumors and and a lot of bad talk on His name and and and him as a player to see Boehm get that big hit obviously Alec Boehm He did not watch the game had a two-run double in the 10th inning For the Phillies that would clear the bases and give the Phillies a 5-3 lead JT real Muto would then go on to hit a two-run triple to give the Phillies a 7-3 lead and Matt Strahm would eventually close it out, but there's a lot of really big takeaways from today Obviously, there's it's it's hard to you know Talk about so many things on opening day because it's the first game of a seven-month season It's it's it's not you know, it's not 95 degrees out there. It's not summer baseball. It's you know, low 60s high 50s It's windy. There's guys in long sleeves March baseball is hard. It's it's not easy It's hard to pull some takeaways out of there But one guy that I was really impressed with today and I have been impressed with all spring is Jose Alvarado Another one two three inning from Jose Alvarado that took us two extras in the ninth He topped out at 101 three not a single sinker thrown was under 98 miles per hour Jose Alvarado did not allow a run in spring training and he is continuing that today He looked unbelievable today. He just looks very in control of his pitches in control of his body and I think a big reason of that for Alvarado is All of the weight that he lost Alvarado lost a ton of weight this offseason. He looks healthy. He looks in shape. He looks Just better out there on the map The arm did not take any sort of black from losing that weight once again topped out today nearly at a hundred and two miles an hour on March 27th his first outing of the regular season Alvarado look great a reliever that didn't look great Was Jordan Romano today his Phillies debut? He got roughed up a little bit, but I will say this is the time of year where I try not to get too Crazy on guys that have bad outings right a reliever who was injured last year in his first real baseball and probably about a year Giving up a few runs. It's it's it's not the end of the world to me and I get it Yes, I didn't want Jordan Romano to blow that game and the Phillies end up losing But I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you guys and and sit here and say Jordan Romano's cook if it's not true It was a bad outing. I I have full confidence in Romano that he will get things sort of together I mean, I will say I did like how he battled through that And he started off with seven straight balls a walk and a hit by pitch and then he got two pretty big outs after that He obviously did allow a single eventually to tie the game but I like Sort of the battle that I saw out of Romano today. And and once again, I do want to remind everybody It is March 27 is game one of 162 do not overreact. I know it's hard I know we want to sit there and a lot of people like to watch baseball season like football and and you're die-hard in Every single game every loss matters and and well, it does it it really doesn't So yes, I thought today was a a nice first game for the Phillies But for me Jose Alvarado was the big story and I think if you can go into this season now having another dominant lefty with Matt strong because I think one of the biggest things of Last season was Matt strong was really the only good left-handed reliever in the Phillies bullpen They didn't have another dominant left-handed option whenever they needed a lefty It was always Matt strong and now it doesn't have to be Alvarado got the first ninth inning of the season today They saved Alvarado for the ninth. They saved strong for an eventual 10th. It seems like starting right now Alvarado and strong could be splitting some ninth inning time because both guys look really good today I mean Matt strong's out there throwing like that one two three inning with a glued fingernail I want to see what happens when his fingernails normal Obviously if you didn't hear and you probably what the heck is this dude talking about Matt strong was dealing with a finger injury He was packing his daughter's toys the last day down in spring training in Clearwater and he got a piece of cardboard Accidentally shoved in between his finger and his fingernail Practically ripped like almost all of his nail off, but they said he actually glued his fingernail back to his finger today But yeah, so strong looks good Alvarado looks good the Phillies offense look good late in the game I like what I saw as far as the approach late in the game once the shadows sort of went away They were working counts. I did love what I saw from Trey Turner today as well He saw 21 pitches in his first three at bats Averaging around seven pitches per at bat and I think that's gonna be big for Trey, you know How can Trey continue to improve his approach in the leadoff spot? The number one thing is he needs to see more pitches. He has to get deep in town work pitchers, right guys like Trey guys like Scott Marsh The guys that aren't gonna hit 40 home runs for you a year But are gonna continue to hit single double steel bags, right work counts make starting pitchers work And I thought Trey Turner even though he didn't have a good day at the plate. I thought he did really good at That today so that is gonna do it today on the newest episode of Phillies digest the first recap of the 2025 season myself and Sean Bernard will probably be doing a good amount of these sort of recaps just in case you guys didn't get To watch the game instead of going back and if you don't feel like watching a two and a half hour replay of the game We kind of run through it all in about nine ten minutes here So once again, if you have not subscribed to the channel already, please do so Just about 65% of you guys that are watching our videos have not subscribed yet This is the only place to be on YouTube for all things Phillies content So once again, it's been the newest episode of Phillies digest My name is Luke Arcani and I will see you guys