The Philadelphia Phillies' bats were silent in their opening series loss to the Texas Rangers.
With how many question marks there are in the Philadelphia Phillies pitching staff to begin the season, a strong start to the season was always going to fall on the offense.
However, Philadelphia’s lineup wasn’t its sharpest during its first series against the Texas Rangers. Because of the slow start from the Phillies’ bats, they dropped their first series of the season with losses in the second and third games.
Through the first three games of the season, Philly’s offense hasn’t been where anyone would like it to be. The team has just a .570 OPS in their first series against the Rangers, and most of that came in the late innings. The Phillies were no-hit through the first five innings of both Saturday and Sunday’s contests.
“I mean, thats gonna happen at times. We got eight walks today, so the discipline has been pretty good. Like I said, I think at times, we’re just trying to do too much; just past the baton and move the baton and move the line,” said Thomson.
For the Phillies to wake up their bats, they need to get the top three hitters in the lineup of Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper going. The trio combined to go five for 37 (.135 AVG) in the opening series.
One of those hits came from Schwarber, who blasted a home run in his first at-bat on Opening Day. After that, though, his bat went quite alongside Harper and Turner.
Mar 28, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies infielder Bryce Harper (3) bats against the Texas Rangers in the first inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn ImagesHarper acknowledged that this wasn’t the start the team was hoping for coming into the season, but is confident that they can quickly turn things around.
“Personally, I thought they [the at-bats] were okay three games in,” said Harper after Sunday’s loss. “Obvioulsy, not a start we wanted to have, and a weekend, but we’ll get there.”
Credit has to be given where it’s deserved, too; the Rangers had some very impressive pitching performances in this series, especially McKenzie Gore, who had a very strong outing on Sunday, striking out seven batters and generating 15 swings and misses.
Still, the Phillies need to figure out ways to capitalize on scoring opportunities, and they simply weren’t able to do that over the weekend.
The Phillies will open up a three-game set with the Washington Nationals starting on Monday. If Philadelphia’s bats wake up in this series, then the opening series will be water under the bridge. But if they don’t, there could be some early panic alarms ringing for the Phillies.
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