Phils raise pennant, then show why another's in reach

PHILADELPHIA -- It's no secret that the first week of the 2023 season did not go the way the Phillies had planned.

But what better reminder of the euphoria that can come following a slow start than raising the 2022 National League pennant in front of a sold-out crowd at Citizens Bank Park?

That was the scene prior to the Phillies' 5-2 win over the Reds on Friday afternoon -- but it also came with a reminder of what's missing in 2023.

After all, it was injured stars Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins running the "2022" flag up the pole in Ashburn Alley.

Yet on a day when reminders of the club's improbable 2022 postseason run were everywhere, there were also glimpses of what made the expectations so high for the '23 team.

Zack Wheeler, who started the NL pennant-clinching win against the Padres last Oct. 23, turned in a solid start to set the tone. J.T. Realmuto clobbered the decisive home run -- a Statcast-projected 448-foot blast in the same general direction as Harper's NL Championship Series-clinching shot in Game 5.

But it went far beyond the superstar batterymates.

Trea Turner had a pair of hits and scored two runs in his home debut. Nick Castellanos notched a pair of doubles and worked a walk. Every Phillies starter reached base at least once -- and Edmundo Sosa came off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit homer in the eighth inning.

"We've done a lot of good things -- we've gotten a lot of hits but haven't necessarily scored, and we've pitched at times and this and that," Turner said. "We just have to put it all together, and today I thought we did that. We played really well in all facets."

That includes the bullpen, with Craig Kimbrel capping a dominant day from a series of relievers by notching his first save in a Phillies uniform. Newcomer Gregory Soto also worked a scoreless frame, while José Alvarado has struck out eight of the 10 batters he has faced this season after striking out the side in the eighth.

"That's kind of how we drew it up, right?" Realmuto said. "With our starting pitching and how good our bullpen is ... our pitching is going to keep us in a lot of ballgames."

That was already the case with the injuries to Harper and Hoskins, but the Phillies' depth will be tested even more after it was announced that Darick Hall will undergo surgery to repair a torn UCL in his right thumb.

But the issues facing the 2023 Phillies aren't all that different from the ones from '22, when Harper missed two months and Wheeler missed a full month down the stretch.

And slow starts? The eventual NL champion Phillies started just 4-8, and they were 21-29 entering June.

"It's a little bit comforting, to us, knowing we went through something similar last year," Realmuto said. "It's not new to us. We know what this adversity is like."

Still, the Phils know that a 2-5 start is not what anybody had in mind -- and it wasn’t simply a one-dimensional problem.

With a large portion of last year’s power supply on the injured list, Philadelphia entered the day with just four home runs. Only the last-place Nationals had hit fewer (two).

Meanwhile, the pitching staff had an MLB-worst 6.98 ERA -- and that issue was split pretty evenly between the starting rotation (5.86 ERA, 25th in MLB) and the bullpen (8.44 ERA, 29th).

But playing in front of the Philadelphia faithful for the first time, the Phillies hit a pair of homers, Wheeler held the Reds to two runs over 5 1/3 innings, and the bullpen pitched 3 1/3 scoreless frames.

“There is such high expectations for our team, which we happily embrace, but we also do know that this season of 162 [games] is a marathon, it's not a sprint,” Castellanos said. “So [we’re] just staying relaxed and letting everything fall into place.”

Eventually, that will include slotting Harper into a lineup that has changed six times in seven games. It will also include newcomers like Turner, Soto and Kimbrel fully settling into their roles in Philadelphia.

The question is whether it ultimately leads to another banner being raised at the 2024 home opener.

“Once we sync up, I'm sure we're going to roll off a lot of ‘W's,” Castellanos said. “All in all, I think when 162 is over … I'm pretty sure we'll be where we want to be.”