The Five Best Signs From Phillies’ Up-and-Down Homestand

There was a lot of good and plenty of bad in an opening Phillies homestand that ended with them going 3-3 thanks to an important and hopefully igniting win on Wednesday afternoon.

Let's dig into the biggest positives today (and biggest negatives tomorrow) of the Phils' first week, what might have been fluky and what will be worth keeping your eyes on as the season progresses:

The rookie centerfielder

How can you not start with the Phillies' top prospect duo that graduated to the major leagues this past week? They certainly don't win three games on the homestand without centerfielder Justin Crawford and starting pitcher Andrew Painter.

Crawford went 7-for-17 (.412) in his first homestand as a major-leaguer, showing all different pieces of his skill set. The first two singles were line drives up the middle off battle-tested Nate Eovaldi.

When the Phillies were being no-hit over the weekend against the Rangers, he broke it up with a dribbler down the third-base line, a sign of many more infield singles to come.

Crawford's walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning Sunday was another example of the value of his high-contact approach. The infield was drawn in with nobody out and runners on the corners and Crawford didn't wait around, delivering on the first pitch with a laced single underneath a diving second baseman's glove.

2️⃣ clutch.

Here's how it sounded with Franzke and LA pic.twitter.com/uce7Cwk6lh
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 1, 2026

Crawford sure looks like he belongs, and like his skill set will translate to the major leagues. We haven't yet seen the havoc he and Trea Turner may be able to cause together on the basepaths out of the 9-1 spots, but that's mostly because Turner had a rough start.

The rookie fifth starter

There aren't many new, fresh words that can be written about Painter following his masterful major-league debut Tuesday night. It wasn't that he dominated the Nationals and pitched into the sixth inning right away, it was that he unveiled his entire arsenal, an arsenal much more closely correlated with veteran starters than 22-year-old rookies.

Painter has a four-seam fastball, sinker, curveball, changeup, slider and sweeper, and he can command all of them. They can all be out-pitches. The fastball maxed out at 99 mph in his big-league debut and was used to both beat and set up hitters for his secondary stuff.

Painter had more velocity than he showed in spring training, averaging a tick under 97, and also had his good curveball and changeup working. His only walk came after he missed by about an inch on a slider, and the at-bat might've been extended to a 3-2 count instead if the Phillies challenged.

Phils fans have been dreaming about Painter since he was drafted in June 2021, and similar to Joel Embiid's debut all those years ago against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Painter showed right away why talent evaluators have gushed for years.

Now, he needs to go out and do it again, and again, and again, and hopefully 30 times this season. His next start is lined up for next Monday in San Francisco.

The Opening Day starter

No pitcher, not even the best, has his A+ stuff and command each start. One of the signs of a true ace is whether he can navigate his way through a successful outing even when he's not feeling his best or able to locate his pitches the way he wants.

On Opening Day, Cristopher Sanchez could do whatever he wanted to the Rangers, scattering three hits over six scoreless innings while punching 10 tickets.

On Sunday against the Nationals, he fought himself, walking four batters for only the fourth time in his career. Still, Sanchez limited the damage to just over a run over 5⅓ innings, the same length Painter gave the night before.

The lefty has a 0.79 ERA and 0.97 WHIP through two starts. He'll face the Giants the night after Painter, April 7 at AT&T Park.

The closer

It wasn't an open-and-shut homestand for Jhoan Duran, who took the loss in the second game of the season when he allowed a second run in extra innings to the Rangers.

But Duran appeared four times on the homestand and the other three outings were crucial.

Duran closed out the Opening Day win after Kyle Backhus inherited a five-run lead but gave two back and put the tying run in the on-deck circle.

He picked up his second save on Tuesday night to preserve a narrow 3-2 win for Painter and the Phillies.

And he earned the win in extra innings Wednesday, striking out Joey Wiemer and getting a line-drive double play to send the Phillies to the bottom of the 10th needing only to score the ghost-runner from second base.

This is why Duran was acquired and why he's such an integral member of the Phillies. The team is built around its rotation and run prevention, and it sure helps to have an overpowering and consistent closer who can finish what the arms in front of him start.

The Phillies would not have Duran if not for the sudden ascension last season of Mick Abel, a former top pitching prospect who couldn't locate well enough in the minor leagues until 2025, when it all came together in the first half of the season. It was enticing enough for Minnesota to show interest in him as the centerpiece of a trade for the lockdown ninth-inning man a rebuilding team no longer needed.

The corner outfielders

Brandon Marsh went 7-for-20 (.350) on the opening homestand and Adolis Garcia went 7-for-22 (.318). Both made difficult catches in Tuesday's one-run win, Garcia in the second inning with two men aboard and Marsh in the ninth inning with the tying run on base.

At the very least, the Phillies knew their outfield defense would be improved with Garcia, a 2023 Gold Glover who was third in MLB last season with 16 Defensive Runs Saved, replacing Nick Castellanos and Marsh spending the year in left field rather than center. But both are doing their thing at the plate early, too.

Garcia hit his first home run as a Phillie, muscling a ball to the first row in right field. We hear a lot about players with enough speed to leg out an infield single, well this was an example of a hitter strong enough to power a ball 10 feet farther to get it into the seats.

Marsh has just been consistently solid, reaching base in all five games he's played with two doubles, four singles, two walks and two RBI. He's staying through the baseball and driving it up the middle or the other way, the clearest sign of him seeing the ball well.

The Phillies need at least one of Marsh, Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm to have a career year to propel the offense forward. We've seen them all do it in first halves or second halves but not over six full months. This is a promising start for Marsh.