Sloppiness Dooms Phillies in Opener Against Braves, Drops Them From First Place

It wasn't pretty for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they won the series.

While games in early-April don't matter much in the grand scheme of things since offensive players and pitchers are still trying to find their groove following a long offseason, it still was great to see the Phillies beat the defending World Series champions, especially in a gritty fashion.

Winning tough games is something this group hasn't been able to do during their last two playoff appearances, failing to close out the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023 and being outplayed by the New York Mets last year.

To see Philadelphia grind out victories against Los Angeles was a positive sign, and it left everyone feeling good about the team entering their matchup against the flailing Atlanta Braves.

Picked by many to bounce back and win the NL East this season, the Braves entered Tuesday's game with just one victory on the year.

They made it two by winning the opener 7-5.

A lot of that had to do with the sloppiness of the Phillies.

In the bottom of the second inning, Zack Wheeler was working through the heart of Atlanta's lineup, getting Matt Olson to hit a grounder back to him that resulted in an easy out. It looked like he got Austin Riley to fly out with a lazy pop up to the outfield, but Johan Rojas and Edmundo Sosa had a miscommunication that caused the ball to drop and let the slugger get to second base.

They forgot to catch the ball pic.twitter.com/a3LAI28pQq
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 8, 2025

Wheeler struck out the next batter, but with an extra out given to the inning, Sean Murphy capitalized by hitting a three-run homer to give the Braves a 3-1 lead.

Philadelphia immediately retook the lead in the top of the third, so it looked like that play might not loom large. But it was the precursor to other sloppy plays that occurred for this team on Tuesday.

Wheeler allowed an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning before loading up the bases with a walk. He was credited with the fifth run when Matt Strahm gave up a sacrifice fly before getting out of the inning with the score level.

That's when more mistakes started to come.

Orion Kerkering, who had been lights out to start the year, walked the first batter of the seventh frame before a wild pitch advanced the runner to second. A double would later result in a score.

Tanner Banks gave up a double to the first batter he faced in the eighth. He later walked a batter and allowed a runner to score on a wild pitch, putting the Phillies in the 7-5 hole they couldn't overcome.

On the day, the pitching staff walked six batters and the outfielders had that early gaff, all things that came back to haunt Philadelphia in this one.

As a result, the Phillies no longer lead the NL East.

The New York Mets are red-hot after winning their sixth game in a row, and their 8-3 record puts them a half-game up on Philadelphia, who sits at 7-3.

Championships aren't won or lost this early in the season, but divisions certainly can be.

The Phillies have to clean things up if they're going to come out on top of the NL East for the second consecutive year, especially with how tight this race could be for the rest of the season.

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