The Los Angeles Dodgers arrived at Citizens Bank Park looking like baseball’s inevitable superpower — a perfect 8-0 record, a fresh World Series ring, and a roster that cost more than the GDP of a small nation. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman. A billion-dollar lineup. The heavyweights of the sport.
Then the Phillies happened.
No fireworks. No bold declarations. Just a calm, confident three-game set in early April that saw the Phillies do what no team had yet done in 2025 — beat the Dodgers. Twice.
They didn’t just hang with them. They won the series. Ohtani? One hit all weekend. The Dodger machine? Jammed up by a Phillies club that suddenly looks a lot more dangerous than even the most optimistic corners of Clearwater were whispering six weeks ago.
Rob Thomson wasn’t biting on any overhype. “It's so early in the season, I don't really take too much out of this," he said, brushing off the magnitude of taking two of three from the defending champs like it was a Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Just another stop on the schedule. Just another set of games.
Sure, Rob. But the fans knew better. This wasn’t just another April weekend. This was the moment the 2025 Phillies officially introduced themselves to the national conversation.
Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to South Philly in Dodger blue turned into a three-day stare-down with pitching that refused to blink. He went 1-for-11 with five strikeouts and just one walk. His lone hit was a single. He came up in the ninth inning Sunday as the tying run, digging in against José Alvarado and 100 mph of sinker fuel — and grounded out softly to first.
There will be no montage of that highlight in Japan.
“We want to show people that we’re a good team,” Nick Castellanos said. “And I think this weekend we did a good job.”
They did more than that.
They threw a little cold water on the Ohtani Show and reminded everyone — themselves included — that what’s on paper doesn’t always translate to the dirt and grass of South Philly.
That’s not to say it was all sunshine and Wawa hoagies. The bullpen, despite the outcome, brought a few frowns — none bigger than the one Jordan Romano left the mound with on Sunday afternoon.
Romano, signed over the winter to help close games and eat up high-leverage innings, has looked every bit like a guy who didn’t pitch much in 2024 and is still searching for his rhythm. Tasked with protecting a two-run lead in the seventh, he faced five batters and retired none. Nine-hole hitter Andy Pages lined a single on a 1-2 count. Shohei Ohtani walked. Mookie Betts doubled. All three scored. The lead vanished. The boos arrived.
That’s now three rocky outings in five for Romano, who has struggled with command, velocity, and tempo. He’s been behind in counts. He’s looked rushed and uncomfortable. The Phillies believed enough in his elbow — surgically repaired and blessed by the medical gods of winter — to give him $8.5 million. Now they’ll need to see if the rest of the package shows up.
Still, even with Romano’s misfire, the weekend had a pulse. You could feel it in the building. A little buzz that doesn’t usually hang around town in April. Dave Roberts even acknowledged the vibe.
“I think that both teams like to use each other as a barometer or benchmark,” he said. “There’s a little bit of that. There’s a lot of familiarity. We haven’t played them in a lot of postseason games in recent years, but there’s a little rivalry with us, which is interesting in a really good way. We’ve both been good for so long. I think we play similarly. There’s a lot of star power on both ball clubs. I think there’s a mutual respect. I enjoy playing these guys.”
The Phillies, for their part, aren’t chasing headlines. But it’s hard to ignore the signals: a 7-2 start — their best since 2019. Three straight series wins to open a season for the first time since 2011. A team playing clean, confident, and quietly believing in its own ceiling.
So, no, you won’t find any champagne corks bouncing off clubhouse walls in April. But if you’re keeping score at home, the team with the biggest spotlight in baseball just came to town undefeated.
And left with a losing record in Philadelphia.
