PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies opened the 2026 season talking about their offense as a strength that would carry them.
Three games in, it looked more like a question that followed them.
That was the undercurrent of the opening weekend at Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies dropped two of three to the Texas Rangers in a series defined not by a lack of talent, but by a lack of finish. The bats, so often capable of overwhelming opponents, instead moved in fits — stretches of traffic without damage, innings that never quite turned.
It was familiar.
Too familiar.
On Saturday, the Phillies managed just one hit through eight innings before rallying for three runs in the ninth to force extra innings in an eventual 5–4 loss. It was a late jolt that underscored the issue rather than erased it — a lineup built to dictate games instead chasing one.
This wasn’t about being overmatched. It was about not capitalizing.
And when that shows up in March looking like it did in October, it gets noticed.
The Phillies will try to reset that tone Monday night when they open a series against the Washington Nationals, with Taijuan Walker on the mound. Walker’s role in this one is straightforward: keep the game in front of him.
He doesn’t need to dominate. He needs to stabilize.
Limit the damage. Avoid the inning that flips the game. Give the offense a chance to find its rhythm without asking it to climb uphill.
Especially against a Nationals club that arrives with a little early-season momentum.
Washington took two of three from the Chicago Cubs over the weekend, showing the kind of opportunistic offense and steady pitching that can make them uncomfortable to play against, even if expectations remain modest. They’re young, aggressive, and capable of extending games long enough for something to happen.
They’ll hand the ball Monday night to 30-year-old left-hander Foster Griffin, who will be making his first major league start in his eighth career appearance — and his first time pitching in the majors since 2022.
It’s an unconventional matchup.
Griffin doesn’t come in with a track record that suggests dominance, but that can work both ways. For a Phillies lineup still searching for timing, an unfamiliar arm with little recent major league exposure can disrupt rhythm just as easily as it can get exposed.
That’s the balance.
The Phillies should control this game on paper. But they haven’t consistently controlled innings yet — and until they do, matchups like this don’t always play to script.
So the focus shifts back where it started.
Not to the standings. Not to urgency.
To execution.
Can the Phillies turn baserunners into runs instead of leaving innings unfinished? Can Walker give them a start that keeps the game from drifting? And can they avoid letting a Nationals team, fresh off a series win, linger into the later innings?
Because if the first weekend was just timing, it will fade.
But if it was a reminder, then Monday night becomes something more than the fourth game of a season.
It becomes the first real answer.
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