GDT 3/26/26 Texas Rangers (Eovaldi) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Sánchez, C)

[LoneStarPhan]

Disappointing to tarnish the win with a bad ninth inning, but regardless, it is a win.

Four of five pitchers used by the Phillies end with a 0.00 ERA while one leaves with an 81.00 ERA.

Phillies score all five runs on two home runs. Kudos to Schwarber and Bohm.

Great start from Sanchez going six shutout innings. Two scoreless innings from the pen before Backhus gives up the 3 runs in a third of an inning in the ninth.

Duran gets a save and I guess with tomorrow off, the bullpen will be ready for the weekend.

So good to start the season with a win.

[EastFallowfield]

According to Jayson Stark (and the TV crew)

Johan Duran just became the first Phillies reliever ever to save a game at home on Opening Day

[andyb]

How is that possible?

[EastFallowfield]

He prefaced that with "this seems impossible..."

[andyb]

3 years ago Kimbrel got the save.

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=202304070PHI

[EastFallowfield]

That wasn't Opening Day though

[andyb]

I guess Baseball Almanac listed opening day as home openers. Strange stat.

[EastFallowfield]

Yeah, I was looking at that too. Some walkoff wins, some non-save wins, a bunch of losses, I'm already back into the compete game eras.

[zambonir]

Nice opener. Backhus still a TBD. His stuff just may be too easy for a right-handed bat to hit.

radio said he has like a 1.000 OPS against career

[BostonRoss]

The first time I went to an opening day I got to see a blown save by Tug McGraw--but I was happy!

New York Mets vs Philadelphia Phillies Box Score: April 6, 1974 |...

[Austinfan]

Bowlan looked good, I think he's solidifying a BP slot.
Pop has very good stuff, but his command was erratic, give him a mulligan for first game, but if he isn't sharper, he's headed to Lehigh or waiver wire when Wheeler and Kerkering return.

Backhus is out of here, might have had a shot in the LOOGY days, but not when he has to face 3 batter, when 1 or 2 will be RH hitters.

Duran seems to be broadening his repertoire, last season 4 seamer, 97 MPH splitter, knuckle curve.
This game 4 seamer, 97 MPH 2 seamer, splitter at 87 and sweeper.
If he's turning his splitter into a changeup type pitch and going with 4 seam/2 seam combo, hitters will be crying "no mas."
Has trouble locating the new splitter, but that may just need some time to master it.
Or maybe it's the knuckle curve misidentified?
But the 2 seamer doesn't look like his splitter from last season.

[EastFallowfield]

From John Fisher, sports researcher, on twitter:

Saves became official in 1969. Since then, the Phils' season opener was at home 23x.

They only won 8 of them and 3 did not present a classic save situation. The other 5:
️ Complete game
️ Complete game
️ Walk-off
️ Walk-off
️ Walk-off

[DurhamBull]

8-15 in home openers, yeesh. I guess the good news is that there's lots of room for improvement!

[andyb]

They were not identifying Duran's pitches correctly (mainly his curve). Everything else is the same even if he is expanding his usage of that offspeed pitch.

[EastFallowfield]

Home openers that were the first games for that season in the save era are all the qualifiers for that stat

[zambonir]

Backhus is out of here, might have had a shot in the LOOGY days, but not when he has to face 3 batter, when 1 or 2 will be RH hitters.

He has all three options left, but yeah, they seemed overly bullish on him given his performance against RHP and the fact that Mayza made the team. He probably goes for Kerkering; Pop hangs around until Walker moves to the pen. We should be so lucky as to only ever use the bottom of the pen when leading 5-0!