PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies know how it looked this weekend at Citizens Bank Park.
They certainly know how it sounded. They heard boos during a pair of losses to the Rangers, including Sunday’s 8-3 loss in the series finale. Fans expressed their frustration about the offense and the sloppy play in the field. But baseball is a 162-game season, and everybody loves to overreact to the first series of the year.
The Phillies believe they will be fine.
“Everybody wants to get off to a good start, but sometimes it doesn’t happen,” shortstop Trea Turner said.
It just didn’t look good. The Phillies were no-hit through 4 2/3 innings in Saturday's 5-4 loss in 10 innings. They were no-hit through five innings on Sunday. They had the bases loaded with no outs in the sixth. They scored twice. The Rangers walked the first two batters in the seventh, but the Phillies didn’t score. Texas walked two batters with one out in the eighth, but the Phillies scored just once.
“We’ve got to get something going earlier in games, obviously,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I think everybody in the lineup is trying to get off to a good start. They’re maybe a little bit anxious. They’ll settle in.”
Everything starts at the top, of course. The top three hitters in Philadelphia's lineup batted a combined .135 (5-for-37) in the series:
• Turner: .154/.214/.154 (2-for-13)
• Kyle Schwarber: .154/.154/.385 (2-for-13)
• Bryce Harper: .091/.231/.091 (1-for-11)
The Phillies chased pitches out of the zone (31.3%), although that was nearly the same rate as last year (30.3%). Adolis García swung at six of the 11 pitches he saw out of the zone on Sunday.
“I don’t think the at-bats have been that bad,” Turner said. “It just feels like we get it going a little late. The first game, we gave Sanchy [Cristopher Sánchez] a lead, and kept rolling from there. The last two games, we’ve just been fighting from behind. So, just get it going a little bit earlier in the game. I just feel like getting back into the rhythm of things and playing every day, it’ll come.”
Turner grounded into two double plays on Sunday. It was only the third time in his career he had done that, and the first time it had happened since 2021.
Turner batted .133 (6-for-45) this spring.
“I’m happy about it,” Turner said about his spring. “Because the best spring I ever had is the worst [regular season] I ever played.”
He is referring to 2023, of course. Turner batted .478 (11-for-23) in his first spring with the Phillies, and that doesn’t include his historic performance (five homers, 1.483 OPS) for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. But then the season started, and Turner batted .266 with a .779 OPS.
“My three best years, I think, I was looking it up -- in the spring, I probably hit .150,” Turner said.
Turner batted .179 (7-for-39) last spring. He went on to win the NL batting title (.303). (.304).
He batted .170 (8-for-47) in the spring of 2021. He won his first NL batting title (.328).
He batted .189 (7-for-37) in Spring Training/Summer Camp in 2020. He batted .335 that season.
“Spring doesn’t really matter, one way or the other,” Turner said. “You get your work in, you get ready. If you come out healthy, I think that’s the most important -- and we did that as a team. When you get five at-bats every day, you get in a rhythm, and things will get going.”
Harper went 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout on Sunday. He heard boos in the sixth inning after striking out with the bases loaded and no outs.
“I thought they were OK,” Harper said about his at-bats in this series. “Three games in. Obviously, it’s not the start we wanted to have, but we’ll get there.”
Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo put the offense in a hole. He allowed six runs in six innings, although García lost a ball in the sun to allow a run to score in the sixth. Luzardo allowed a two-run homer to Brandon Nimmo in the third and a three-run homer to Andrew McCutchen in the fourth.
McCutchen apologized to a Phillies fan near home plate for taking Luzardo deep.
“I’m sorry!” he joked with the fan who had yelled at him as he crossed the plate.
The Phillies homered twice on Opening Day. They didn’t homer the rest of the series.
“It will come,” Turner said.