Phillies Opening Day spirals out of control as soon as Wheeler hits the showers

When Brandon Marsh cut through the wind to send a 96 mph Spencer Strider fastball over the wall in left-center field and give his team a two-run lead Friday afternoon, it looked like it would be the Phillies’ day.

They were nine outs away from securing an Opening Day win over the Braves team they expect to compete with for the next six months, three short innings from getting off to the fast start they prioritized after beginning last season 0-4.

Manager Rob Thomson turned to the bullpen in the seventh inning after Zack Wheeler’s six goose eggs and what followed looked more like the Brandon Workman-Heath Hembree experience of 2020 than the revamped Phillies relief corps that was ranked last week by MLB Network as baseball’s best.

The reliable Matt Strahm, who had a 3.29 ERA last season with 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings and just 2.2 walks, surrendered hits in the seventh inning to three of the first four Braves he faced, two of them doubles. The score was tied by the time he exited.

Jeff Hoffman put out the seventh-inning fire, but Jose Alvarado doused gasoline onto it in the eighth. Alvarado allowed a double, two singles, walked two and was charged with five earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning, the worst outing of his career. Things spiraled out of control for the Phillies, who lost, 9-3.

Alvarado and Strahm were two of the Phils’ most consistent performers last season and are two huge pieces of their pitching staff moving forward. Both pitched well in camp, particularly Strahm, who ended it by signing an extension that could be worth up to $15 million over two additional years if his 2026 option vests.

Bullpen performance is volatile. It’s similar to being an NFL kicker. You come into pressure-packed moments and are expected to deliver. When you do, it’s typically unnoticed. When you don’t, it’s the opposite