Well, this was an interesting game for me as a fan of both teams! The Phillies ultimately won by a big margin of 9-1, but it did take awhile to see much offense. Luis Severino of the A's pitched ok, he got through 5 1/3 innings and allowed a run. Once the A's bullpen came in though, it didn't take long for the Phillies offense to wake up in a big way. The Phillies had a 1-0 lead (a Bryce Harper solo HR in the 3rd) in the bottom of the seventh, but from that point on they took over and pretty much buried the A's slim hopes. The Phillies scored five runs in the seventh and three runs in the eighth. Bryson Stott hit another three-run homer! All of a sudden Stott has three homers along with 8 RBI in the past five games. It's as if as soon as May began Stott's offense really woke up. Bryce Harper later hit his second homer of the game, it was a two-run shot. Harper has been really good this season, zero complaints with him. Throughout all of the weirdness of the Phillies season, Harper has been strong. He now has 9 home runs and his OPS is now at a superb .948!
The real MVP must have been Cristopher Sánchez though. He was awesome on the mound for the Phillies. He pitched 8 scoreless innings of baseball while striking out 10 A's. This was also impressive considering the Phillies only held a 1-0 lead throughout most of his outing!
The A's struggled a bit. It seems that the Phillies are waking up from their slump, and facing a waking up Phillies team is always potentially dangerous. The A's also faced one of the better pitchers in baseball in Cristopher Sánchez. So it was just all-around a rough go for the A's.
I saw that Shea Langeliers and Carlos Cortes didn't play for the A's yesterday which wasn't helpful. Those two guys are two of the team's better hitters.
It doesn't get much easier for the A's offensively, as they are set to face Zack Wheeler on the mound. Wheeler has looked solid enough so far since returning from injury, he may be primed to have his best performance of 2026. The A's will send out Jeffrey Springs. Springs has been respectable overall.
This will be a real test for both teams tonight. Teams at very different places as a franchise. The Phillies, a roster full of older, more proven players vs a younger mildly ascending team in the A's with a lot of exciting firepower on offense. The Phillies got the first game, can the newcomers respond?