Phillies Return Home for Pivotal Division Matchup Against the Nationals
The Phillies will return home for a rematch of the opening series of 2025 against the Nationals. Unlike the first series, both teams are on completely different paths from where they started the year. The Phillies came into this season with a lot of expectations, and at first, they performed well with a 7-2 record. Since that last series win against the Dodgers, the Phillies have been a completely different team. The team’s record has dropped to 13-12 after being swept by the New York Mets last week, causing fans to panic. However, the Phillies picked up a massive series win over the Chicago Cubs to push their record back above .500 at 15-13. As for the Nationals, the team came in with not a lot of expectations for the year due to their young core. That has not been the case, though, as the Nationals have competed in each game all season long and come into the matchup with three straight series wins. Additionally, the Nationals are right behind the Phillies in the NL East with a 13-15 record, which proves how vital this series is for each team up to this point in the year.
4/29 – 6:45 p.m. EST
In the series opener against the Nationals, it will be a rematch of the opening-day starters this year. Zack Wheeler is going for the Phillies against Mackenzie Gore for the Nationals. In the season opener, Wheeler ended up getting the win over Gore, but both pitchers performed extremely well. Gore started his season red-hot against the Phillies as he went scoreless through six innings while striking out 13 batters. Since then, Gore has been trying to recapture the success from the first game this season. His ERA jumped up to 3.34 to go along with a 2-3 record. However, looking at the positives of his season, he is first in the MLB in strikeouts with 53. Right behind Gore is the man that he will be going against, Zack Wheeler, who has 50 strikeouts this year. This season, up to this point, has been up and down for Wheeler, despite being reliable in the past. After his first two starts of the season which he only gave up a combined two runs. Wheeler struggled against the Braves and the Cardinals and gave up nine runs across the two games. However, Wheeler has settled back to form and has only given up four runs in his next two games to drop his ERA to 3.62. The Phillies will look to have a better performance against Gore than the season opener, but also hope for Wheeler to perform as he did in that first start.
4/30 – 6:45 p.m. EST
In the pivotal second game of the series, the Phillies have not yet announced their starting pitcher for the game, but it will be Jake Irvin starting for the Nationals. Irvin has performed well up to this point with a 2-0 record and a 3.19 ERA. At the beginning of the season, Irvin struggled in his appearances except for the game against the Phillies. Irvin gave up four runs in two of his first three appearances. However, Irvin has been dominant in his last three starts. He has gone at least six innings in each of the games while only allowing a combined three runs in 20.2 innings of work. As for the Phillies' offense, the team will need to hop on Irvin quickly, unlike what they did in the first game against him. The group has struggled to get on pitchers all season but just picked up a massive series win against the Cubs that could spark some fire into the lineup.
5/1 – 6:45 p.m. EST
In the series finale, it will be Taijuan Walker for the Phillies against an unknown pitcher for the Nationals, as they haven’t announced a starter. For Walker, this season he has performed well compared to the previous years in Philadelphia. In his previous two seasons, Walker struggled heavily with a 4.38 ERA in 2023 and then a 7.10 ERA in 2024. However, this season, Walker has a 2.78 ERA across five games and has only really struggled in one outing against the Giants. Outside of that performance, Walker has allowed two or fewer runs in each of his other starts. The Phillies need Walker to keep up his performance so far this season as they look to capture the series win over the Nationals. As for the Nationals’ lineup, the unit is led by James Wood, who is batting 0.257 this season with eight home runs. Additionally, catcher Keibert Ruiz has served as the right-hand man for Wood this season, as Ruiz is hitting 0.297 this season. The Nationals’ offense is dangerous, so the Phillies will need Walker to be on top of his game against them.
