Phillies takeaways: Patience pays off, containing Ohtani, Romano’s velo, more ABs for Sosa

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PHILADELPHIA — More than five minutes had passed between pitches, and Nick Castellanos waited to swing the whole time. He had seen Tyler Glasnow stomp on the mound with his muddy cleats. He watched Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, wearing a ski cap, take his time to remove his perturbed starting pitcher. Alex Vesia, a lefty reliever, needed longer than normal to prepare. An umpire delivered two dry rosin bags to the back of the mound.

It was misting — not raining hard — and the Phillies had sent five men to the plate in the third inning of Sunday’s eventual 8-7 win. Walk, walk, walk, single, walk. They bled the Dodgers with a patient approach. And Castellanos had five minutes to think about his at-bat.

He was the man for the moment that called for a first-pitch heater.

“I was just ready to go,” Castellanos said.

Nick Castellanos crushes a go-ahead grand slam! 🔔 pic.twitter.com/OHnFwRYol2

— MLB (@MLB) April 6, 2025

This wasn’t the sequence that decided Sunday’s game or a tense three-game benchmark series that went to the Phillies. But Castellanos’ resounding grand slam rewarded the lineup’s patience. On the day, the Phillies drew 11 walks; five of them scored runs. It was only the second nine-inning game in the last 15 years in which the Phillies had 11 or more walks.

Nine games into the season, they have been disciplined. They are near the top of the majors in on-base percentage. There is some chase — they’d love to have back swings against Roki Sasaki’s splitters Saturday — but the overall approach has been solid.

“We’re doing a good job of staying within ourselves and not doing too much,” Castellanos said. “Sometimes I think that the personalities in our lineup, we get excited. And when we get excited, we want to hit. But sometimes the game does not allow you to do so. So I think that we’ve just so far done a good job of keeping our emotions in check and just taking what the game gives us.”

A series win over the Dodgers in April does not say much, but it says something. “We know we match up pretty well against them,” Bryce Harper said. He’s not wrong, although it is hard for any club to outflank the deep Dodgers.

The Phillies have kept Shohei Ohtani quiet, which is something. He went 1-for-11 with five strikeouts and two walks over the weekend. His only hit was a single. He led off the ninth inning Sunday as the tying run against José Alvarado and grounded out to first base on a 100 mph sinker.

Ohtani is 5-for-26 with seven strikeouts and only two extra-base hits against the Phillies since he joined the Dodgers.

“We want to show people that we’re a good team,” Castellanos said. “And I think this weekend we did a good job.”

Romano’s plight

Jordan Romano is removed after allowing three runs and failing to record an out. He has yielded seven runs, six hits and four walks in four innings this season. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)

It’s hard to ignore the situation brewing in the bullpen, and Rob Thomson’s actions Sunday demonstrated the concern regarding Jordan Romano. The manager summoned Romano for the seventh inning to face Andy Pages, Ohtani and Mookie Betts. The Phillies had a two-run lead. It was a situation the Phillies are paying Romano $8.5 million to handle.

But one batter into Romano’s appearance, the Phillies already had action in the bullpen. Romano could not crack 94 mph. The diminished velocity was a problem.

Romano allowed a single, a walk and a double. All three runners scored. He has faced 22 batters this season and allowed 11 to reach base. He’s had wild fluctuations in his fastball velocity; in the first game of the Dodgers series, Thomson said Romano didn’t have the proper time to warm up.

There was no such excuse Sunday.

“It’s something we have to check into because everything out of the training room, there’s no red flags,” Thomson said. “He feels fine. So I don’t know whether it’s kind of a dead-arm issue or what. But it concerns me a little bit that the velocity’s down.”

Romano is perplexed.

“Yeah, honestly, a little bit,” he said. “Usually when I rear back and want to get one, it’s 96, 98 (mph). Today it just wasn’t there. I feel fine physically. I’m just … I’m not sure. I’m trying to throw a good heater, and it’s just not … it wasn’t there today.

“It’s just something I’m definitely going to have to figure out pretty soon.”

The Phillies lost Jeff Hoffman, one of their more reliable relievers, in the offseason and replaced him with Romano. Even if Romano isn’t the set closer, they were expecting him to be a trusted arm late in games. He is not that if he’s sitting 93 mph like he was Sunday.

Without the fastball velocity, his slider is less effective. He is a two-pitch pitcher. Something is amiss. Romano missed most of last season with a pinched nerve in his elbow that required surgery. His fastball averaged 96 mph in spring training.

He looked fine. He doesn’t now.

“But he says he’s fine,” Thomson said. “He’s got a long track record of success, so we gotta, to a certain degree, stay with him and have confidence in him and keep pushing him.”

That’s manager’s speak for finding softer spots for Romano in the immediate future. That could mean an increased role for Joe Ross, who showed decent stuff in a two-inning outing over the weekend.

“I see him as a guy that can give us a couple innings, a little bit of bulk,” Thomson said of Ross before Sunday’s game. “And I also see him, I mean, based on his stuff yesterday, as kind of a leverage guy too. So he’s a good piece to have.”

Starting Sosa

Edmundo Sosa reacts after driving in the decisive run by beating the throw to first base. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

Edmundo Sosa started Sunday afternoon, which was notable because a righty was on the mound for Los Angeles. Thomson had a clean way of squeezing him into the lineup; Alec Bohm hadn’t sat yet. Sosa had two more hits and went from home to first base in 4.32 seconds to avoid a double play in the seventh inning.

That allowed the eighth and decisive run to score.

“I don’t think anything ever amazes us with him,” Harper said. “He’s going to play his game. He brings that energy. He’s a lot of fun to watch. He plays a great third base. He’s done a great job for us this year. And I expect him to do that all year.”

Now, the challenge falls to Thomson. He sounds inclined to find more at-bats for Sosa, even when the Phillies are not facing a lefty starter. Sosa will be in the lineup Tuesday night against the Atlanta Braves’ Chris Sale; the question is who he’ll replace. It could be Bryson Stott at second base, but the Phillies have wanted Stott to find a rhythm.

So it could be in the outfield, either left or center. Thomson has said he wouldn’t use Sosa to replace Brandon Marsh or Max Kepler against a righty. That is fair. Against a lefty? He’d do it.

There is a delicate balance here. For one, the Phillies are not seeking platoons all over the field. They want Stott and Marsh and Kepler to have a shot to prove they are everyday-caliber players. They won’t regularly sit Bohm. Sosa has been overexposed before, but he’s an energetic player who has immense respect inside the clubhouse.

He is 11-for-20 with four doubles, five strikeouts and a walk to begin the season.

“We have to really look at this because so far it’s real,” Thomson said. “It’s two hits every game. He’s played great at third. He’s played great at short. He did well in center field. So we really have to get into the lab and try to figure out some stuff to get him in the lineup.”

Inside the clubhouse after Sunday’s game, Sosa’s teammates were impressed with how he stepped back in the box after Blake Treinen buzzed him with a 95 mph fastball near the face. Sosa hopped up, dug into the dirt with his left foot and stared at Treinen. Then, he beat out the potential double-play ball.

“You see how eager he was to get back in the box after that?” Castellanos said. “You can’t teach that.”

(Top photo of Nick Castellanos: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

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