Phillies have unanswered questions after two opening wins: New lineup, Aaron Nola, Rob Thomson, bullpen

When the Phillies left D.C., they left with two wins in three games over four days, but they left with few answers to their most pressing questions.

Perhaps they’ll know better after the Rockies and Dodgers visit this week.

There’s no telling.

A left-right-left-right lineup spurred the Phillies to 95 wins last year but fizzled in the postseason. It had slugger Kyle Schwarber leading off, Trea Turner hitting second, Bryce Harper hitting third, and Alec Bohm batting cleanup. However, during spring training, Phillies manager Rob Thomson convinced himself that, against left-handed starters, he should have Turner lead off, then Harper, then Bohm, then Schwarber.

» READ MORE: Phillies are set for their home opener at Citizens Bank Park, where cherished memories are made

In the season opener, against Nationals lefty MacKenzie Gore, the Trea lineup struck out 13 times and scored no runs in six innings. They touched the bullpen for two runs in the seventh, one in the eighth, and four in the 10th. Turner was hitless. Schwarber homered.

... and that was all the relevant lineup data we would get from the weekend. Turner missed Games 2 and 3 on Saturday and Sunday with back spasms.

With Schwarber leading off in Game 2, the Phillies scored 11 runs. They scored one run in Game 3.

Turner is expected to play in the home opener Monday, but the Phillies are scheduled to face Rockies right-hander German Marquez, which will put Schwarber on top for the third straight game.

Stay tuned.

Nola is still really, really good, but even when he has his best stuff he’s still prone to the One Bad Inning.

Sunday was just such a day. Nola looked unhittable through 11 outs. Then he hit a guy, gave up a single, and served a 91-mph cookie to Josh Bell, who hit it 400 feet for a 3-0 lead. Nola looked great again in the fifth but got tired in the sixth, probably should have been lifted for a reliever, but Thomson left him in and he gave up another two-run homer. The Phillies lost, 5-1.

» READ MORE: Aaron Nola surrenders two homers as the Phillies fall to the Nationals, 5-1

Every manager leaves games with regrets, and Thomson has had a few in his 2½ seasons as the Phillies’ skipper, but most of the scrutiny directed at him involves the postseason. Maybe the Phillies’ recent high payroll and poor postseasons are magnifying some of his, er, choices, but they seemed more obviously questionable in D.C.

In the top of the eighth inning Thursday, Thomson should have pinch-hit right-handed hitter Johan Rojas for center fielder Brandon Marsh, who struck out for the third time in that at-bat. Rojas is a weak hitter, but he likely would have made a catch in the bottom of the eighth that Marsh did not make.

» READ MORE: Rob Thomson plans to be cautious with Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto in return to lineup

Sunday, facing lefty-switch-lefty to start the sixth, Thomson should have pulled Nola for a lefty to start the inning, and certainly after Keibert Ruiz singled with one out, because Nola looked gassed. The fastball Nathaniel Lowe crushed 421 feet tailed right into the middle of the plate. It was his 19th pitch of the inning and his 95th, last, and worst of the day.

The Phillies hoped that Jordan Romano would replace Jeff Hoffman, but Romano’s debut in the eighth inning Thursday went like this: walk, hit batsman, double steal, RBI groundout, strikeout looking, single, RBI single, stolen base, groundout, blown save. Romano admitted he was a little uptight pitching for his first new team ever — the Canadian spent his first six seasons with his native Blue Jays — and looked like it; he was throwing 92 mph to the first four batters but was hitting 97 by the end of the frame.

Is he more the pitcher who compiled 94 saves from 2021-23, or more the pitcher whose elbow issues last season limited him to 15 spotty appearances? The Phillies gambled $8.5 million on him this season, and were delighted that he didn’t give up an earned run in spring training, but they left D.C. still wondering if their gamble will pay off.

The Phillies don’t expect much from journeyman José Ruiz or waiver claim Carlos Hernández, each of whom gave up a homer Saturday, nor from Joe Ross, a veteran swingman, nor from Tanner Banks, a 33-year-old, late-blooming lefty.

Returning cornerstones José Alvarado, Matt Strahm, and Orion Kerkering looked great all spring, and they were strong in D.C.

Unlike the Democrats.

Paraphrasing perhaps the best line of John Turturro’s illustrious acting career, new lefty starter Jesús Luzardo struck out 11 Nationals in a sterling six-inning, one-run debut. The product of a December trade for prospects Starlyn Caba and Emaarion Boyd, Luzardo, 27, tied Jim Bunning for the second-highest strikeout total in a Phillies debut. He got five of them using his new “sweeper” pitch.

Luzardo battled back and elbow injuries last season, but he had a 3.48 ERA in 2022-23 with 328 strikeouts in 279 innings. If nothing else, he looks like an upgrade from Taijuan Walker and an insurance policy against Ranger Suárez’s annual injury issues.

Fresh off having the 2024 Cy Young Award robbed from him, two-time runner-up Zack Wheeler showed again Thursday why he’s been baseball’s best pitcher, and the Phillies’ best player, since he arrived in 2020.

Wheeler gave up one in six innings, a solo home run, one of two hits he allowed. He struck out eight and walked one.

It’s the fifth time in his six season debuts for the Phillies that Wheeler has allowed one or zero runs. In those five games, he has struck out 37 batters and walked five.

He’s scheduled to start Wednesday against the Rockies.