Phillies End April on a High Note — Beat Washington 7-2
Apr 30, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Max Kepler (17) reacts in the dugout after hitting a home run during the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Unlike Tuesday night’s victory, the Phillies win tonight in a more comfortable fashion against the Washington Nationals. Fans could breathe the entire game, as the main areas of focus from last night were clearly worked on and fixed in time for tonight’s 7-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park. Struggles such as fielding and awareness looked as if Tuesday’s game never happened.
Along with the improvements on the field, the contact and use of the entire field at the plate also improved, even from a great performance last night. The Phillies doubled the Nationals’ hits ten to five, with the seven runs showing that they are putting the ball over the wall, and if not that, putting it in the right areas of the field.
Bullpen Has Best Night of the Year
The on-field work tremendously improved tonight; however, the biggest improvement from last night has to be the bullpen, which did not allow an earned run in four innings pitched. Better yet, the Nationals had zero baserunners while facing the Phillies’ bullpen.
No walks, no hits, and six hard-earned strikeouts for Tanner Banks, Jose Ruiz, and Carlos Hernandez.
The Long Ball is Here to Stay
Tonight, the Phillies’ bats assured that they were officially out of the early struggles with many promising performances, some continuing off of prior starts.
Kyle Schwarber has looked his best as of late, with first-inning home runs in the last two games, which happened to be two or more runs each. Ever since he took the cleanup spot in the lineup, results have mainly been positive with men before him getting on base and Schwarber being able to watch the pitcher for a few batters longer.
Another Phillie who has been sharp recently is J.T. Realmuto. Realmuto started the game with a few stops with runners in scoring position, and capped off a two-hit night with his second home run of the season. Tonight, J.T. had a more relaxed, confident swing, which most likely led to leaving the yard to pad the lead at five runs.
Similar to Realmuto, Max Kepler had struggled to find power with only two home runs on the year so far. There have been multiple at-bats this series so far where Kepler was just a few feet away from rounding the bases, which eventually led to a home run to right field to extend the Phillies’ lead to four.
Two games into the series against Washington, this has looked to be one of the better series of the year when it comes to hitting. The Phillies have been able to hit power, contact, and situational, which had been inconsistent throughout the year.
A Rebound for Sanchez
With Cristopher Sanchez leaving his last start against the Mets early with forearm soreness in his throwing arm, there was a lot of concern entering his start tonight.
Overall, Sanchez had a decent start considering his injury was not long ago at all. He went five innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs. He also gathered six strikeouts, which has been a strength so far with starters.
With walking only three, Sanchez and the fans feel better going into his next start.
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Luke Raidy
Luke has covering the the Flyers and Phillies for Philly Sports Reports since 2025. He is a junior at North Penn and being a huge Philly sports fan has brought so many experiences, such as going to the NLDS, NLCS, and even the World Series in 2022. He has also met former superstars in the city of Philadelphia, such as Wayne Simmonds from the Flyers. Though being a student-athlete, Luke enjoys his time where he is writing and reporting on Philadelphia sports.
