Justin Crawford's walk-off can't save the Phillies from a brutal reality check

The Philadelphia Phillies mounted a heroic comeback on Wednesday afternoon to topple the Washington Nationals, 6-5, in extra innings. Justin Crawford squeezed a walk-off single through the infield on the first pitch in the bottom of the 10th. The team's top prospect finished the day 3-for-5, and is hitting .412 with a .915 OPS through his first six MLB games.

Philly took two of three games against the Nats, now .500 on the young season. That is not a sky-is-falling situation on the surface. A deeper dig, however, reveals serious (and familiar) concerns about the Phillies.

The bad: Philadelphia still can't hit (enough)

This was an incredible comeback and a gutsy victory, which the Phillies needed. It's far too early to hit the panic button — a six-game sample means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things — but had Philadelphia dropped to 2-4 and lost a series at home, to the Nationals, we'd probably be writing more of an alarmist column right now.

The thing is, Philadelphia did almost lose this game — and didn't really deserve a win. The Nationals led 5-1 at the seventh-inning stretch. Cade Cavalli blew through the Phillies lineup almost without incident, their only run coming on a Kyle Schwarber RBI double.

Washington's bullpen is horrendous, and the Phillies were able to scrap and claw their way back late, including a three-run ninth that saw Philadelphia strand the bases loaded with the winning run on third. Credit, really, to the back of the lineup: JT Realmuto came through with a homer in the seventh, while Edmundo Sosa, Adolis García, Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford all worked critical at-bats when it counted most.

And yet, the top of this Phillies lineup feels far too weak. Bryce Harper homered in the eighth, but he was lost otherwise. At 3-for-25 (.120) on the season, it's hard to muster much confidence from his start to the campaign. All those "Not Elite" t-shirts mean nothing if Harper, in fact, is no longer elite. Schwarber (.182) and Turner (.192) aren't exactly mashing either. To make matters worse, Alec Bohm is (still) a black hole in the cleanup spot. He hammered a three-run homer on Opening Day, but has recorded one (1) hit since.

Philadelphia's bullpen merits a bit of skepticism, too. Orion Kerkering's imminent return should help, but Jonathan Bowlan (0.2 IP, 1 ER) and Brad Keller (1 IP, 3 ER) both put this game nearly out of reach. Bowlan has looked shaky with his command after the Phillies acquired him straight-up for Matt Strahm in a salary-dump trade. Brad Keller, Strahm's "replacement" via free agency, recorded two quick outs, only to cough up back-to-back singles before CJ Abrams went nuclear for a three-run bomb.

Again, panicking after six games is silly, especially when the Phillies eked out a few wins behind great pitching from Cristopher Sánchez and Andrew Painter, whose debut on Tuesday went about as well as could be expected. These Phillies feel like the same old Phillies, though, and that's a problem.

The good: Justin Crawford, Adolis García and the non-stars

It's not all doom and gloom for Philadelphia, of course. The back half of the lineup is outperforming expectations. Marsh (.350), García (.318) and Crawford (.412) all look great; their numbers will regress to the mean soon enough, but if Philly's boppers can start to achieve even baseline success, this offense should round out well enough to support a deep and talented pitching staff.

Crawford, in particular, is making good on all of his promise. He's comfortable in center field, which was not a guarantee coming into the season. He only has one extra-base hit — a double, part of Wednesday's three-hit effort — but he's doing exactly what he did in the Minors, which is living on hard-hit grounders through gaps in the infield and using his legs to great effect. His IQ and consistency at the bottom of the order is a valuable new wrinkle for this Phillies offense, and if he can play defense like this, he won't need to slug much to be a valuable player.

García also deserves major props, 7-for-22 with a couple doubles and a homer on the year. The approach looks far better than it did a year ago in Arlington. The surface-level numbers don't really sum it up, either: He's hitting the baseball extremely hard and is bound to tap into his trademark power more as the season progresses, finding more green in the outfield and eventually, more seats beyond the outfield wall. He's in the 94th percentile for hard-hit rate and the 96th percentile for exit velocity so far.

Marsh was genuinely great down the stretch of 2025. He improved his results against lefties and posted an .899 OPS overall across August and September. We should not expect too much from the shaggy left fielder, but with his glove and speed tools, even slightly above-average contact and power output makes Marsh an extremely valuable contributor.

On the mound, Sánchez looks like an ace, still. He didn't have great stuff in Wednesday's win, yet he still went 5.1 innings with only one earned run allowed. Andrew Painter pitched 5.1 innings of one-run ball himself the day before; his fastball is still a bit plain, but the secondary stuff jumps out of his hand. Aaron Nola and Jesús Luzardo have better days ahead, and Zack Wheeler should be back soon. The Phillies' pitching staff should be able to prop up a middling lineup enough to stay in the win column more often than not.

So, Phillies fans ... let's all take a deep breath. Things aren't great, but they aren't terrible either, and a win is a win at the end of the day. Crawford's walk-off was electric. This team should improve with a bit of time. That said, do not let your feelings run rampant in the opposite direction either. There are real, deep-seated concerns with this team. Time will tell which trends are real, and which are just early-season noise.

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