After almost becoming an ex-Phillie in the offseason, Alec Bohm blasts off on opening day

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Mar 26, 2026

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — When the sun is shining, and it’s 76 degrees in March, and the Phillies are walking single-file down stairs, across an outfield red carpet and into a new season, it’s natural to think about what lies ahead.

Sometimes, though, a look back is required.

Rewind, then, to those 12 hours in the middle of January when team officials believed — no, they were darn-near certain — that they added free-agent slugger Bo Bichette to the infield — which likely would’ve meant subtracting Alec Bohm.

OK, back here in the present, guess who took the Phillies’ biggest swing on opening day?

So, that’s Bohm with a ‘B,’ right?

It happened in the fifth inning. With two on and two out — after Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper struck out back-to-back — Bohm drove a waist-high cutter from Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi the other way for a game-breaking three-run homer in a 5-3 victory over the Rangers at sold-out Citizens Bank Park.

There were other standout performers, notably:

— Cristopher Sánchez. Still the best pitcher that not enough folks in baseball talk about, he dialed up his mid-90s sinker, slowed bats with his signature changeup, sprinkled in a few splitters, and struck out 10 batters across six dominant innings.

— Justin Crawford. With about 40 family and friends in attendance, including his major-league All-Star father, he lined a single up the middle on the first pitch of his career, then added a single to center field.

— Schwarber. After coming back to the Phillies in free agency, he swatted his third opening-day homer in his fifth opener with the team, a two-run shot to left field in the first inning against Eovaldi.

But it was Bohm, self-described as“prototypically not your average cleanup hitter” on a team that ran back the core of its roster, who really put the 44,610 paying customers in a festive mood on an unofficial holiday in South Philly.

OK, some perspective: It’s one game. And Bohm had a big hit on opening day last year, too. After another offseason as a human trade rumor, he stroked a tiebreaking two-run double in the 10th inning in Washington.

Then, he fell into a slump that left him batting .150 with only that one extra-base hit through 15 games.

So, let’s guard against getting carried away. But for a team that is supposed to be lacking right-handed power in the cleanup spot behind lefty-swinging Schwarber and Harper, it was a positive sign.

It was the reason the Phillies went after Bichette in the first place. And after he signed instead with the rival Mets for a higher salary over a shorter term, the cleanup spot came into even greater focus.

None other than Harper, who saw the lowest rate of pitches in the strike zone of any hitter in baseball last season, brought it up at the outset of spring training.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s me or Schwarbs [batting third] — because if Schwarbs is sitting there, the same thing’s going to happen, right? — so I think the [No.] 4 spot’s a huge impact,“ Harper said. ”I think the numbers in the four-spot weren’t very good last year either for our whole team. So, I think whoever’s in that four-spot is going to have a big job to do."

Bohm got the first shot at it — with Harper batting third and Schwarber second — in an order that steady-eddie manager Rob Thomson said could change depending on performance.

And it’s a big year for Bohm. After being dangled in trade talks two offseasons ago, he would’ve been a potential offshoot of Bichette’s arrival. Instead, with free agency looming after the season, he can boost his own stock on the market with a bounceback season after being limited by rib and shoulder injuries last year.

Bohm’s homer opened a 5-0 lead, with Sánchez carving up the Rangers’ bats. He gave up back-to-back two-out singles in the first inning, a two-out double to Andrew McCutchen in the fourth, and nothing more in six walk-free innings.

The Rangers scored three times in the ninth inning against lefty reliever Kyle Backhus, bringing the tying run to the plate with two out and forcing Thomson to use closer Jhoan Duran.

But all’s well that ended well in the Phillies’ 144th season-opener, with the run-it-back cleanup hitter making the difference.

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