The Philadelphia Phillies will pit their cold bats against one of the hottest starting pitchers in the league Friday night when they host Michael Soroka and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Phillies have not scored a run in their last 20 innings, and they enter a three-game series on the heels of back-to-back shutouts in San Francisco.
Philadelphia managed only four hits in Tuesday’s 6-0 defeat to the Giants before matching that figure in Wednesday’s 5-0 setback.
“I think they’re trying to do too much,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said of his veteran ballclub. “No doubt. They’re frustrated. We’re just going through one of those times. We’ll come out of it.”
Among the Philadelphia players struggling on the young season are Kyle Schwarber (.195), Alec Bohm (.186) and Bryson Stott (.167).
Schwarber, the National League MVP runner-up a season ago, has struck out 19 times in 41 at-bats.
“I think we have a good track record of playing really good baseball,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “Obviously, right now that’s not what we’re doing, but we know that we’re just one good swing away from the whole team taking off. We’ve just got to keep working, keep being diligent. We don’t like to struggle, but there’s nobody in this room panicking. That’s for sure.”
The situation won’t get any easier for the Phillies when they face Soroka (2-0, 0.90 ERA), who has won his first two starts for Arizona while yielding only one run over 10 innings. In his last outing, the right-hander gave up one run in five frames in a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
“I competed as well as I could’ve hoped,” said Soroka, who worked around four hits and three walks. “You’re not going to have everything working on every day. … I worked behind (in the count) a lot today, and that’s going to be something to look at going forward.”
Soroka has made four lifetime starts against Philadelphia, going 1-1 with a 5.68 ERA.
He will oppose Phillies left-hander Jesus Luzardo (1-1, 4.97 ERA), who will make his sixth career start against the Diamondbacks. He is 2-1 with a 4.70 ERA against them.
Luzardo allowed six runs in six innings against the Texas Rangers in his season debut on March 29 but was much better Saturday against Colorado. He held the Rockies to one run in 6 2/3 innings, striking out 11 with no walks in a 2-1 triumph.
“I felt good, just like last time,” Luzardo said. “I did a better job of limiting hard contact, keeping the ball in the field.”
Luzardo could catch a break Friday if Corbin Carroll (hip flexor) misses a second straight game. He sat out Thursday’s game vs. the New York Mets, but it appeared to be largely precautionary as Arizona manager Torey Lovullo called his concern level “very minimal.”
Without Carroll, the Diamondbacks posted a 7-1 victory Thursday behind four runs in the seventh inning and three in the eighth. Gabriel Moreno delivered a run-scoring hit in both of those innings.
“You talk about team ability — they came together, they play together,” Lovullo said. “It was one guy after another. It wasn’t the same guy throughout the course of the evening. That was a great team win – and that’s what makes it so special.”
The Phillies and Diamondbacks split six meetings in 2025. This will be their first matchup this season.
–Field Level Media
