Phillies

If it’s Any Consolation, a Bunch of Good Pitchers Got Blown Up on Opening Day

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 31st, 2023 · 9:32 AM EDT

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Here’s some perspective for you on a Friday morning:

Corbin Burnes sucked yesterday. Sandy Alcantara was below average. Zac Gallen got trashed. Jacob DeGrom stunk. Alek Manoah was terrible.

STOP FREAKING OUT ABOUT AARON NOLA.

— Mark in Philly (@MarkHenryJr_) March 31, 2023

Nola got hammered, but a bunch of other good pitchers were not great either. To the names in Mark’s tweet:

• Sandy Alcantara: 5.2 innings pitched, 3 earned runs, 2 strikeouts, 4 walks, Marlins lose 5-3 to the Mets
• Zac Gallen: 4.2 innings pitched, 5 earned runs, 7 strikeouts, 3 walks, D Backs lose 8-2 to the Dodgers
• Corbin Burnes: 5 innings pitched, 4 earned runs, 3 strikeouts, 3 walks, Brewers lose 4-0 to the Cubs
• Alek Manoah: 3.1 innings pitched, 5 earned runs, 3 strikeouts, 2 walks, Blue Jays beat Cardinals 10-9

And yeah, deGrom only lasted 3.2 innings, gave up five earned runs and six hits, and came out of opening day with a 12.27 ERA.

Shit happens, Nola had a bad start, and you wipe this one and move on. The Phils had no issues hitting the baseball on Thursday. Alec Bohm looked great, Nick Castellanos had a couple of hits, Trea Turner hammered a triple, etc. Plenty of positive stuff on that end.

The real crime here is having Friday off after opening day. This has cursed us with 48 full hours of Aaron Nola talk, when we should be back on the diamond today with Zack Wheeler. Blah.

Good morning.