It certainly wasn’t the Opening Day that the Philadelphia Phillies or their fans had in mind when they took the field for their first game of the season. Coming off a disappointing end to their 2024 campaign that saw plenty of gnashing of teeth about the lineup’s propensity to chase out of the zone and swing and miss, the old, familiar problem reared its ugly head again on Thursday at Nationals Park.

Yes, the Phillies won the Opening Day matchup against the NL East rival Washington Nationals 7-3 in 10 innings, so we can all breathe an early-season sigh of relief. However, it featured plenty of whiffs from Phillies batters as they got off to a very slow start, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki.

They finished the extra-inning contest with 19 strikeouts. That’s an Opening Day franchise record, breaking the previous mark they set last Opening Day, per Zolecki, when they racked up 15 strikeouts against Spencer Strider and the Atlanta Braves. It’s also, “the second-most by any team on Opening Day in AL/NL history,” as Zolecki notes. At least this year, things ended on a happier note than in 2024.

Phillies fans know this team is prone to high strikeout games. The Phillies finished the 2024 season with the fifth-highest chase rate, at 30.4 percent, per Statcast. That increased to 33.1 percent in the quick four-game NLDS loss against the New York Mets.

Even though it was the beginning of a new season, Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore absolutely dominated the Phillies through six innings. The left-hander recorded an eye-popping career-high 13 strikeouts with no walks while giving up just one hit — a 112.5 mph Kyle Schwarber single that was quickly erased on a caught stealing. Gore fooled Phillies hitters into 20 swings and misses with his 93 pitches (66 of which were strikes). That’s an enormous 40 percent whiff rate.

Rob Thomson sure didn’t think his Phillies would strike out 19 times on Opening Day

That’s not how Phillies manager Rob Thomson thought his team would start the year. He seemed fairly confident about that before the game when he held his dugout scrum, per Devan Kaney of Sports Radio 94 WIP.

“There’s been a significant difference in plate discipline this spring versus last spring or any other spring and parts of last season so hopefully that continues,” Thomson told reporters before the game, per Kaney.

He wasn’t wrong. The Phillies led spring training with 153 walks. But on Opening Day, they didn’t demonstrate their supposed new-found approach at the plate. But it’s not like the Nationals did much better, counting 13 strikeouts themselves — eight of which came against Zack Wheeler during another masterful Opening Day performance from the staff ace.

Third baseman Alec Bohm, who broke a 3-3 tie in the 10th inning with a two-run double to the left field gap, provided an explanation during his on-field interview after the game.

“It didn’t start so great, but it’s good to finish it out on the right foot and go get a win there,” Bohm said. “You can’t see the ball [in the shadows]. That’s why we struck out like 30 times. So, we should probably just stop playing at four o’clock so we can put a good product on the field for all the fans watching at home and paying money to come to the stadium.”

“I think about everybody in the lineup struck out today, and we don’t like doing that,” Bohm said in response to NBCSP’s Tom McCarthy’s observation that the plate approaches improved later in the game. “You get into the sixth, seventh inning and everybody through the order’s got two punch outs, you got some not happy guys in there. So we’re going to dig in and figure it out.”

Hopefully, this is just a blip that we can blame on the start time, the shadows and a locked in opposing starting pitcher. Only time will tell. Unfortunately, the second game of the series goes at the same time on Saturday, with a 4:05 p.m. ET first pitch.