Opening Week has come and gone and the division standings have shaken up drastically. The Philadelphia Phillies have held their own against the inferior Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies, winning five of six in the process. They then put the league on notice, handing the Los Angeles Dodgers their first series loss of the year.
The most surprising part of the NL East has not been the Phillies’ hot start, but a complete failure by the rival Atlanta Braves.
The Braves have tripped, fallen and stumbled to a 1-8 start to their 2025 campaign. They have faced the San Diego Padres, Dodgers and then split a rain-shortened two-game series against the Miami Marlins. It hasn’t been the start experts had expected from the Braves, given being named the early favorites to win the division.
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 3, 2025
The Phillies have already jumped to a six-game lead over the Braves, and now are set up perfectly to widen that margin. They have a current one-game lead over the New York Mets to lead the NL East overall. The Phillies travel to Atlanta this week for a three-game series at Truist Park, beginning on Tuesday.
The Braves realistically won’t sputter forever, but it significantly decreases their margin for error moving forward. They also had a 29-scoreless-innings streak in the process, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. There has also never been a team to start a season 0-7 and make the playoffs, per Dayn Perry of CBS Sports.
The Phillies know that and will have a direct say in the matter starting tomorrow when they send ace Zack Wheeler to the hill. They’re riding high with a 7-2 record after taking two of three from the previously unbeaten Dodgers.
Even in a worst-case scenario this week, if the Phillies get swept, they’ll still leave Atlanta up three games on the Braves. The Phillies can also leave the Braves in a pile of smoldering ruins with a sweep of their own and open the early-season division lead to nine games.
The likelihood is that it will be a typical inter-division battle, but pressure will be on the Braves to perform. According to FanGraphs, the Phillies have leapfrogged the Braves in odds to win the division, with a 41.8 percent chance. Atlanta’s chances have dropped from 64.1 to 29.2 percent.
This is the best time to step on the Braves’ throats and continue to drive that wedge between them in the NL East race. You can’t win a division in April, but you can sure lose one. That’s how the Phillies should look at their chance to take another series from the Braves, in Atlanta’s own ballpark no less, and prove that the division is still the Phillies’ to lose.
