PHILADELPHIA — A horde of cameras and reporters surrounded Rob Thomson in the Phillies dugout three hours before Friday night’s first pitch, seeking drama. The mighty Dodgers were here at Citizens Bank Park. This was the center of the baseball universe. Any soundbite would do. Someone from a local television station asked the manager, simply, “Shohtani?” An awkward pause followed.

There must be something Thomson could learn about his club from this rare April series with serious juice. Right?

“Not much,” Thomson said.

But a few hours later, there was Thomson’s steady catcher spinning around and pumping his right fist after nailing Shohei Ohtani at second base to end the eighth inning. That was as ebullient as J.T. Realmuto will ever look on the field. “It was exciting,” Realmuto said. Then, he cut his right thumb while trying to open a glass water bottle, bled all over some baseballs, and ended the game by throwing out Chris Taylor trying to steal second base.

Yes, this meant something to the Phillies.

“It’s so early in the season. They don’t really take too much out of this,” said Thomson after a 3-2 win, before he conceded. “But I know that playing the Dodgers — playing any good team, really — guys get out for it. And it’s important for them to beat those teams.”

The schedule afforded an April treat — a marquee matchup between two National League powers carrying high payrolls and even higher expectations. Los Angeles had not lost until Friday. The Phillies are now 6-1; it’s only the third time in the past 60 years they’ve started that well.

Everyone wants to be the Dodgers. And everyone wants to beat them. The Phillies played them tough last summer, taking five of six games. Most of them were taut.

“Both teams like to use each other as, like, a barometer or a benchmark,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think there’s a little bit of that. There’s a lot of familiarity, and we haven’t played in a lot of postseason games in recent years, but there’s a little rivalry with us, which is interesting — and I think in a really good way.”

It is not a traditional rivalry; they are not in the same division and have not met in the postseason since 2009.

“We’ve been good for so long,” Roberts said. “But I also think we play similarly. There’s a lot of starpower with both ball clubs. I think there’s a mutual respect. I enjoy playing these guys.”

Before the game, Bryce Harper entertained the large collection of reporters. It bordered on the absurd. “Message to the city?” one of the local TV men asked.

“Excuse me?” Harper said.

No one in Philadelphia is going to read too much into April baseball because they saw the Phillies play better than anyone for the first three months of last season, only to flounder in the postseason. If they sweep the Dodgers this weekend, the prevailing conclusion will be, “Let’s see it in October.” The same goes for the Dodgers. That is the territory that comes with expectations.

But Harper’s had thoughts about the Dodgers he was willing to share whenever asked during spring training. He made an even stronger statement this time.

“I don’t know if people will like this,” Harper said, “but I feel like only losers complain about what they’re doing. They’re a great team, they’re a great organization. That’s why guys want to go there and play. LA’s a great city to play in, obviously. They are at the mecca of the world of everything, right? From food to nightlife to sports, from the Dodgers to the Lakers to anybody. They’re going to continue to get guys. They’re going to continue to pull guys from the sport. And if that’s bullpen, starting pitching, international players, anything like that, they’re doing what the Dodgers do.”

They can beat teams in so many ways. They probably should have beaten the Phillies in the series opener; both Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández hit deep fly balls that were probably homers if the wind hadn’t knocked them down. Nevertheless, Jesús Luzardo held the Dodgers to two hits and no runs in seven outstanding innings.

Los Angeles has more depth than anyone. The Phillies, leading 3-0, needed six more outs after Luzardo departed and proved something without two of their best relievers — José Alvarado and Orion Kerkering — available.

Barely.

Matt Strahm, firmly in the dead-arm phase of spring training since he missed so much time, recorded two outs in the eighth inning with diminished velocity. He also allowed two singles. That prompted Thomson to summon José Ruiz, a middle reliever, to face Mookie Betts, who represented the tying run. It was not an optimal matchup for the Phillies.

On Ruiz’s third pitch, Ohtani dashed for second base. Realmuto said it surprised him. It was a strong throw; Ohtani had stolen 38 bases a row in the regular season before that moment.

Jordan Romano wavered in the ninth with his fading fastball velocity. He surrendered a two-run homer to Tommy Edman. He walked Will Smith. The Dodgers are relentless, so they pinch ran with a veteran utiltyman in the final year of a $60 million contract. Realmuto knew Chris Taylor would try to steal because Romano is slow to home plate.

Romano practiced a better slide step during spring training to deter runners, but it hasn’t helped much so far. He threw Max Muncy, a $24 million pinch hitter, an elevated fastball at 96 mph. Romano did it quickly enough to give Realmuto a shot at Taylor. A replay review that took more than two minutes dulled the excitement.

The safe call at second base was overturned and the game ended on a strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play.

Credit Realmuto with a save.

“I mean, the two throws he made were game-changers, really,” Thomson said. “Especially the last one.”

Strike ’em out, throw ’em out, send ’em home pic.twitter.com/XlDMdNtkzc

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 5, 2025

A day earlier, Realmuto had joked about something Roberts had said after the Dodgers opened the season 8-0. “I don’t know,” Realmuto said. “I heard they were unbeatable, so … .” He smirked. Realmuto finished the thought with some clichés — the Phillies want to win every game, every game is important, the Dodgers are a great team.

Then, they played each other for two hours and 29 minutes. It was good baseball. No one needs to draw any conclusions beyond that.

Someone else just needs to open those water bottles for Realmuto.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Realmuto said. “We’re going to have to figure something out.”

(Top photo of Jordan Romano, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)