Five takeaways from Phillies 2025 schedule

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PITTSBURGH — The Phillies’ 2025 regular-season schedule was released on Thursday. Here it is in its entirety:

Here are a few early takeaways as the Phillies resume their 2024 campaign on Friday night against the Pirates.

Citizens Bank Park South for Opening Day

Nationals Park became known as Citizens Bank Park South during the Phillies’ last run of dominance in the late 2000s to early 2010s. It irked Nationals executives to the point where the team only sold tickets to a May 2012 series in D.C. to credit card holders with a billing address in the DMV area.

The Nationals may have to do that again to prevent another Philly takeover during the opening series. Opening Day against Washington on March 27 will be a lot of fun, especially if it’s the first meaningful game since the Phillies clinched the World Series.

A better home and away balance

To the ire of Phillies executives, the 2024 regular season schedule was frontloaded with home games. Of the 66 games remaining on the schedule this year, 38 of them are on the road. Just about every home game this summer will be sold out or close to it by virtue of supply and demand. More time on the road means it will be tough for the Phillies to maintain their stellar .646 winning percentage.

But there will be a more ideal balance next season, which is good for both ticket sales and the players on the field. During the second half of 2025, the Phillies will play 35 home games and 31 road games.

One thing that Rob Thomson definitely likes is the early west coast travel. The Phillies go out west three times next season. Two of those stretches will come before the All-Star break. The last one will actually be their last regular-season roadtrip of the year, with three in Los Angeles against the Dodgers and three against the Diamondbacks in Arizona.

Late-season NL East stretch

There’s an interesting pocket of games in late August-early September. From Aug. 22-Sept. 10, they will play 17 of 20 games against NL East opponents. The distribution of division games is odd. The Phillies will open the season with 14 NL East matchups in March/April, four in May, 10 in June and then no games until the aforementioned stretch begins on Aug. 20.

What will the NL East look like in 2025? We can probably count on the Braves and Phillies competing for the top spot, with the Marlins continuing to bottom out. The Mets could — maybe — be a threat if they spend big in the offseason and the Nationals could be on the verge of competing again if their young players continue to develop.

Best vacation

If you have always thought about splurging on a Phillies-centric vacation, there’s a good opportunity to do that next July on the west coast. The Phillies play the Giants in San Francisco on July 7-9 and San Diego July 11-13. A San Francisco trip in July may be a better idea than a San Francisco trip in April or May, but the weather is always perfect in beautiful San Diego and there’s plenty of restaurants and attractions both in and around the area of Petco Park. A trip to San Diego is something every Phillies fan should consider doing at least once.

Oddities

• 2025 marks the first time in a full season since 2015 the Phillies will not play the Pirates in July. They have played the Pirates in Pittsburgh in July in seven of the last eight full seasons. The 2017 Phillies vs. Pirates July series was in Philadelphia.
• The Phillies have played at least one series in April against the Rockies in every full season since 2019. That will continue in 2025, when the Phillies open up their home schedule against Colorado on March 31.
• The Phillies’ first trip to Sacramento to play the Athletics is scheduled for May 23-25. If you ever wanted to see the Phillies play in a minor league stadium and couldn’t get tickets to the Little League Classic, here’s your chance.
• The Phillies’ “natural” AL East rival is once again the Toronto Blue Jays. The two teams will now play two three-game series against each other, one on June 3-5 in Toronto and June 13-15 in Philadelphia. I personally think MLB should throw away the Orioles vs. Nationals Beltway Series nobody cares about and have the Phillies and Orioles play two series a season against each other.

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