Phillies Weekend Roundup: Andrew Painter update, WBC news, Hoskins on fire, today’s lineup

The World Baseball Classic took over all Phillies news this weekend with Trea Turner smashing three home runs, putting Team USA on his back with a trip to the WBC Final scheduled for Tuesday night.

Team USA will square off against the winner of Team Mexico and Team Japan. Japan, highlighted by star Shohei Ohtani, comes in as a pretty heavy favorite, sitting at -2.5 on FanDuel and -290 on the ML.

If Mexico completes the upset and beats Japan tonight, Taijuan Walker is set to take the hill against Team USA for Tuesday night’s World Baseball Classic championship.

Trea Turner is HIM

The Phillies added the best all-around hitter in baseball to a lineup with Bryce Harper, JT Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Rhys Hoskins, Alec Bohm, and more.

It’s not crazy to say that the Phillies may have the best lineup we’ve ever seen…we’re going to get into that in another article very soon.

Check out all three of Turner’s HRs over the last two days.

TREA TURNER GRAND SLAM🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/zz49oICgD7

— The Liberty Line (@LibertyLinePHL) March 19, 2023

TREA TURNER MASHES ANOTHER ONE🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/9zk0Q9NWhS

— The Liberty Line (@LibertyLinePHL) March 19, 2023

TREA TURNER IS THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/CZD38XVDJe

— The Liberty Line (@LibertyLinePHL) March 20, 2023

Andrew Painter Update

It’s been about two weeks since we received the news on Andrew Painter. The original timetable was set to be light toss starting at the end of March, and that is still the plan, according to Dave Dombrowski.

Dombrowski emphasized that Painter will pitch for the team this season, even if it’s not for a few months.

“If they felt strongly that surgery was needed, they would have done that already”

Rhys Hoskins is Heating Up

It’s great to see Rhys bombs back in full force again.

Hoskins now has three homers over his last three games, going 5/8 with 2 doubles, 1 walk, and 1 HBP in that time. Hoskins is now slashing .321/.441/.679 this spring with a 1.120 OPS.

Rhys Hoskins just homered off Nick Pivetta with Jorge Alfaro behind the plate.

Time is a flat circle. #RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/wFByKYGk6Z

— The Liberty Line (@LibertyLinePHL) March 19, 2023

Today’s Phillies Lineup

Another day, another gameday pic.twitter.com/WPCOk8mP5P

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 20, 2023

Edmundo Sosa gets some more work in center today with Brandon Marsh as the DH. Josh Harrison will play short, Jake Cave is in left, and John Hicks will be behind the plate. Jeremy Walker will get the start.

Seranthony Dominguez, Gregory Soto, Craig Kimbrel, Connor Brogdon, and Yunior Marte are all set to throw today.

10 days til Opening Day. Ring it.