Here’s the official 2019 Opening Day lineup for Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies will kick off the 2019 season on Thursday at home against the Atlanta Braves.

After all of the hype and being patient, Opening Day is finally here for the Philadelphia Phillies, as Gabe Kapler‘s squad will host the Atlanta Braves on Thursday afternoon.

While the Braves are coming off an amazing year in 2018 where they won the NL East, the Phillies are expected to be the one team that gives them the most trouble in the division thanks to a successful offseason led by the signing of Bryce Harper.

Dating back to last season, Philadelphia was considered one of the top landing spots for the star outfielder since unlike most teams, the Phillies had the kind of money to spend that Harper would be looking for.

Even beyond Harper, the Phillies came up big this offseason with other key acquisitions such as Jean Segura and J.T. Realmuto, showing this team is ready to be a serious contender in the National League for the first time in what feels like forever.

Of course, that will be easier said than done since just because Philadelphia was considered one of the biggest winners from the offseason doesn’t necessarily guarantee their success will carry over into the regular season.

For the Phillies, the best approach for the team to take is focusing on one game at a time, beginning on Thursday when hosting the Braves. And since Thursday is officially here, Philadelphia has finally confirmed their Opening Day lineup for the game against Atlanta to help keep the excitement at a high level.

From Aaron Nola taking the mound to hopefully start off 2019 on a hot note to Rhys Hoskins batting fourth behind Harper, there’s plenty for Phillies fans to love about this kind of lineup.

Finally, Philadelphia will enter a new season with high expectations for a change instead of another year consisting of rebuilding since this has been the case for quite some time with the team’s last playoff appearance dating all the way back to 2011.

Even more frustrating, the Phillies in general haven’t put together a winning season over the last seven years, but hopefully if all goes according to plan, this will change in 2019 with an epic roster like this one.

First things first though for Philadelphia, which is making sure they take that one game at a time approach with Thursday’s meeting against Atlanta, and don’t look too far ahead since it’s a long season.

Plenty can happen from now until the end of September, but with all of the excitement surrounding this team, here’s to hoping the Phillies live up to the hype on Opening Day, and throughout the 2019 season to put them in the best position possible to compete.