The ‘Fightins’ as famous voice of the Phillies Harry Kalas used to call the team, entered Opening Day with question marks up and down the lineup. Luckily they would be heading to Arlington, Texas to face arguably the most banged up team in baseball. Only two years removed from winning back to back American League titles, Ron Washington’s Rangers are still a perennial powerhouse in this league. That being said, after a nightmarish spring training, this injury ridden team limped into the season.
The Phillies went into this matchup knowing two things for sure, they struggle to score runs and Cliff Lee is typically untouchable. It was originally supposed to be the battle of the aces in Yu Darvish vs. Lee but Darvish was placed on the 15 day DL so the Phils caught a bit of a break. 27 year old converted reliever Tanner Scheppers who has control problems would be filling in to get the start for Texas. With their horse on the bump, Philadelphia figured they would have to scratch out a few runs in a low scoring game to walk away 1-0. Spoiler alert, they would give up 10…
Shockingly this would not be a death sentence for the Phillies. Coming off a season in which they averaged about 3.7 runs per game, they were 27th out of 30 teams in offense. If I were to tell you they gave up 10 on opening day, most would assume it ended in a route however they endured on offensive explosion scoring 14 runs.
Before fans could even get settled in their seats, they were up 6-0 in the second inning which seemed like an insurmountable lead with Cliff Lee on the hill. However in a matter of 30 minutes they managed to blow that entire lead losing 7-6 at the end of the 3rd, but the Phillies bats were not done.
The left side of the infield accounted for a good chunk of the 14 total runs. Jimmy Rollins hit his 200th home run that just happened to be a grand slam, temporarily squashing whatever tension he created with skipper Ryne Sandberg in the preseason. Rollins made his 14th straight opening-day start for the Phillies, matching Cal Ripken Jr.’s major league record with Baltimore for the most consecutive seasons starting at shortstop for the same franchise. The young buck Cody Asche that many had questions about before the season went 3-4 with a walk and a homerun of his own, scoring 4 runs. Newly acquired right fielder Marlon Byrd also homered in his first start during his second stint with the Phillies.
Cliff Lee exited the game in the fifth inning with an ERA of 14.40 after giving up a career high eight runs and received a win for the outing, the first pitcher to do this since 1920. Papelbon finished with the save and the Phils escaped with a road victory.
All these wild stats mean is that Philadelphia is 1-0 with 161 games remaining on the schedule. They currently sit atop the NL East for the first time in a while and lead the league in offense… Opening Day always plays host to some crazy things.
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