-Once again, Cole picks up the win on a mediocre effort. Five 2/3, 4ER, 6 hits, and six strikeouts. That’ll do against the Nationals, not against the rest of the league.
- This offense is good. ‘Nuff said.
-Ryan Howard is the midst of giving a giant F*** YOU to all the stat geeks that say that he only hits in September. .357, three absolute BOMBS, and only four Ks after the first week says all that you need to know about the start he’s having. Oh yeah. And a triple for the Big Piece. He’s here to play.
-Who kidnapped the bullpen and what did they do with them? 20 1/3 innings pitched, 3 earned runs (seriously?) for a Muggsy Bogues-tiny 1.32 ERA. I’m entirely too lazy too look up the horrific things the bullpen had managed to accomplish by this point last year, but by my estimate, Brad Lidge had blown 13 saves.
-Roy Halladay has a higher average than Raul and Shane. The next Babe Ruth, perhaps?
-On a serious note, J-Roll and Jayson Werth were both forced to miss all or some of the game today with injuries. Jimmy’s strained right calf will undergo an MRI later tonight, but Werth will not. Neither injury’s severity was specified, but Werth said that he was only taken out as a precaution. Is the calf going to interfere with Jimmy’s attempt at a world record?
-Finally, what the hell is this? Never again. Dear God, I’m begging.
Several things on the agenda today. First up: The Cole Hamels 2010 debut.
- Not quite what Phillies fans were hoping for. Two earned runs through five innings, five strikeouts and four walks. Yeah, he picked up the W, but that’s not the important thing here. It’s the freakin’ Nationals; he could have given up 15 runs and you bet your ass this offense would have found a way to pull it out. Hamels threw 103 pitches in those five frames, NOT what you want to see in his first start against the worst team he’ll pitch against. His command was consistently off, as well. If you watched Hamels consistently throughout last season, you noticed that the only times he got lit up were when he left his pitches in the upper half of the zone. What do you know? Desmond’s home run and double, the two hardest hit balls, were belt high. On the bright side, the best change-up in baseball was absolutely filthy, once again. I still have full confidence in Mr. Hollywood and still think he’s going to be an All-Star, but he better pick it up and pick it up fast.
- Ryan Madson made a lot of Phillies fans breathe easy for the first time in the ninth inning in over a year. In Brad Lidge’s perfect 2008 season, he had exactly zero regular-season saves of more than three outs. Knowing that Madson has the ability to go four or even more outs, especially with the decimated shape that the bullpen is in, must make Charlie feel reallllly good about having that option. Yes, it was only one save, and again, it was the Nationals, but hopefully we won’t have to worry about any ninth-inning debacles until Lidge returns.
-Finally, our upcoming schedule. The baseball gods must have felt bad for forcing the reigning National League Champs to start on the road, because the first 3 series of the year are gimmes. Two against the Nationals, and one against an Astros team that gave up 18 runs in three games to a Giants offense led by Pablo Sandoval. That’s not a typo. Pablo Sandoval is the best hitter on the team. I’m not even writing anything else about this. It could be a fun couple days.
While watching the highlights of the Phillies opening day game on Monday against the Nationals (I was unable to watch it live due to the extreme copyright laws of Major League Baseball) I noticed a few things: either the Phillies have the best fans on earth or the Nationals don’t have any fans at all. Now since I am completely non-biased, I’m going to have to agree with the former. From reports down at Nationals Park, Phillies fans from the Delaware Valley and beyond absolutely took over the stadium. Some were saying 70/30, but from watching highlights on Phillies.com I would say that it was closer to 80/20. Here is some video proof from Youtube user drb715 that supports my point:
Seriously, who gets booed in their own home stadium on opening day? The look on John Lannan’s face after Howard’s 2-run shot was priceless. Some of that was probably from hanging a breaking ball to the game’s premier power hitter, but the other reason is that it definitely appeared that he was intimidated by the crowd IN HIS OWN STADIUM. Here is video proof: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=7275605.
While perusing some message board fodder from the past two days, I found some nice gems on Washington Nationals Fan Forum in a thread regarding the “disgusting behavior” of Phillies fans. The link to the thread is here.
From a poster named Baseball is Life comes this diamond in the rough:
I need to vent because I’m still hot about a couple of things I saw yesterday.
1) I walk through the turnstiles and the guy in front of me–a Phillies fan–gets his free hat and looks like he doesn’t know what to do with it. I said, “Hey, I’ll take that off your hands.” He said, “No, I’m going to use it to wipe my a**.” Classy guy, I thought, and walked away.
2) I’m parked in the Garage C parking lot. As my group makes its way back to our car after the game, we had the pleasure of walking by two Phillies fans taking a p*ss in the corner of Level 2. Two classy guys, I thought, and kept walking.
Here’s another post from a guy named PANatsfan:
-Carrying large signs for Roy Halliday.
-Being intentionally boorish and loud in my ear like an attempt to be a 7th grade bully. (Was minutes away from getting an usher, and firmly told him to knock it off many times).
-Asking where the corner of R and I is, and getting indignant when informed that intersection is impossible and doesn’t exist (this is hearsay)
-Shortness of pants disproportionate to attractiveness of person
-Threating bartenders
First of all, I have no idea how someone from Pennsylvania could possibly root for the Nationals. Secondly, learn how to spell Roy’s last name, because over the next four years he will become your worst nightmare.
All in all I would have to say that Monday was an absolute rousing success for the Phillies and us, the fans. Not only did Doc Halladay impress, but he did so with ease after the first inning, even admittedly without his best stuff. Though I generally don’t take much stock in opening day performances, if the game on Monday was a preview of things to come, we are in for one hell of a season.
Look for Cole to have a line similar like this tonight: 7ip 6h 7k 2bb 3er. Final score 8-3 fightins.
Hi Phillies fans, and welcome to my first post. My name is Mike and I’m excited to blog about the Phils.
Even though that video has nothing to do with today’s game whatsoever, I figured it would be a good way to show you all that even Hitler makes some mistakes…
To the important stuff, what to expect from Cole today? Obviously, Mr. Hamels had a down year in 2009. All throughout spring training we heard from everyone, from the trainer to the landscaper to Mr. Charlie Manuel himself, that Cole was a new man, completely focused and injury free. His fastball was hitting 90-92 early in the spring, after last year arriving in Clearwater with a 78-80 mph four seamer.
Does that mean Cole is going to have a 2008-esque year? Of course not. However, could Cole get off to a better start this year and have his confidence rise as the season goes on because of a good April? Absolutely. And that’s what I think his goal is for the first part of the season. Take the negative results in stride and focus on the positive.
Hamels has been blessed to face the Nationals with his first game. Quite a present for somebody who doesn’t really deserve one after last season’s debacle. Hopefully, he can unravel the Nats and continue the Phils quest for an undefeated season.
