Phils Drop Opening Day Game; Lowe Absolutely Unhittable

Brett Myers opened up the season looking like he did at the tail end of the season when he could do no wrong. The first two batters were no match for him then the Phillies nemesis stepped into the box and did what he does best. Chipper Jones laced a single into the outfield and you just hoped that Meyers could hold it together. He is known for his first inning blow ups. While he did not totally lose it, McCann took advantage of his temperament and launched one into the second deck of right field. You could almost hear the air being let out of the stadium. Luckily, he got himself back together and managed to get out of the inning without any further harm.

You could almost forgive the Phillies for being a little anxious when they came up to bat and that anxiousness was very apparent in Rollins lead off at bat. He jumped on an early pitch and was out before you realized the Phils were at bat. The only excitement that happened with their first at bat as defending champs was the drive that Utley hit. He smoked it to right field, but it was not long enough and ended up as the third out of the evening.

The second inning picked up right where McCann left off. Francoeur stepped up to the plate and absolutely smashed a first ball fast ball over the left field fence. By now, the home team had to be wondering when Cole Hamels was going to be back. The one glaring weakness that the Phillies have and have had is their starting rotation. Last year, the key to their success was the bullpen and it is obvious early on that that will be the case again.

This would be the test if Myers was going to blow up. You could almost sense that he would either settle down or start the process of burying the Phillies. Unfortunately for the home team, he did the latter. Schafer smashed another fast ball out of the park in his first big league at bat and the Phillies were down 4-0 in the second inning. Myers got out of the inning, but the damage was down and the Phils were in familiar territory in a Brett Myers start.

While Myers was struggling, Lowe was putting together a masterpiece in the early innings. He set the Phils down in order in the first inning and started the second inning off by throwing Ryan Howard curve ball after curve ball (at least that is what Lowe calls it, it looks more like a slider) and put him down on strikes. Howard showed last year that he could not hit the breaking ball and it was no different here. Every one of them was out of the strike zone and the closest he came was fouling one of them off. Will this be another patented Howard slow start or will he be able to carry that hot spring over to the regular season?

The top half of the third looked like it was going to be more of the same as Myers gave up a rope that just missed going over the left centerfield wall. He needs to buy the architect a beer for that one as the only thing that stopped it was the rising fence in that area of the park. However, he seemed to get himself together after that and settled down to retire the rest of the Braves and got out of the third with no further damage. While it resulted in no damage, the Phillies got their first hit of the season from Ruiz with a nice little double down the left field line.

The game settled down and both pitchers took over the game. Lowe continued to be dominant and shot down the Phillies and Myers managed to finally settle down and do the same. We were finally seeing a pitching exhibition that was worthy of an opening night starter. It was almost as though Myers was two complete different pitchers. His breaking balls suddenly had bite and movement that was not present in the first couple of innings. That is the Brett Myers that the Phillies want to see, not the character that showed up in the first two innings.

The Phillies pinch hit for Myers in the bottom of the 6th and the bullpen started this year off where they finished last year off at, unhittable. Taschner made his Phillies debut in the 7th inning with no hits and a strike out. Eyre came in to relieve him in the 8th and after getting two outs, gave way to Durbin who finished the inning off. Lidge came in to get some work in the top of the 9th and gave the rookie Schafer a taste of the big leagues by striking him out with a nasty slider. He finished up the inning by getting Norton to fly out and once again put up a 1-2-3 inning for the Phillies.

Lowe gave way to Gonzalez in the 9th inning and it was almost a shame to see him come out. 8 shutout innings, no walks and 6 of those innings were 1-2-3 innings. When Bruntlett doubles to start the inning off, you had to think Cox started to doubt himself. Rollins flied out, but Bruntlett moved up to third on the play. The shutout was spoiled when Werth singled and Bruntlett scored. Utley came up next and drew a quick 5 pitch walk and up came Howard to earn some of that massive paycheck he is getting this year.

The crowd came alive as he stepped into the batter's box. Everyone was hoping for another magical moment, but Howard would disappoint. He made a couple of weak offering at breaking balls and then he took a called third strike right down the middle of the plate and walked back to the dugout. Now the game was in Pat the Bat's replacement, Ibanez. He worked the count wonderfully to 3-1 and then swung at a horrible slider that was about a food outside. Gonzalez made use of the gift and blew him away with a fastball on the inside corner.

It was a disappointing start to the season for the Phillies, but they once again showed that they have no die in them. They made a great effort in the 9th inning, but Howard has to show up in these situations and they are going to have to get some better starting pitching to repeat. There are some holes on this team, but they have the talent to get through that and win 90 games again.