Year In Review: Opening Day

The wait was over. Spring Training was over. The day every baseball fan waits for, Opening Day, March 31, 2008.

Brett Myers threw both the first and last pitch of the 2007 season, and would once again throw out the first pitch of the season. Prior to the season, there was controversy on who would start on Opening Day, Brett Myers or Cole Hamels. The Phillies decided on Brett Myers hoping he would get a starter's mentality again.

The Phillies would host the Washington Nationals, who a night before won their first game at their new stadium, Nationals Park, in dramatic fashion on Ryan Zimmerman's walk off homerun.

The very first pitch of the season was a ball, but Myers retired the side in order.

Jimmy Rollins, the 2007 MVP, led off the 2008 season with a double. He would score on Chase Utley's sacrifice fly as the Phillies took an early 1-0 lead.

However, things got shaky for the Phillies in the 5th inning. The Nationals threw up a 4 spot on the scoreboard. Brett Myers was pulled after 5 innings of work. He allowed 4 runs, 3 earned. He walked 2 and only struck out 2.

The Phillies showed their resilience as they rallied back. In 2007 they led the Major League in come from behind wins, and the Phillies tried to bring back some memories. Jimmy Rollins hit a homerun to tie the game at 6 in the 7th inning.

The bullpen would have to hold the Nationals. The Phillies had one of the worst bullpens in 2007, and hoped 2008 would be different. In the long run, the Phillies proved to have one of the top bullpens in the league, but Opening Day was different.

Ryan Madson gave up 2 runs, but the big blow came when Tom Gordon, who would allow 5 earned runs.

Like 2007, the Phillies scored plenty of runs, but the pitching didn't hold up and the defense didn't make big plays. The Phillies didn't get their first win of the season until April 3, 2008. Was this the sign of another bad April?