The Phillies lost to the Atlanta Braves 4-1, the fourth year in a row they lost Opening Day. Festivities took place before the game including player introductions and the raising of the 2008 World Championship banner. But the Phillies that played in Sunday's game didn't look like the same team that beat the Tampa Bay Rays last October.
Brett Myers allowed 4 runs on 8 hits in 6 innings of work. He wasn't able to establish his fastball or changeup early, and in result threw 3 home runs to Brian McCann, Jeff Franceour (who is developing a new batting stance), and Jordan, or Logan as refered to by Jon Miller, Schafer (first home run in first major league at-bat to become the 99th player in MLB history). (Thank you Joe Morgan and Miller for the repetition).
Fingers will be pointed at Myers for the loss, but he didn't pitch as bad as the line may seem. After the first two innings, he threw four scoreless innings. Because his changeup and fastball were ineffective, he wasn't able to throw his deadly curveball as much, which was the only pitch working for him Sunday night.
Myers made the batters hit their way on; he allowed just one walk and struck out 6.
The real story was the offense, which was shut down by Derek Lowe for eight innings. The Phillies managed just two hits off Lowe in his eight shut out innings, who was able to get Phillies out via ground balls.
Mike Gonzalez made it interesting in the ninth inning when Eric Brunlett had a pinch hit double to leadoff the inning. He scored to make it a 4-1 game, and eventually the tying run, Ryan Howard, was at the plate with two men on base and one out. However, Howard struck out, as did Raul Ibanez to end the game.
Losing on opening day shouldn't be a shock. The Phillies are 60-65-2 on Opening Day. They won't be undefeated, but they can stil go 161-1.
PHOTO COURTESY: Phillies.com
1 comments:
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