It’s all about the pitching. The Philadelphia Phillies’ championship hopes rest on the arms of their vaunted pitching staff with vast amounts of money invested in the starting rotation, and the closer. On Opening Day, the team’s pitching staff proved to be worth every penny.
Roy Halladay got into trouble in the first inning, allowing the first two batters to reach base. The former Blue Jay bounced back quickly, and got Andrew McCutchen to ground into a double-play, allowing the ace to escape the first inning of the season without surrendering a run.
After the first inning, Halladay was in top form. He had the Pirate hitters completely baffled, and didn’t allow a single hit or walk for the rest of the day. The perennial 20-game winner kept his pitch count exceptionally low (just 92 pitches through eight innings), allowing him to pitch deep into the game. He didn’t allow another baserunner He did hit two batters (he hit only four all of last season).
It was a rough offensive showing for the Phillies’ and their patchwork lineup. They had several opportunities to put up some runs on Pittsburgh starter Erik Bedard early in the game, but failed to capitalize.
Freddy Galvis had a particularly poor debut at the plate. In the second inning, John Mayberry and Carlos Ruiz reached base with a pair of singles, but the rookie grounded into a double-play to end the threat. The team didn’t get another hit until the fifth inning (another Ruiz single), but Galvis quickly ended any hopes of a rally with yet another inning-ending double-play. The second baseman had one more opportunity to bat with a runner on in the ninth inning, but he struck out.
The offense finally scored their first run of the season in the seventh inning. Ty Wigginton got the ball rolling with a one-out single to centerfield. Mayberry followed the first baseman with his second hit out the day, a double that put Wigginton on third base.
Bedard and the Pirates had an opportunity to walk Ruiz (who had already recorded two singles) and go after the struggling Galvis (who had already hit into two double-plays), but they chose to pitch to Ruiz and the veteran catcher made them pay with an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
The top of the order wasn’t very successful. Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco, and Jimmy Rollins went a combined 1-10 on the day. Hunter Pence had a rough day as well, finishing the day 0-4. The former Astro had a chance to give the Phillies a little more breathing room in the eighth inning, but wasn’t able to come through, striking out with runners at first and second with two outs.
Jonathan Papelbon got his first chance to close a game as a Phillie, and came through with a 1-2-3 save. He began the inning with a strikeout of Alex Pressley, forced Jose Tabata and Andrew McCutchen to ground out to third to end the game.
The Phillies will have a day off on Friday before resuming the series with the Pirates on Saturday with Cliff Lee on the hill.
Roy Halladay for eight innings and Jonathan Papelbon for one equals zero runs let’s go eat
Paulman’s Updated NL East Predictions
Phils 162-0
Charlie pulls Doc after 8 IP with only 92 pitches. Sign of things to come or just the first game of the season?
Now THATS a prediction I can live with Paulman!
Charlie never lets Doc go late early in the season. Save that for June.
He probably got Docs feelings on the game and Doc mighta said lets see what hes got. Pap was Pap.
Great game. No offense but great pitching. Were gonna need a lot of that if were gonna have any success this year. GO PHILLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that’s it paulman, no garbage to spew about how bad this team is, or more predictable bull like “great win’, insincere, followed by more bs about how the team is doomed, stick to something you have half a clue about, fantasy football geekdom,
if it were a home game and later in the season, doc goes the distance, but as much as this was a doc day, it was more a papelbon day in the ninth, got him in, got the save, set him up for more, great managing by charlie
Damn jake, you just don’t like Paul, do you? LOL!!! I hope their offense picks up, or it’s going to be a long season. Halladay has nothing on his fastball & still dominates. Thank God we got this dude. He’s a beast. Can’t wait for next week! Got tix for home opener against the Fish & Sunday against the Mutts! I’m going to have a ball with the kids & old lady.
Where’s this Great Phillie Pitching that is to be able to overcome this anemic Batting Line-up of the Phils, who now drop to 1-3 in this young Season..
They have the worst hitting club in the entire NL, they have the 2nd highest Payroll in the MLB and they have the worst Hitting and scoring Team in the NL..
This Phillie train ride is over …Rollins batting 3rd, Pence batting 4th and Victorino batting 5th … that’s a scary line-up isn’t it..
and the bullpen is probably the worst in the NL East ..
Paul — really? Where the F are your Braves at?
C’Mon Birdo, that was last year buddy..get with the times nad keep up with Paulman… I’ve stated for about 2 months now that the Nationals are the Team to beat in the NL East and I am sticking with my predictions…
I called the Phillies Batting Line-up “Phillies-Lite” last season and am having a hell of a time to come up with a more appropriate nickname for this 2012 version.
“No-Carb Batting” perhaps.. It’s still a work in progress but they are not going to win many games with this current Line-up and bitch and moan about no Utley & Howard but the fact is we know about these 2 injured players for the last 6 months now and what did the Team and GM Amaro do about it.. Sign Jim Thome,Ty Wigginton, Lance Nix.. Good Greif is too kind of a description..
Paul, you can call them Ultra-lite now. It’s going to be a long summer!
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I still say the 2 biggest off-season mistakes were, resigning Rollins & giving Paplebon that astronomical contract. As I stated a zillion times, we needed to sign Ramirez, Bell, Cuddyer & Wigginton. We would still of had the $$$ to sign Nix & Thome. Amaro had by far, his worst off-season. We have no power & our bullpen is suspect, at best. I hope not, but the window is 3/4 closed. Hopefully they can open it back up. I’m starting to get antsy!
This team is boring, lacks life & looks like they are going through the motions already.
How bout those “Amazing Mets”
Phils are toast, Charlie is not a small ball Manager and that’s what this team is made up of now.. He will have to rely on Starters to 8 Inning out because of a spottty bullpen and they will be worn out by August,,
Phils miss the players in 2012 and time to clean house and start afresh .
Should have been “miss the Playoffs” in 2012 and then clean house and start anew.. Charlie is fired, (Ryne Sanberg is hired to replace him)
dcar where would the Phillies be without Rollins and papelbon in light of injuries to Utley and madson those two signings are season savers, paulman you are making yourself sound foolish as usual, that thinking works over at nova care, not cool here
Phils 1-3 with a lousy start of the Season
Fans booing at their 1st Home Game… It’s not just me who is dissatisfied with this Team.. This was a very poor Off-season by GM Amaro and the club from the get and I called them out on it .. When your 1st big-off season Acquisition in 40 year old Jim Thome who can’t play a position in the field for a NAtional League Team, that tells you what kind of upcoming season, thenadding piece like TY Wigginton, Lance Nix and then panicked and overpaid for closer Papelbon
I jsut don’t understand the Strategy of the Phils and many of their Fans
that a very good team of the last 5-6 Years needs infusion of same talent
To expect players who have played a lot of games over the years who are now in the twilight of their carrers to perform at the level they did when they were in their primes.. Utley, Polanco, Rollins are a shell of what they used to be and it’s not really their fault, but they are older players, have had injuries to deal with and at the end of the line.. I fault the GM for continuing to think that the Core Players of this Team are going to play like they did 3-4 Seasons ago.. It’s wishful thinking nad many fans just continue the follow the mantra that The Phils are still the team to beat.. Well guess what, it’s not going to happen for a 1/2 dozen teams in the NL have all improved the last coupld of seasons while the Phils have regressed.. You cannot win on Pitching alone.. It’s great to have and definitely in the Playoffs, but if you can’t score at least 4 Runs a game, you are not going to win many games and not even make the Playoffs to show off that strong Pitching..
Will the Big 3 be able to throw Gems all season long knowing their Run Support is going to be minimal and that’s the Story of the 2013 Season thus far and for the foreseeable future.. Averaging 2 to 3 Runs per game will not get it down and allows too many oppoenents to hang arouns in games and then pull a late Victory against the Phils and especially with the Phils Bullpen and probably their weakest Defensive Team in 10 years..
jake, if they made those moves I stated, they could have moved Polanco to 2b, &/ if Utley does come back, they could have pieces to move around to ease playing time, or trade Polanco. I didn’t say anything about Madson??? They should have signed Heath Bell. He is just as good as Papelbon, but cheaper, & Bell wanted to come here last year. Although Rollins is still a good SS, he is in the twilight of his career & gives us nothing special at the plate. He should not have been resigned. We had a chance to go younger with Galvis, & change the culture of the hitting lineup with Aramis Ramirez. No matter what you say, Amaro has failed miserably, to upgrade this lineup & BP.
He has managed to make the team even older, than last years AARP members. I don’t GAF about the bench. Even if Utley & Howard were playing,
they still need a youth input & different look. We have Pence, Victorino & a bunch of platoon & utility players.
Reliver Chad Qualls out with mysterious injury and the hits just keep coming..
I really believe this Hamels Contract status is going to be a major distraction to him, the Team and get played up so much with the media and fans…
Again, another poor move the Phils and GM Amaro on something that should have been taken care of the day after they released Roy Oswalt,,but Amaro’s sitting on his hands and waiting has now cost the Club another $25 Million on what it’s going to cost to keep Hamels…. Back in Nov/Dec probably a $17-$18 Millon per Season could have gotten it done, by Jan/Fen that figure grew closer to about $20 Million Per Season and by now after the Cain deal, that figure is now in the low $20’s per Season…
If GM Amaro and Phils Brass can’t take care of the “No-Brainer” decisions for the Club, than how can he lead and rebuild this Team for future Success when screwing up a major piece of the Team’s Future
Agree with you 100% Pman on handling Hamels. Now that Cain signed that contract, Hemels is not going to want to take less money. Especially since he knows that Magic Johnson will be at his door the second that he reaches FA to pair him up with Kershaw. They have to sign him because he is the future ace when Halladay and Lee are done. But now at 22-25 mil per season added to Halladay, Howard and Lee you will have 90-100 million tied up in 4 players. With that money, plus the money to Utley/Rollins, how can you possibly extend Victo or Pence who are the only good consistent hitters on the team now? The window seems to be closed.
there’s no way, no how the phils do not resign Hamels, the phils know it that he must be resigned, they are talking right now, the issue is years, if I am Hamels I might opt for a shorter lenght to get another mega deal 4-5 years down the road, he is young and can pitch another 27 years if he’s like Moyer, but regardless, he is their future ace, the Phils know this, they are too smart as business people and baseball people to let him walk, paulman find someting different to harp about
The thing that really pisses me off Bugs, is many of us posted here last Season and stated I can’t wait for the Off-season since we knew that Oswalt’s,Lidge,Ibanez, Francisco, Gload, Salaries were coming off the books so the PHils had about $35-$40 Million right there to utilize smartly and effectively and they blew it big-time…
Not demanding Utley to see a Specialists or watching him conduct some is workouts in person to see how he’s doing is reprehensible and not doing your due diligence since we knew back from last 2011 Spring Training that it was a very good possibilty that he would not be heathly to start this Season again.. Phils are paying Utley $15 Million per Season and should know 100% what his Health Status is and it has become very clear that Utley has no plans of ever having surgery which may or may not even make a difference at this point, but it appears Utley’s intention is to become a 80-100 games a Season type of player so he will take Feb/March/April off, begin hitting/fielding in May when the warmer weather is here for good and will probably keep this routine for the reaminder of his time in Philly..
I agree Jake, but a huge contract for Hamels is going to handicap them from re-upping current everyday players or bringing in FA.
Right on the money Pman. Finally thought they would have some wiggle room, but they are worse off now then they were before. Howard will not contribute this year even if he comes back. Kendry Morales had that same injury and it took him the whole next season to recover. Utley is probably done and you are getting nothing out of Polanco.
The lineup is a mess. Pence is no clean-up hitter. Rollins is no #3. I would play the lineup like you would with Howard in the order:
Rollins
Victo
Pence
1B/LF – would push for Mayberry here
1B/LF
Polanco
Chooch
Galvis
P
It is not a great lineup, but I would establish some normalcy and have guys in the order where they should be.
good to see the “sky is falling” group is in mid season form.
pman- after 3 years of throwing crap at the wall you may finally see it stick this year.
Not a good start but… its early. Lets just see how things go after the first 5 games. yikes guys… yikes.
I really expected the crap to hit last year Stevo, to be honest, but I was always a little ahead of the curve in most things..But on a serious note, this Hamels situation has me pissed for I think they will lose him to Free-Agency ..Imagine him with the Dodgers with Kershaw, Billingsy and those good position players that are in their Primes like Kemp,Either,Loney,Gordon, Rivera… New Ownership in LA with very deep pockets.. The Phils screwed this up big time any way you look at it..
Stevo- Just pointing out some facts. This team could be in big trouble this year.
i do this far too much with the eagles, im guuna sit in my hammock and just enjoy the pitching and hope for the best.
Phils Trade Alert
Phils send P Vance Worley, 3B P Polanco and AAA Pitcher Frautus to the
the Chicago White Sox for 1B Adam Dunn
Phils new Line-up
1) SS J Rollins
2) CF Victorino
3) RF Pence
4) 1B Dunn
5) LF Mayberry
6) 3B Wittington
7) C Ruiz
8) 2B Galvis
9) Pitcher