The anticipation ws mounting all week heading into Opening Day. With the big offseason acquisitions of Roy Halladay and Placido Polanco still fresh in the minds of Philly fans, their performance today in the first game of the 2010 season was nothing short of expected.
Roy Halladay needed only 88 pitches and seven innings of work to officially win over the hearts of the fans. He allowed only a run in seven innings off of six hits, two walks, and nine strike outs. Polanco wasn’t to be out-done in his return to Philly as he went 3-for-5 with a grand slam and six RBI’s.
“I’m OK. I feel good,” Polanco said. “This is a career high for me in RBIs. You can’t beat that. I know how hard the game is. You try to stay humble, because the game can turn around at any time.”
The Phillies fell early in the first inning, 1-0, when Nyjer Morgan led off with an infield single, stole second, and scored on a double by Ryan Zimmerman. After getting a couple hits in the second, Doc settled down to blow through the Nationals line up.
Ryan Howard gave the Phillies the lead with his two-run homer in the fourth after Chase Utley walked. Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez followed with hits, Shane Victorino drove in Werth to make it 3-1, Halladay scored Ibanez on an infield single to make it 4-1 and Jimmy Rollins drove in another to make it 5-1. This inning chased Nationals starter John Lannan.
The Phillies added two more in the sixth and Polanco’s grand slam in the seventh capped the scoring.
Howard was 2-for6 with a pair of RBI’s and Rollins added a couple hits. Howard’s homer was his 223rd of his career and tied him with Greg Luzinski for fifth in the Phillies all-time homer list.
Halladay just saw this as another day to get back to business.
“I felt pretty comfortable early on,” Halladay said. “That just goes back to where your focus is. You try not to get too caught up in the outside things that are going on and where you are and who you’re playing for and try to focus on your game plan. Strangely, I felt very comfortable. I felt very normal.”
Doc was everything the Phillies fans expected him to be and things will only get better as the season picks up steam.
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Me and Dan wound up tying on the Opening Day Prop Pool at three apiece.
John: (innings of Doc K, first RP, J-Roll’s first pitch
Dan: (innings of Doc K, first PH, J-Roll’s first pitch
TTB 