More Than Meets the Eye

The first game is behind us and there is already a lot to be excited about for this Phillies season (or is there?). Our 2 biggest additions looked great (or did they?). Yes, it was against the Nationals, but for all we know the Nationals could win the wild card this season. No, I'm not serious (or am I?).

The game started off a little shaky with Halladay giving up a run in the first inning. After throwing 33 pitches in the first 2 innings, though, he ended up throwing just 37 in the next 4 and 88 pitches total in 7 very strong innings. The expectations for Roy were unreasonably high, and he just about lived up to them with 9 strikeouts while giving up just 6 hits and starting off the season with a 1.29 ERA.
Polanco had a career-high 6 RBIs in the game including a grand slam.
Every starter had a hit in the game, including Roy Halladay (who even had an RBI!).
Against a hilarious Nationals defense, Ryan Howard legged out an infield hit.
As you can tell, and you probably saw by watching the game, there are plenty of positive things to take from this game. But there is more to this game than meets the eye. Let's look at all of the negative things so we can keep ourselves grounded and be a little more realistic about our expectations:

- Roy Halladay can only put down a bunt when he's swinging away. Why is it we're paying so much for this guy?
- We only put up "crooked numbers" in this game. Thank you Christopher Wheeler for continuing your trend of letting us know how mind-blowing it is for a team to score more than 1 run in an inning.
- Polanco has started this season with a .600 batting average through one game. Yeah, that's great and all, but his on-base percentage is a mere .500. Damn those sacrifice flies!
- Jimmy Rollins showed that he might be willing to take some pitches, work a count, and get on base. In 2 World Series seasons, he has never pulled this crap.
- Raul Ibanez did not hit a home run against the Nationals for probably the first time ever. What is going on with this team?!
- Thomas McCarthy is still oddly obsessed with testing Christopher Wheeler's trivia skills while forgetting that a baseball game is still actually being played.
- I remembered that we have to watch the first 3 games from a blimp above home plate at the Nationals' ballpark. And then we'll do it 6 more times throughout the season after this series. I hate that place
- The Phillies have added a feature known as the "Thirst Inning" sponsored by Budweiser in which they please all of the children and families out there by showing random people in the stands with beer. I knew the broadcast was lacking something last season.

So I think it is pretty clear that this game was not all good. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, we may have a long season ahead of us judging by Opening Day.