PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils opened their 2010 campaign this afternoon in Washington against a supposedly improved Nationals team. Thanks to Roy Halladay and the hot bat of Placido Polanco, Washington looked like the same last place team as usual on this day. Halladay went 7 strong, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits, while striking out 9. That's about as good as an opening day start as you can get. Meanwhile, Polanco racked up 3 hits and 6 RBIs, 4 on a grand slam in the 7th inning. Even if no other Phils had hit safely in the game they still would have won somewhat convincingly 6-1. However, it wasn't just Polanco in this one. All 9 members, of the Phils starting lineup, yes even Halladay, hit safely in the game. Jimmy Rollins leadoff the game with a single and tripled in a run in the 6th, Chase Utley had a hit and a run scored, Ryan Howard slapped 2 hits including a 2 run homer in the 4th, Jayson Werth singed and scored a run, Raul Ibanez ,who struggled all spring, had a hit and 2 runs scored, Shane Victorino rapped an RBI single in the 4th and later scored, Carlos Ruiz collected 1 hit a scored a couple of runs, and finally Halladay himself beat out an RBI infield single.

Put it all together and you get 11 runs, 13 hits, and a dominating 11-1 season opening victory for the Phils. Things really couldn't have gone any better for the Phils. Their 2 biggest off season acquisitions came through big time and even the bullpen had a pretty good day with three scoreless innings. Antonio Bastardo was a little shaky but he managed to get a couple outs and Danys Baez bailed him with just a few pitches. Still, since he's the Phils only left handed arm out of the pen, at least until J.C Romero comes back from the DL, he's gonna have to do better than that. Other than Baez and Bastardo, rule 5 pick Dave Herndon got a chance to show his stuff in the 9th inning and did himself proud with ,an albeit shaky, scoreless inning. Of course when you have an 11-1 lead you don't have to worry about the bullpen too much. So it was great start to the season for the Phils, but it's a little early to pencil them in to the world series again just yet. The real key for the Phils this season will be how they fare when Halladay isn't on the mound. We still have to wait until Wednesday to see how that pans out.