Opening Dismay

What an awful day. To start off, the weather was terrible. The later forecasts indicated there might be a 30% chance of rain on Monday, and the underdog won out. There was a variety of mist-light downpour all day long in the suburbs and on the drive down. There were a couple innings where everything cleared up, but it was short lived. Fortunately, my seat was kind of underneath the second deck, so except for the brief periods when the wind was blowing right in my face, I was spared most of the soaking.

The real soaking came from the classy folks in row 16. Your spilled beer, which we knew nothing about until we picked up our bags after the final out. Sometimes I spill a little bit of my drink, and I clean it up. If it ends up on someone's property, I offer to help in whatever way I can. I apologize. Now, I'm stuck with a book that has warped pages, a disgusting t-shirt that can hopefully be washed and a damp program, media guide and baseball cards. This goes for people at my place of employment too. Honestly, how stupid can you get?

As for the action on the field, it wasn't much better. Things started off well; the reigning MVP led off the game with a double, and the Phillies played small ball to bring him home. Myers was cruising, and then some bad pitches and a miscue or two later, the Nationals were on top. The bullpen couldn't stop the bleeding either. Once again, the offense, led by Jimmy Rollins again, bailed the pitching staff out of a poor performance. This was a carbon copy of a typical game last season, when the Phillies led the league in comeback wins, due in large part to the lineup.

Unfortunately, the bullpen wasn't finished quite yet. Tom Gordon, the team's closer until Brad Lidge comes back, was brought into a tie game in the 9th inning. He got hit around in the worst way, and Clay Condrey had to finish his inning. Ryan Howard's body language said it all during the pitching change. With his hands on his hips staring into the dugout, he was displaying what all Phillies fans are thinking: "This again? How much will our pitching cost us? How many runs do we need to score?"

It was a bad start to the season, but this shouldn't be anything new to Phillies fans. It's just one game out of 162, but as we all know, every game counts. They can try again Wednesday night with Cole Hamels on the mound.