At 33, he was a unanimous pick for his second career Cy Young Award. It turned out that would be the late right-hander's final great season, before injuries interfered. The opener was hardly his finest work, as he would go on to throw eight complete games and twice strike out But with one run allowed over six innings, with six strikeouts and no walks, Halladay was on his way to a Cy Young runner-up finish behind Clayton Kershaw, and ultimately, the Hall of Fame.
Remember him? John Mayberry Jr. The elder Mayberry would go on to play 15 seasons in the big leagues, most notably with Kansas City, and was a two-time All-Star who hit home runs. Mayberry Jr. He played games over parts of seven seasons, exactly with Philly, and was his best year. He started it off right. The Phillies trailed entering the bottom of the ninth, but rallied against Brandon Lyon to tie the game on the strength of five singles.
Mayberry then pinch-hit and ripped a line drive to center that got over the head of Michael Bourn, who was playing shallow with one out. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball.
To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. From the moment the previous season ends, you're waiting for the first pitch of the first game of the next season. There's such a buildup. You go through the depression of the season ending horribly, followed by the annoyance of the hot stove period, and then the pointlessness of the winter meetings. Once you get to January, there's six weeks until pitchers and catchers report.
Of course, that's just a Trojan horse, because nothing happens when pitchers and catchers report except They report. And work outzzzzzzz Beyond the buildup to the first game, there are the expectations. I'm pretty sure that until the postseason, there isn't a single other game for which there are such high expectations.
And it's unfair and unrealistic. The players have been playing full games for barely two weeks. They've been playing in warm, sunny, lovely weather. The "games" they played meant literally nothing, so there was no pressure.
There's something perverse about expecting these guys to be at top form their first time out. But I'd been waiting a long time to see this game. For Christmas , my mother bought me and my dad tickets to opening day.
It would be the first opening day we'd ever attend together. Three to four times a week after that, I'd send an email to my dad with the number of days until opening day I had a countdown on my whiteboard at work and links to Phillies blog posts.
We were so excited that when the day finally came, not even giant snowflakes and biting cold could dampen our excitement. We arrived at the ballpark early to do some breakfast tailgating, freeze our tails off, and pray that the weather would improve it did. The game that we got on April 1, still defies explanation, at least in my mind.
Halladay allowed just one run, but struggled. He only went six innings and allowed 5 hits on pitches. Compare that to the Astros starting pitcher, former Phillie Brett Myers , who through six innings had thrown only 58 pitches and allowed only 2 hits and no runs. The offense seemed completely baffled by their former teammate, and it was pretty painful to watch. It was unreasonable to expect them to be an offensive powerhouse right away, but I don't think it was unreasonable to expect them to, you know, get more then 2 hits.
The crowd started to leave once J. Romero came in to pitch the seventh. He allowed one hit to the only batter he faced and was replaced by David Herndon. I'll give the very drunk people sitting around me and my dad a little credit, though. They didn't leave until Herndon allowed a two run triple hit by Michael Bourn. Surprisingly, I didn't see a ton of other people run for the exits when Danys Baez pitched the ninth.
Though it's conceivable they could have forgotten who he was.
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