The Phillies home opener started off good, with the players making their way into Citizen’s Bank Park from center field. Then  there were the Navy Leapfrogs who delivered the ball, wasn’t sure they would be able to land in the ballpark considering how windy it was, you couldn’t pay me enough money to do that, but it was worth the price of admission. Then there was the ceremonial first pitches by Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt, and George Brett, and not sure how he got involved in it, Joe Piscopo.  Now onto the game.

The game started off good with the Phillies jumping out to a 4-0 lead, but then the bottom dropped out with the Royals scoring the next 13 runs, saying it wasn’t pretty is a major understatement. The Royals scored two in the fifth to cut it to 4-2 Phillies. The sixth inning is were the bottom started to fall out. With runners at second and third and two outs, instead of letting Kyle Kendrick try to get the third out against pinch hitter Billy Butler, maybe he gets a hit and at worse you have a tie score 5-5, Charlie Manuel had him intentionally walk Butler to load the bases, then bought lefty Jeremy Horst to face left handed hitting Alex Gordon, and we all know how that turned out, bases clearing triple, and a 5-4 Royals lead. The bullpen would allow another eight runs before the game would come to an end. The Phillies are now 3-7 in home openers at Citizen’s Bank Park.

Player of the Game:

Alex Gordon, Royals – 3/6, 3 H, 2 R, 3 RBI’s  

Next Game:

4/6: vs Kansas City Royals