I still find the current sports culture in Philadelphia surreal. I still find it hard to believe that the two of the biggest sports stories yesterday, including the biggest story (the news that the Eagles had traded Chris Gocong, Sheldon Brown and some other guy), included Philly sports teams.
I still can’t believe that not only did the Phillies win the World Series in 2008, but they got back there in 2009, and are a favorite to make it back for a third straight time in 2010.
I still have trouble believing that not only do the best players in baseball, including the best pitcher of the past decade, want to play for the Phillies and that they now have the luxury of casting off recent Cy-Young award winners like so much yesterday’s news.
Before yesterday, the Phillies have won their season opener just three times since 2000. They have had a winning record in their first ten games of the season just once since 2000, when they went 7-3 in 2001. They have been outscored in those first ten games in all but two years since 2000. And they haven’t had a shut-em-down pitcher since Curt Schilling in the 1990s.
So it was no surprise that yesterday’s impressive 11-1 thumping of the Nationals was, you got it, surreal.
Not only did the Phillies rattle off 11 runs (more than a third of the runs they scored in the first ten games of 2004), but their starting pitcher allowed just one run on six hits through seven innings while striking out nine. Harry Leroy Halladay threw 19 pitches in the first inning, but ended the game after throwing a total of just 88 pitches.
The Phillies, who are notoriously bad and slow in April, scored 11 runs, including a grand slam by newcomer (again) third baseman Placido Polanco. Leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins went 2-for-4 with an RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base. Polanco had a career high six RBIs. Slugger Ryan Howard hit his first homerun of the season, a shot that I think is still rolling through the streets of D.C.
This team can hit so yesterday wasn’t really all that much of a surprise. But getting out of the box like this hasn’t been business as usual for the Phillies. I didn’t think this team could get any better. But then again, I’ve been surprised before.
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