Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Phillies routed in season opener
Hamels, offense nonexistent in shutout loss to the Red Sox
PHILADELPHIA >> No one was claiming the Phillies might be something other than woeful this season.
But on Opening Day, as the gates finally open for baseball’s long gallop around the track, the provincial allegiance fans grip like a long shot’s betting slip gives them the faint hope that there will be an encouraging first step from the gate.
The Phillies, considered the old, unwanted mule in a claiming race at a dusty dog track, did not lurch with a hint of aspiration Monday. Instead, they slipped a shoe, stumbled badly, ran wide, threw their jockey and emailed the glue factory with an 8-0 loss to the Red Sox at Citizens Bank Park.
The weather was glorious. The baseball team was abhorrent.
“We didn’t carry that over to the game,” manager Ryne Sandberg said of the warm, sunny gift Mother Nature offered.
The game seemed to bloom like the malodorous mess the Phils are expected to be. They gave Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz reason to believe his miserable 2014 can be put to rest, as the right-hander didn’t give up a hit until Ryan Howard lofted a two-out double into the left-center field gap in the fourth. The Phils would only manage two more knocks — a pair of one-out singles in the seventh — and those were nullified when second baseman Dustin Pedroia made a nice stab of a Cody As-
one-hop smash to preserve the shutout.
That put the cherry on top of a stellar game for Pedroia, who hit a pair of solo home runs off Cole Hamels. Hanley Ramirez and Mookie Betts also took Hamels deep, as the Phils’ top trade bait didn’t create any new nibbles for his services with that clunker.
“I was just not as fine as I know I’m capable of being,” Hamels said. “You want to be able to get that first win … it definitely didn’t go the way I envisioned it.”
In truth, Hamels hasn’t made a quality start in his first home start of a season in a long time. In his last seven inaugural home starts, Hamels has given up 10 home runs in 35 innings and has a 6.69 ERA. The Phillies have gone 1-6 in those starts.
“I think it’s just the way it has gone,” said Hamels, who only gave up four homers in a game one other time, April 23, 2010, against the Diamondbacks.
Hamels had trouble with his control in the second inning, but for the most part the Red Sox were jumping on fastballs early in the count, with Pedroia launching 1-1 pitches into the seats in the first and fifth innings, Betts pounding the first pitch of the third inning to left, with Ramirez closing out the gopher ball parade by getting an 0-1 changeup and thrashing it.
“Cole’s stuff is there. It was there in the spring,” Sandberg said. “He was just inconsistent with his command.”
Ironically, Betts was the young talent the Phils were hoping to get from Boston when they were in trade discussions involving Hamels over the winter. If Buchholz continues to pitch this well, the Sox might not feel the need to mortgage that much to shore up their rotation.
“We didn’t have a very good history against Buchholz,” Sandberg said. “He had a really good changeup that he threw with two strikes and gave us trouble.”
It’s difficult to gauge how good Buchholz was, versus how poorly the Phils performed at the plate. The lineup is hardly anything to fear. The No. 2 hitter was a Rule 5 selection making his big-league debut — and it didn’t go so well for Odubel Herrera (0-for4, two whiffs). Howard remains their cleanup hitter, despite a weak .390 slugging percentage last season. Carlos Ruiz, who slugged .370 last season and had a .641 OPS over the final two months of 2014, is the No. 5 hitter.
“Well,” Sandberg said, “there will be chances to have some different lineups and do some different things. I’m just looking at this on the offensive side as just one game out of 162 … I look for better offense and more of a threat.”
The Red Sox put the finishing touch on the win in the top of the ninth when Jake Diekman carried a wobbly spring into a dud season debut. The left-hander walked two after giving up a leadoff single, and after getting ahead 0-2 on Ramirez, he grooved a slider that the veteran was able to muscle out for a grand slam even though he cracked his bat on the swing.
Somehow, Sandberg found bright spots in an outing by a reliever who left the field with an ERA of 108.00.
“That’s the best stuff I saw all spring,” Sandberg said of Diekman. “In spring training he was throwing 94-95 (mph), today he was 97, 99. So his fastball was there. Maybe the adrenaline or whatever allowed him to not throw a strike, but that was the best fastball I’ve seen from him in six or seven weeks, so I’m not worried at all.”
Meanwhile, two longtime Phils who moved on this offseason had stellar debuts, as Kyle Kendrick made the Opening Day start for Colorado and blanked the Brewers, while Jimmy Rollins’ L.A. debut came with a game-winning 3-run homer for the Dodgers over the Padres.
Next thing you know, A.J. Burnett will throw a no-hitter after rescuing a cat from a tree.