The Good: Ben Revere took some pitches, got on base, and stole a base. If he's going to be in the leadoff spot. That's what we want from him.
Dom Brown continued his spring trend of working pitchers even when finding himself down in a count.
They showed a bit of fight. Last year's team never seemed to have that battle-back attitude that made the 2007-2008 Phillies so damn fun to watch. Despite very poor pitching, they could have won.
Erik Kratz's turkey bacon commercial may have stole the night. It kinda reminded me of the great Rat Chicken cartoon:
The Bad: Cole Hamels and Chad Durbin. This duo really made it tough for the Phillies offense to keep this a contest. Hamels location didn't seem to be there. Hopefully that's just an opening day hiccup. Durbin on the other hand had a pretty awful spring and didn't even register a single out tonight. That's bad.
The defense was also suspect. Michael Young looked pretty bad at third. Dom Brown misplayed at least one ball in left and looked shaky in general.
The Man: Utley hit his 200th career home run in the fourth inning. Ripped a ball to center field. He later doubled in the fifth and legged out a triple in the seventh. 3-5 with the HR and 3 RBI for your second baseman. I think Phillies fans can feel pretty damn good about having this healthy Chase Utley in the lineup on April 1.
The Braves: If you miss, they're going to make you pay. We all know they have some bashers in their lineup. They're going to be a tough division foe. Hudson wasn't great, but he did enough to get his team the opening day win.
Your biggest takeaways? One day down. Let's play another on Wednesday.
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