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Phillies rally to beat Astros, 5-4

Before the fans at parking-lot tailgates spilled into Citizens Bank Park to begin the most anticipated season in Philadelphia's baseball history, John Mayberry Jr. found a pair of scissors to cut the bottom of his pant legs so they'd look more stylish.

Ben Francisco is greeted by teammate Jimmy Rollins after scoring the game winning run.  (Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)
Ben Francisco is greeted by teammate Jimmy Rollins after scoring the game winning run. (Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)Read more

Before the fans at parking-lot tailgates spilled into Citizens Bank Park to begin the most anticipated season in Philadelphia's baseball history, John Mayberry Jr. found a pair of scissors to cut the bottom of his pant legs so they'd look more stylish.

Placido Polanco unwrapped some new bats and swung through air. Wilson Valdez attempted to put his uniform pants on over his head.

Friday's dramatic 5-4 win over Houston was another game, the first of at least 162 in the next six months. But 160 days without baseball in this city made Friday a holiday for the fans. And for eight innings the Phillies overslept, causing the dreamers to rub their eyes and the critics to pound their chests.

Then came the ninth.

The game ended on a bases-loaded single by Mayberry and the three-run rally was capped with a shaving-cream pie on top.

"It's great," said Mayberry, playing in his first opening day. "That's all I can ask for on my first opening day. My parents are here. This is definitely a special day."

They will remember opening day 2011 for the barrage of singles that caused a walk of shame for Astros closer Brandon Lyon to the dugout.

"That was just desire to win," Jimmy Rollins said. "No one wanted to make the last out."

No one did. There were six singles; first Rollins, then Ryan Howard, Ben Francisco, Carlos Ruiz, Valdez and finally Mayberry.

But until then, it was disappointment. The first audible boos came at 2:49 p.m. when David Herndon allowed a two-run triple in the seventh to pad the Houston lead to 4-0.

There was Roy Halladay, needing an unusually high number of pitches (101) to finish six innings while his counterpart, Brett Myers, breezed through the Phillies lineup like Halladay typically does against his helpless opponents. In the first six innings, Myers threw 58 pitches.

Rollins was asked how such a disappointment on the season's first day would have been received inside the clubhouse. The players would have been OK with it, he said. There's another game Saturday. As for everyone else . . .

"Outside of these walls? No," Rollins said. "We had a couple of fans jumping on us right on top of our dugout. It was comical. One guy said something about American Legion ball and how his team would have done better than that. I don't know, maybe it inspired us."

In the two innings the Phillies scored - the seventh and ninth - they saw 59 pitches. The hitters were patient, worked the counts, and drew a couple of walks. In the ninth, Lyon was throwing mostly in the high 80's, just as Myers had done, but he eventually made mistakes as the Phillies waited him out.

"We had to take advantage of the pitcher leaving everything up," Valdez said.

Mayberry had taken his swings in the underground batting cage in the sixth inning. As the ninth started, he said he looked at the lineup card and figured his chance would come if the rally extended seven batters to the pitcher's spot.

"I walked past home plate when I scored, and Mayberry looked like he was ready," Howard said. "He wanted to be in that situation. . . . Those at-bats don't take place once you get to the plate. They take place in the on-deck circle. They take place when you're in the hole. You're thinking, 'Hey, the game could come down to me, so I've got to be ready.' "

And he was. So the Phillies are 1-0 with three more aces to unveil, a whole summer of wins and losses to come, and perhaps postseason baseball for a fifth straight fall.

"The best thing about it is we won the game," Charlie Manuel said. "The next best thing is we have another game to play tomorrow."

Here we go.