Big start for Phillies in sweep of Astros but it's early

AND NOW, for your regularly scheduled first-week reality check.

Last April, after the Phillies swept the Houston Astros to improve to 5-1 on the young season, they were hitting .315 with a .917 OPS and averaging 7.2 runs per-game. They were showing patience at the plate (5.7 walks per-game) and playing small ball (two sacrifice bunts, four sac flies, three stolen bases). Jimmy Rollins had reached base in 16 of 31 plate appearances and Ryan Howard was hitting .357 with three home runs and four strikeouts in 28 at-bats.

Over the next 10 weeks, the Phillies hit .249, averaged 4.5 runs per game, and went 43-45.

So you can understand the reservation expressed by the folks wearing red pinstripes after their 7-3 victory over the Astros at Citizens Bank Park yesterday afternoon.

Yes, the Phillies improved to 3-0 for the first time in 10 years. Yes, they opened up the season 3-0 at home for the first time since 1970. Yes, Cole Hamels has yet to even start a game.

But when you examine the various lessons the Phillies have learned during their rise to the top of the National League, the most important might be this:

It's a long season.

"As far as all the hype about the pitching staff and everything, you have to go out there and play," said Howard, whose three-run homer to dead centerfield was the highlight of an offensive performance that gave Roy Oswalt plenty of support. "On paper, and all the hearsay, that's easy. You have to go out there and do it."

The difference between this year and last year, of course, is the two extra aces the Phillies have in their rotation, and the first three pitching performances have unfolded as advertised. Yesterday, it was Oswalt's turn to take the mound. In his first start against the team that dealt him and his hefty contract to Philadelphia last July, the longtime Houston ace squared off against a 26-year-old righthander with a 4.82 career ERA. It was the type of mismatch that the Phillies' stacked rotation will produce with regularity this season, and Oswalt won it decisively, allowing two runs on five hits with six strikeouts and one walk in six impressive innings.

Because Oswalt finished spring training without reaching the 90-pitch mark - the result of a line drive to the neck in his final Grapefruit League start - Charlie Manuel removed him from the game in the bottom of the sixth inning after 88 pitches. At that point, the Phillies had a 5-2 lead that would soon grow to 7-2 after Shane Victorino knocked a pinch-hit RBI single through the right side of the infield and Michael Martinez followed with his first big-league hit and RBI.

Including performances by Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, Phillies starters recorded 23 strikeouts and just one walk and held the Astros to six runs in 19 innings.

"The first two guys threw unbelievable," said Oswalt, who limited the Astros' damage to a Hunter Pence solo home run in the fourth inning and a Brett Wallace RBI groundout in the sixth. "I didn't want to be the odd man out."

Nevertheless, the key to the series was the performance of an offense that entered 2011 with several question marks. Ben Francisco, who has replaced free-agent departee Jayson Werth in rightfield, went 3-for-5 with a home run and two runs scored yesterday and finished the series 6-for-13 with four RBI and four runs. Jimmy Rollins, who is attempting to bounce back from a disappointing couple of seasons by replacing the injured Chase Utley in the third spot in the lineup, reached base eight times, including four times yesterday. And Howard, who limped through the stretch run last season with a sprained ankle, went 3-for-5 with four RBI yesterday and 7-for-13 with six RBI in the series.

Still, 159 games remain. In 2008 and 2009, the early April hysteria involved the Phillies' sluggish start. Last season, it was the opposite. In all three cases, the Phillies maintained the type of composure that has come to define them. Yesterday was no different.

During Manuel's postgame news conference, the veteran manager held up a verbal stop sign when asked to laud the merits of the slugger in the middle of his order.

"I don't want to talk about it, because I don't want to black-cloud him," Manuel said. "He's seeing the ball good. He feels good. He's swinging good. We'll leave it there, OK?"

A betting man would tell you that they are not going to finish 162-0, as they are currently on pace to do, and that Howard is not going to finish the season with 324 RBI, as he is currently on pace to do.

The Phillies opened their season with a three-game sweep of a rebuilding team. They pitched as they had expected. They hit as they had hoped.

Pragmatism isn't the most exciting of philosophies, so you can allow yourself this: 3-0 is a heck of a lot better than the alternative.

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at www.philly.com/HighCheese. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/HighCheese.