Phillies fall in home opener marked by bizarre play

They packed into Citizens Bank Park on Monday afternoon for a glimpse of the future, and at the game's most crucial moment, the Phillies pinch-hit for the past. It is still arresting to see Ryan Howard, $25 million platoon player, but Pete Mackanin promised he would play the percentages.

Home opener. Bases loaded. No outs in the sixth inning.

"Well, I said I was going to do it and I did it," Mackanin said after a 4-3 Phillies loss to San Diego. "I thought it was the perfect time to do it, blow the game wide open."

What happened next, when Darin Ruf skied a lazy fly to left, was bizarre. The 134th home opener in Philadelphia featured an inconsistent start by 22-year-old Aaron Nola and devolved into a rule book dispute. But ultimately, the first-base platoon failed.

Ruf's first-pitch swing extinguished a possible Phillies rally in a peculiar sequence. He hit into a sacrifice-fly double play started by the shortstop. The Phillies did not agree with third-base umpire Will Little's interpretation of the infield fly rule.

"I think," Howard said, "we all learned something today."

We did. For one, Mackanin is not afraid to stick to his principles. The manager dubbed first base a platoon, and even in Howard's final home opener with the Phillies, his day was done in the sixth inning. San Diego called for a lefthanded reliever in a one-run game with the bases loaded.

Howard sat. He understood.

"I mean, the situation, it's no surprise," Howard said. "Pete said what he was going to do. It happened once already this year. Right now, it's about winning games."

Padres manager Andy Green said he was aware the Phillies had lifted Howard before. Ruf was 2 for 10 against the reliever, Brad Hand, so San Diego played that option.

"Ryan Howard is a guy that, in the sixth inning, I feel good if he comes out of a baseball game," Green said. "Ruf crushes lefthanded pitching and we were well aware of that matchup. In this instance, Hand has had good success against him."

Ruf jumped at a first-pitch fastball. The craziness that ensued will be debated, but Ruf did not hit the ball hard. It should have been a routine fly out to left.

Wil Myers, the Padres leftfielder, never saw it. Alexei Ramirez, the shortstop, backpedaled into left field.

In the process, Little signaled for an infield fly. Until the last second, it appeared routine. Then Ramirez twisted, and when the ball thudded, his back was turned to home plate. That, the Phillies argued, was not an "ordinary effort" to make it an infield fly.

"The criteria for an infield fly is a batted ball in the air that a fielder can field with ordinary effort," crew chief Ted Barrett told a pool reporter. "And that's what the third-base umpire ruled, the infield fly on that."

Had Little not called an infield fly, the Phillies would have had runners on first and second with one out. Instead, it was a runner on second with two outs. Cameron Rupp struck out to end the inning.

If Little cost the Phillies a run in the sixth, it evened out because he gifted them one in the fifth. Rupp hit what was clearly a foul ball down the third-base line. Little called it fair. Rupp stood on second with a double. Two batters later, Peter Bourjos doubled home Rupp.

The Padres won the game in the seventh on a textbook suicide squeeze. That was the difference, even when Nola struck out a career-high nine and walked none in seven innings. The margin for this Phillies lineup is so thin; the missed opportunities like Ruf's in the sixth are magnified.

The afternoon started with the usual pomp and circumstance. The Phillies descended a staircase in center field and trotted down a red carpet toward the dugout. Howard and Carlos Ruiz, the last vestiges of the 2008 championship, were the final Phillies in line.

Ruiz did not start Monday. Howard did, and he mustered two at-bats. Ruf, in the ninth, faced Padres closer Fernando Rodney, a righty. He bounced into a double play, which erased Maikel Franco as the tying run.

There was no confusion afterward. Ruf said if he was in the same situation as Howard and a righty entered, he would expect Mackanin to remove him.

"That's the role we're both in right now," Ruf said. "That's the definition of a platoon."

mgelb@philly.com

@MattGelb