John Mayberry Jr. starts Opening Day with a win for Phillies – Baseball update
The Philadelphia Phillies’ outfielder, John Mayberry Jr., had a memorable performance in his Opening Day debut with his game winning hit in Phillies 5-4 victory over the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park on Friday. The son of two times all star, John Mayberry, was given only one chance at bat in the whole game and he took it brilliantly with his decisive RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
"It's all I can ask for for my first Opening Day," said Mayberry. "My parents were here. It's a special day for us."
Roy Halladay started the proceedings for the Phillies and was at his trademark best. He pitched six innings and was hit only five times, giving away only one run. However the 33-year-old veteran wasn’t fully satisfied with his performance. "I didn't get as deep as I would've liked," Halladay said.
J.C Romero and David Herndon who replaced Halladay in the seventh inning gave up three runs. While Danys Baez, who came in to close the game, earned the win by pitching a scoreless ninth inning.
Astros’ starting pitcher, Brett Myers, who is known for throwing long spells, pitched seven tireless innings and was more impressive than his counterpart, Roy Halladay. He threw 85 storming pitches who didn’t allow the Phillies hitters to swing their bat freely. He allowed two less hits than Halladay but gave away two runs.
"I didn't pay attention to the pitch count," Myers said. "I could have gone to 120 if I had to."
Wilton Lopez followed Myers with a scoreless eighth inning. Brandon Lyon threw the decisive ninth innings that turned the result in favour of the Phillies. He went for six hits resulting in three runs for Phillies.
Game Highlights:
Astros’ Angel Sanchez scored the first run of the game on Bill Hall’s ground out in the sixth inning.
Brett Wallace and Humberto Quintero scored on Michael Bourn’s triple to deep right center in the seventh inning, making it 3-0 for the Astros.
Astros’ Sanchez hit a sacrifice fly to right field bringing home Bourn.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Placido Polanco completed his run on Ryan Howard’s sacrifice fly to center, while Jimmy Rollins scored on Raul Ibanez’ ground out, cutting the Astros’ lead to two.
Phillies’ Rollins completed another run in the ninth inning on Ben Francisco’s single to left center, closing the Astros’ gap to only one.
Wilson Valdez took a game tie RBI single before Mayberry Jr. singled to deep center helping Francisco to complete his run.
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