At Nationals Park, President Obama sported the home team’s jacket as he threw out the first pitch at the Philadelphia-Washington opening day matinee.

As the game unfolded, the Nats could have used him to throw a few more.

As the optimism of a new campaign filled the air, The Washington Nationals were brought back to reality by the bats of the Philadelphia Phillies.  The Phillies were the victors, 11-1. 

In the bottom of the first, the Nats got out to a 1-0 lead on a Ryan Zimmerman RBI-double off of Philadelphia recently acquired ace, Roy Halladay.  But Halladay settled in and both teams posted zeroes in the scoring column until the top of the fourth inning. 

The Phillies struck for 5 runs off of 6 hits.  The surge was ignited by a two-run blast off of the bat of slugger Ryan Howard.    

Shorstop Jimmy Rollins continued the onslaught in the sixth inning with an RBI-triple.  Rollins later came in to score on a base-hit to left field by Placido Polanco.

But Polanco was far from being done.  After the bases were loaded (by virtue of two walks and a single), the third baseman took a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall for a grand slam home run – giving the Phillies a commanding 11-1 advantage which proved to be the final score of the game.

John Lannan was the victim of the Phillies’ fourth inning outburst, yielding five runs on seven hits and taking the loss for the home team.  Fifteen-year veteran Miguel Batista also gave up five runs, including the bomb by Polanco. 

Phillies’ ace Roy Halladay pitched seven strong frames, yielding only one run and striking out nine in the process.  He enabled the reigning National League Champions to win their first opening day contest in five seasons.