Phillies: Ranking the best opening day lineups of 2010s
8. April 1, 2013
The 2013 Phillies didn’t really know what they were going into the season. Were they fighting for another playoff run, or were they a team on the verge of a rebuild that was giving young players their opportunity?
We see this with the acquisitions of Ben Revere and Michael Young paired with Domonic Brown and John Mayberry starting in the outfield.
- Ben Revere, CF
- Jimmy Rollins, SS
- Chase Utley, 2B
- Ryan Howard, 1B
- Michael Young, 3B
- Domonic Brown, LF
- John Mayberry, RF
- Erik Kratz, C
- Cole Hamels, P
As fans would come to know, this season was the start of a rebuild that started on opening day with a 7-5 loss in Atlanta.
Final. 5. 6. 7. 17
Atlanta got to Cole Hamels early, hitting three home runs and scoring five runs in as many innings off the Phillies starter. Dan Uggla and Freddie Freeman got it going early with their home runs before Chase Utley responded in the fourth with his 200th career home run going to straight-away center field.
Utley would drive in two more runs in the fifth and scored on a Ryan Howard groundout in the seventh. He finished a double short of the cycle, but it wasn’t enough against the Braves.
Ryan Howard and Michael Young combined to go 0-7 with two strikeouts and two walks, while the Brown-Revere-Mayberry outfield went just 3-11.
Chad Durbin would allow two runs, but Jeremy Horst and Philippe Aumont pitched three shutout innings out of the bullpen.
The 2013 team was the end of an era capped off with the firing of Charlie Manuel after 120 games. They’d win just 73 games under Manuel and interim manager Ryne Sandberg, finishing in fourth place, their worst finish since being dead-last in 2000.
The lineup still had some solid names behind it with Utley, Howard, Ruiz, Revere, and Rollins. Injuries got the best of the team, and they finished below league-average in hits, doubles, runs, home runs, and batting average. Only three other teams scored fewer runs (610) than the Phillies that season.