Tom Gordon and Phillies' Bullpen Welcome Fans to New Season

Tom Gordon strikes again.

Like the Ghost of Opening Days Past, Gordon came into a tie game to begin the season and blew it up. Bad.

Bad to the tune of five earned runs, one walk, and four hits all in an economic one-third of an inning. A 6-6 game quickly became an 11-6 game, shredding any hope that the Phillies would actually get off to a good start.

Now, that’s not to say the Phils won’t bounce back and take two out of three from the Nationals, but why does it always have to be the hard way?

And let’s not leave out Ryan Madsen, who came in for a two-hit, two-run quickie in the sixth, setting up Jimmy Rollins’ game-tying two-run bomb. I mean, I know Gordon had good years in Boston and New York, but besides his first year, Madsen has been an enigma at best.

The question: is it going be like this all season?

You have to believe that, barring major melt down, Lidge will perform better than Gordon has in the last couple of years. He is scheduled to come off the DL Saturday and should be available for that game in Cincinnati.

And with thank-god-for-him lefty set-up man J.C. Romero, things shouldn’t be all bad. 

But as much as I would want them to, Romero and Lidge can’t pitch every night. And something tells me that a rotation with Adam Eaton, Jamie Moyer, and Kyle Kendrick will keep that bullpen phone ringing.

I know it’s only one game, but how many times do we have to see Gordon get hammered to know he doesn't have it anymore?

Recently, it seems like every year the Phils get off to a bad start and it’s largely caused by a reliever named Gordon or Madsen.

And yet as Utley and Rollins both homered in the seventh to tie things up at six and get the crowd back into things, you felt—no, hoped—that this year would be different. That last year’s frenetic run-down of the Mets somehow changed them, made them stronger and capable to get out of this, by comparison, minor mess.

Enter Gordon. Exit hope.

The other part is that the Phillies probably know Gordon is done but they truly have no one else to fill his role, whether that is fill-in closer or righty set-up for when Lidge comes back.

I say that because today they signed 39-year-old Rudy Seanez, who was waived by the Dodgers after posting a lusty 7.71 ERA in spring training.

You don’t sign a 39-year-old guy with 7.71 ERA if you’re all set in the bullpen. Although, Seanez is coming off a decent year in L.A., where he went 6-3 with a 3.79 ERA in a career high 73 appearances.

But still, that sick feeling every Phillies fan had yesterday was a very familiar one. The constant nagging reminder that pitching will somehow, someway bring this team down. And another year will be lost for what is a fantastic core of players in Utley, Howard, and Rollins.

I know it’s a long season and if anything, last season proved that old axiom true, winning the division on the last day. But I’m sick of this pitching already and we haven’t seen Eaton or Kendrick yet. 

It’s just never easy with this team, is it?