It may seem asinine to lead off a story of this proportion with a stat that mundane.
The Phillies had won their past eight against the Mets. The Mets were coming off a series sweep at the hands of the Braves. It was the last Opening Day in the history of Shea Stadium.
Lefthander Jamie Moyer pitched six strong innings, Tom Gordon picked up his first save since August and Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth combined for six hits.
But if Utley hadn't been plunked at the plate in the seventh, and then again by an errant throw running to second, there's a very good chance the Phillies would have lost.
Through six innings, the team had managed just three hits off Mets lefthander Oliver Perez and had barely threatened to score.
The Mets, meanwhile, took a 1-0 lead in the second on a solo home run by first baseman Carlos Delgado, the eighth of his career against Moyer. In the fourth, they made it 2-0 on an RBI groundout by Ryan Church that scored Carlos Beltran.
Though the Mets managed just four hits off Moyer, it looked for a while like it was going to be enough.
Then Utley got plunked.
Again.
The first two times it happened - in the first and the fourth innings - proved inconsequential. But as Utley strode to the plate in the seventh, Victorino was on first and Rollins was on second with one out.
The first pitch Utley saw from righthander Scott Schoeneweis hit him, loading the bases.
With that, Utley set a Phillies single-game record with three HBPs, and tied a major league record that was last reached by Nomar Garciaparra in 2006.
(Rollins, for the record, was not hit with a pitch at all, despite his notoriety in the Big Apple for a certain preseason declaration he made last year. "If anyone got hit," the shortstop said, "I thought it'd be me.")
But Utley wasn't done.
