Chase Utley

Things are not quite the same as they used to be around here. That point was driven home during the first series of the season when the young Atlanta Braves took two out of three games from the Phillies, showing off their power in the process. Meanwhile, in Washington, the young Nationals opened the season with three straight wins while allowing only one run to the wretched Miami Marlins. The Phillies had a lot of success for a long time, but they may be finally paying the price.

ATLANTA - And on the third day, a voice boomed down from the heavens, saying, "Fear not, for I am with you!" Actually, it wasn't really a voice. It was Cliff Lee, and for eight scoreless innings he reminded everybody in Philadelphia why the Phillies expect to be in the thick of the National League pennant chase. For 106 pitches, he was the most dominant player on the field, pounding the zone with a two-seamer that ran away from the Braves' righthanded power and, when coupled with his changeup, proved nearly unhittable.

ATLANTA - If the baseball gods had it in for the Phillies in Atlanta, the ball that betrayed Chase Utley's glove to begin the bottom of the sixth inning would have led to a game-tying rally. Instead, Gerald Laird, the Braves' leadoff baserunner, didn't move an inch off first. Cliff Lee was out of the inning six pitches later. In the third game of the Phillies' season, an All-Star ace took the mound and didn't disappoint. In a week that began with Cole Hamels serving up a hat trick of homers and continued with Roy Halladay needing 95 pitches before exiting in the fourth inning, Lee blanked the supersized Atlanta lineup in a crisp, 2-0 victory on a cool, damp night at Turner Field.

ATLANTA - After one game, the Phillies roster underwent change. The Phillies claimed outfielder Ezequiel Carrera off waivers from Cleveland on Tuesday and designated outfielder Ender Inciarte for assignment. The move is a shuffle of fifth outfielders. But with a hole in right field and no particularly good answer for at least a month, Carrera could stand to gain playing time. The 25-year-old Venezuelan led the majors with 11 stolen bases this spring. He has 116 games of major-league experience, all with the Indians, and a career .653 OPS. Of those 116 games, 88 were starts.

ATLANTA - Last year, Roy Halladay pitched eight scoreless innings and allowed two baserunners in a 1-0 win over the Pirates on Opening Day. Two years ago, Cole Hamels allowed six runs in 2 2/3 innings in a performance that elicited boos in his first start of the season. In 2008, the Phillies lost their first two games of the season, both against the Washington Nationals. In 2009, they lost their first two games of the season, both to the Braves. The moral of the story is that the opening week of the baseball season, more often than not, is amoral.

ATLANTA - The first pitch was less than three hours away Monday, and $435.5 million worth of Phillies lounged on three leather couches. The six players watched baseball because there was nothing left to do. They had waited an entire winter and seven weeks of spring training for this night. Cole Hamels, the most expensive of them all, had waited years for this moment. He prepared for his first opening-day start in a corner of the visiting clubhouse at Turner Field. But all that preparation was not enough to prevent mistakes against a Braves lineup that gashed him for three home runs in a 7-5 loss.

ATLANTA - It was more than two hours before game time, and the first player to emerge in the visitors dugout at Turner Field was Chase Utley. The Phillies' five-time all-star second baseman was not going to miss this opening day. Not after missing the last two. Not after starting his preparation for this season almost immediately after the end of last season. There was a look in Utley's eyes Monday as he leaned on the dugout railing and awaited the team's stretch exercises in preparation for his first opening day since 2010.

ATLANTA - It is a long season, as the Phillies vividly reminded us with a long night here Monday. It is impossible to reach reasonable conclusions after just one game, but that's what opening day is for. For more than a month, we've been told every rough outing results from a pitcher working on some troublesome pitch, that the offensive numbers are meaningless. All of those qualifiers disappear on opening day. The game counts. This game counted more than most. There will be no easing into this National League East race.

It's almost too easy. Thirty years after the Wheeze Kids won the National League pennant, another bunch of aging Phillies will try to defy time and recapture recent glory. What a perfect angle for opening day, right? Well, no. The '83 Phillies really were an assemblage of last-legs superstars: Pete Rose was 42. Tony Perez was 41. Joe Morgan was 39. They won 90 games that year. The oldest of this season's "old" Phillies regulars is 36-year-old Michael Young. Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins are 34, fully eight years younger than Rose was. Ryan Howard is 33, which is the same age Mike Schmidt was when he hit 40 home runs and finished third in the 1983 MVP voting.