MLB 2010 Picks: Phillies vs Nationals – April 5, 2010: After watching the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees in a wild one last night, the rest of the league will kickoff the MLB 2010 Picks season with a full skate of afternoon and evening games. Beginning at 1 PM ET (12 PM CT), the two-time defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies [-185 ML] get set to make their season debut against the sports betting odds underdog Washington Nationals [+175 ML]. Nationals Park will be the sight for this Opening Day game, which can be seen on MyPhil-17 and/or MASN-HD.
This will be of course our first chance to see one of the best pitchers of this era take the mound in a new uniform, as RHP Roy Halladay gets set to make his anticipated Phillies debut. “Doc” has a career, 148 wins and 76 loses with a 3.43 ERA to go with it. Against Washington, Halladay has been lights out though his career, posting a 5-1 mark and a stingy 2.56 ERA versus the Nats.
"I'm looking forward to it," Halladay said last week. "I feel prepared. I think that it's something you look forward to for a long time. I'm extremely anxious. … I feel good. Obviously, physically is most important at this point, and I feel great. I'm pretty excited about a couple of things that we've accomplished this spring. I feel like we've covered quite a bit. I feel good moving forward. The stuff was there. There are a few things that I've been working on for a few years that I felt like came together pretty well this spring."
Speaking of the Nationals, their Opening Day starter will be LHP John Lannan (20-30, 3.91 ERA). This third-year lefty has had just a miserable time against Philadelphia through his short career, winless with an 0-6 record and a undesirable 5.82 ERA. He hopes to get his team off to a much-better start than he did last year.
"I'm just going to forget about [last year's Opening Day]. I'm not really going to base this year's game on last year's game," Lannan said. "I'm not going to put unwanted pressure on it. Last year, I put a lot of pressure on it. This year, I'm going to go out there like it's a regular game. It's going to be a great game. I have to trust that my stuff is going to be good enough."
