The Philadelphia Phillies and Texas Rangers are starting their baseball season up for the MLB Opener on Monday and the game starts at 2:05 pm ET for Opening Day and is streaming online from the Major League Baseball website for the game as Cliff Lee matches up with Tanner Scheppers for the first matchup of the season for the teams at Globe Life Park in Arlington.
Lee has experience throwing on Opening Day but not for the Phillies and now the two teams will start the season with the first interleague series of the year. Lee faces off against his old team in the Rangers, where he pitched in a World Series and now he is hoping to get his Phils in the win column to start the season after missing the playoffs. Lee has won a Cy Young award and he faces off with the 27-year-old Scheppers, who is making his first major league start as an Opening Day starter and that comes after some tough injuries for the team heading into the season and Lee is hoping to take advantage of that after winning 14 games and putting up a sub 3.00 ERA once again.
Lee had the chance to sign with the Rangers after being traded from the Mariners, but he made his choice and now the team will face the youngster after Yu Darvish was forced to miss his start and now he is on the DL to start the season. The Rangers went 91-72 last season and that ended in disappointment, while the Phillies are hoping to get back to their winning ways after falling down in the NL East after being perennial winners each season. The Rangers lost the wild-card tiebreaker last season and now they are hoping to get back to the World Series after making some major changes, including trading for Prince Fielder and getting rid of Ian Kinsler and they also added Shin-Soo Choo on a free agent deal.
The Phillies went 73-89 and they are getting older and older and names like Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley are now the elder statesmen on the team and they will give way to some more young stars as the season gets started up. The Rangers come into the season after a nice spring and Adrian Beltre is expected to continue his dominance for the team, as he has been an MVP candidate and last season he led the team with a .315 average while hitting 30 home runs and 92 RBIs and now he has the chance to keep going on that track.
The Rangers ranked in the top 10 in runs, batting average, on base percentage and slugging last season and they also were in the top 10 in ERA among pitchers, but they were 25th in quality starts and that is an area of concern heading into this season. The Phillies come in after ranking 26th in runs last season and in the bottom half in batting average and Utley was the leader with a .284 average, while young star Domonic Brown had a breakout year with 27 home runs and over 80 RBIs.
Check here for the Philadelphia Phillies and Texas Rangers live coverage from the MLB on Monday.
