On April 5, the Kansas City Royals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 13–4, spoiling their home opener with a sellout crowd of 45,307 at Citizens Bank Park.

The interleague matchup was a rare one between teams who first met in the 1980 World Series, as the Royals previously only visited Philadelphia in 2004.

Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and George Brett, rivals when the Phillies beat the Royals to win their first championship 33 years earlier, threw out the first pitches (along with SNL's Joe Piscopo).

[1] On August 16, 2013, the Phillies fired manager Charlie Manuel replacing him with third base coach Ryne Sandberg on an interim basis.

"[6] Manuel received significant accolades within the media for his class in handling the situation,[2] while the Phillies organization, namely general manager Rubén Amaro, Jr., were criticized within the media for firing Manuel at that point in the season,[7][8] as well as for not having better players.