PHILADELPHIA The warm feelings from the pregame festivities lasted just four minutes before the first boos were heard.

After the Philadelphia Phillies celebrated their World Series title during an hour-long ceremony, the rest of the night belonged to Derek Lowe and the Atlanta Braves.

Lowe pitched eight dominant innings, three Braves homered off Brett Myers, and Atlanta beat the defending champs 4-1 in the major league opener Sunday night.

"I knew this would be a big challenge," Lowe said. "It was as good as possible for me."

Lowe (1-0) allowed two hits, no walks, struck out four and the sinkerballer got 13 groundouts. Mike Gonzalez pitched out of trouble in the ninth to secure the win.

The Phillies had better luck against Lowe when he pitched for Los Angeles in the NL championship series. They beat him in Game 1 of the NLCS and he had a no-decision in the Dodgers' loss in Game 4.

"Having just played them, it was easy to watch video to see what you did last time," Lowe said. "They're an extremely good hitting team. I was able to get ahead in the count. I just wanted to be consistent."

Brian McCann hit a two-run homer, Jeff Francoeur had a solo shot and Jordan Schafer went deep in his first career at-bat for the Braves.

Once Lowe came out, the Phillies nearly rallied. Pinch-hitter Eric Bruntlett started the ninth with a double and scored on Jayson Werth's one-out RBI single. After Gonzalez walked Chase Utley to bring up the tying run, the hard-throwing lefty struck out Ryan Howard looking and Raul Ibanez swinging to end it.

Atlanta gave Lowe a $60 million, four-year contract to anchor its revamped rotation.