Jimmy Rollins has quickly become a favorite target for Mets fans.

After boasting about his team in spring training, Philadelphia’s All-Star shortstop made a key error yesterday as New York rallied for seven runs in the eighth inning to beat the Phillies 11–5 in its home opener.

Carlos Delgado had three hits and two RBIs for the Mets, who overcame Ryan Howard’s threerun homer and roughed up Philadelphia’s shaky bullpen.

The struggling Phillies dropped to 1–6, a disappointing start for a team with title aspirations.

Rollins was vocal about that in spring training, saying Philadelphia was the team to beat in the NL East even though the Mets won the division by 12 games last season.

So fans took particular delight in Rollins’ failures yesterday — he grounded into a double play with the bases loaded to end the fourth and booted a grounder in the eighth that helped New York break the game open.

After his error, the shortstop was serenaded with chants of “Jimmy Rollins! Jimmy Rollins!” from the crowd of 56,227 — the largest opening-day attendance in Mets history. Rollins also was booed loudly during pregame introductions.

Howard, the NL MVP last year, hit his first home run of the season off Ambiorix Burgos to give the Phillies a 5–3 lead in the sixth.

But Delgado’s two-out RBI single against left-hander Matt Smith cut it to 5–4 in the seventh, and New York broke loose in the eighth to improve to 5–2.

Moises Alou and Shawn Green opened the inning with singles off Geoff Geary (0–1), and a walk to pinch-hitter Julio Franco loaded the bases with one out.

Jose Reyes drove in the tying run with a grounder that Rollins botched, leaving the bases loaded. Geary’s run-scoring wild pitch gave the Mets the lead and Carlos Beltran hit a sacrifice fly against Jon Lieber, just off the disabled list and making his first relief appearance since 1998 with Pittsburgh.

David Wright added a two-run double, and Alou made it 11-5 with a two-run single — his Pedro Feliciano (1–0) pitched a perfect eighth for the win. After Howard’s homer, New York’s bullpen retired its final 10 batters — with five strikeouts — and did not allow a ball out of the infield.

Chase Utley also homered for the first time this season, and Cole Hamels pitched six solid innings for the Phillies. Shane Victorino preserved the lead in the seventh with a tumbling catch in right field.

Philadelphia gave away a run in the fifth after the 6-foot-4, 256-pound Howard collided with third baseman Abraham Nunez on the mound as they tried to catch Reyes’ popup. The ball fell in, and Reyes was safe at second. Howard was charged with an error.

Nunez, who took an elbow to the face, stayed down for a few moments but remained in the game.

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YANKEES 8, TWINS 2 The Yankees thawed out quickly in Minnesota against Sidney Ponson.

Bobby Abreu drove in four runs, Alex Rodriguez homered again and the Yankees beat the Twins 8–2 lastnight.

Abreu went 3-for-5 with a tworun homer, Jorge Posada hit a tworun double, and Derek Jeter had three hits and scored two runs. Johnny Damon had two hits in his first start in a week due to a calf strain.

Perhaps the most promising performance, however, came from Carl Pavano (1–0), who gave up six hits and two runs in seven efficient innings. He struck out two without a walk over 79 pitches.

Trying to revive his derailed career this year as Minnesota’s fifth starter, Ponson (0–1) hadn’t pitched since March 31, the last day of spring training. He gave up 10 hits and eight runs in 5.2 innings.

Five of the runs Ponson allowed came with two outs, and he threw well in stretches. But a handful of bloops and bleeders in the first couple of innings put him behind, and the Twins couldn’t string enough hits together against Pavano to catch up.

After splitting two games and dealing with one postponement themselves over the weekend in Chicago against the White Sox, the Twins also were eager for more comfortable conditions. They took a lot longer to warm up, though.

After an RBI single by Abreu in the first, Jason Kubel misplayed Posada’s slicing line drive for a ground-rule double that scored two for a 3–0 Yankees lead. Michael Cuddyer doubled to start the second, but he wandered too far on a grounder to shortstop by Torii Hunter and was tagged out by Jeter.