I got up early to watch this season opener, played in Sydney with first pitch at 5:00 AM Eastern. Scott Van Slyke’s two-run homer in the fifth was all Clayton Kershaw and bullpen would need. Kershaw went 6 2/3, allowing one run on five hits and one walk while fanning seven.
This game ran for 5:14 and sixteen innings on a chilly Opening Day in Cleveland. It started out promisingly for the home team as Jack Hannahan’s three-run homer off Ricky Romero in the second gave the Tribe a 4-1 lead that they carried into the ninth. Justin Masterson was excellent, allowing just two hits (one a homer by Jose Bautista), one walk, and fanning ten. He might have had a shot at a complete game, but in the eighth he made nineteen pitches, including five necessitated after JP Arencibia reached on a strikeout/wild pitch. Chris Perez came on for the ninth and in five batters Toronto had tied it on Edwin Encarnacion’s two-run double.
Both teams’ best extra innings chance came in the twelfth. Toronto loaded the bases with two outs, but Rajai Davis flied out to the warning track in left. Cleveland loaded the bases with one out, but Asdrubal Cabrera grounded the first pitch he saw into a double play. In the sixteenth, Jairo Ascenio was in his third inning of work and walked Brett Lawrie, made a throwing error trying to get the lead runner on Omar Vizquel’s grounder (Vizquel, age 45, was in the game at first base as a utility man), and then was taken deep by Arencibia. It was the first disappointment of what would be a very long season for the Indians.
The Reds got two runs off Shaun Marcum in each of the first and second and used an efficient Travis Wood start (7 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 0 W, 7 K, just 83 pitches) to ease to a 4-2 win.
For this spring training game I used a sheet with diamonds and boxes for balls and strikes. You can discern the pitch sequence as balls are marked with numbers while strikes use symbols to distinguish called (.), foul (-), and swinging (+). Felix Hernandez breezed through 5 shutout innings while Dan Haren gave up homers to Franklin Gutierrez and Ryan Langerhans as Seattle won 4-0.
Solo homers from Raul Ibanez, Ryan Howard, and Chase Utley contributed to the Phillies’ 5-4 lead entering the ninth, but Brad Lidge gave up a leadoff double to Jody Gerut who scored on a pair of groundouts, then issued two out walks to Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley. Kevin Kouzmanoff followed with a three run homer and Heath Bell set the Phils down in order for the save.
The Indians got their two runs early as Grady Sizemore homered in his first two at bats. The Tigers tied it with single tallies in the seventh and the eighth and scored two in the tenth to win.
Getting hollow revenge for Game 7 of the previous season’s NLCS, the Mets got two-out, two-run hits from Carlos Delgado in the third and Paul LoDuca in the fourth to stake Tom Glavine to a 5-0 lead. Glavine allowed a run in the sixth and ducked out of a bases loaded jam to close his night.
A number of oddities stand out at the jump for this major league season opener. The defending world champion Red Sox. Randy Johnson pitching for the Yankees. David Wells pitching for the Red Sox. Rueben Sierra batting cleanup for the Yankees.
New York got four runs in 4 2/3 innings off Wells while Johnson started his Yankee career looking like he might still be in Cy Young form, going six innings and allowing one run on five hits, two walks, and six strikeouts. Hideki Matsui was the game’s standout hitter, going 3-5 with a homer and three runs scored and driven in (one of those runs scored coming on a Wells balk in the third).
