Henry Blanco’s two homers and Adrian Gonzalez’ bases clearing double provided all the support Jake Peavy would need. Peavy struck out ten over 8 1/3, his complete game bid ended on Fred Lewis’ double in the ninth, with Heath Bell recording the last two outs for the save.
Grady Sizemore, en route to his best season, had an interesting day, with a double, triple, and hit by pitch twice. Fausto Carmona probably gave us all reason to believe he’d continue his 2007 form as he allowed one run over six innings with one walk, two strikeouts, and ten outs on groundballs. Spoiler: he would not continue his 2007 form.
Chris Young did not have his control, walking five Dodgers (including opposite number Randy Wolf twice) and coughing up five runs in just 2 1/3. Andre Ethier had a big day at the plate (three hits, a homer, four RBI), Wolf hit the minimum qualifications for a quality start, and Joe Beimel, Jonathan Broxton, and Takashi Saito combined to allow just one walk in three innings of relief.
But the most interesting aspects of the scoresheet come from Rafael Furcal’s trips to the plate. He started the game by reaching on catcher’s interference, and drew a walk in the eighth which was aided by an automatic third ball (indicated by the “a” preceding my normal “D” on the left side of the scorebox) called on Doug Brocail.
The Indians got to Felix Hernandez for five runs in 4 2/3, including homers by Ben Broussard and Ronnie Belliard. Unfortunately, Jason Johnson was pitching for Cleveland, and he allowed three runs in the fifth (including an Ichiro homer) and walked the bases loaded in the sixth before being bailed out by Rafael Betancourt. But in the seventh Betancourt walked namesake Yuniesky (not an easy thing to do) and surrendered the tying homer to Jose Lopez before Scott Sauerbeck and Guillermo Mota allowed two more runs across. Kenji Johjima’s two-run double in the ninth gave the Mariners nine, and their bullpen shut the Tribe out, including a six-out save by JJ Putz.
Carl Everett had a game after my heart, grounding out his first time up, followed by a double and then walks in his final three plate appearances.
Mark Buehrle and Jake Westbrook each pitched eight fine innings on opening day, but the Sox scored the game’s only run in the seventh on a double by Paul Konerko and infield hit by Aaron Rowand. Westbrook allowed five hits and one walk with three strikeouts, while Buehrle was perfect through four, allowing just two hits and one walk with five strikeouts. Shingo Takatsu pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save, and the game was over in snappy one hour, fifty-one minutes.
