#506---MIN @ NYA, 4/4/2011

 

Alex Rodriguez (#615 of his career) and Jorge Posada each hit two-run homers off Scott Baker in the first two innings to stake Ivan Nova to a 4-0 lead. Minnesota got RBI doubles from Jim Thome in the fourth (two runs) and Tsuyoshi Nishioka in the fifth (one run), and after that there was very little offense the rest of the way. Only one runner reached second base for either team (Cano in the Yankee sixth), and the back-end of the Yankee bullpen each pitched one shutout inning (Joba Chamberlain in the seventh, Rafael Soriano in the eighth, Mariano Rivera in the ninth) to preserve a 4-3 win.

#505---SEA @ OAK, 4/5/2010

 

Seattle got single tallies off Ben Sheets in each of the first three frames, with lots of actions on the basepaths (three steals coupled with two Kurt Suzuki throwing errors, two caught stealings) while Felix Hernandez allowed just one hit (a chopper by Rajai Davis leading off the game for Oakland) through five. Oakland pushed across a run in the sixth and after King Felix got two groundouts to start the seventh, he walked two and was pulled for Sean White. Cliff Pennington and Davis each singled in a run to tie the game. In the ninth, Casey Kotchman got a two-out, two-run single off Andrew Bailey to give the Mariners the lead, and David Aardsma set the A’s down 1-2-3 to save a 5-3 Opening Day victory.

#504---CLE @ DET, 9/1/2009

 

September 1 used to be a fun day for fans of teams out of the race, as you got an influx of September callups, sometimes including top prospects. This game saw the major league debuts of two Cleveland prospects who were major pieces in big trades: Michael Brantley (CC Sabathia) and Carlos Carrasco (Cliff Lee). Brantley’s debut (2-4) went smoother than Carrasco’s (3 IP, 6 R, 9 H, 3 W, 3 K, 3 HR (Placido Polanco, Jose Guillen, Brandon Inge)). Detroit led 6-1 when Carrasco departed and added two more in the fourth before Cleveland showed life with three in the fifth. Andy Marte’s leadoff homer in the sixth cut it to 8-5, but the from there the Tribe would muster just Brantley’s ninth inning infield single amidst their last dozen outs.

#503---CHA @ CLE, 4/3/2008

 

Jake Westbrook retired the first eleven Chicago batters and went 4 2/3 hitless, while John Danks went five hitless innings. Juan Uribe opened the scoring when he took Westbrook’s first delivery of the sixth over the big wall in left, but the Indians tied the game when Nick Swisher dropped Franklin Gutierrez’s fly in the seventh. However, Joe Crede led off the eighth with another homer to left off Westbrook, providing the winning run as Scott Linebrink and Bobby Jenks closed out the White Sox victory by each pitching perfect innings.

#502---CLE @ CHA, 4/5/2007

 

Mark Buerhle always seemed to give the Tribe fits, but Grady Sizemore jumped him for a leadoff homer and he had to leave after he was hit by line drive off Ryan Garko’s bat in the second. Jason Michaels added a homer in the third and the visitors led 2-1 before Jeremy Sowers basically handed the White Sox the tying run in the fourth, walking two and hitting one before yielding a sac fly. Scott Podsednik’s two-out single off Rafael Betancourt gave Chicago their first lead in the bottom of the seventh, but Michaels doubled in Sizemore against Matt Thornton in the eighth to tie the game at three. In the bottom of the ninth, longtime White Sox closer Roberto Hernandez failed to record an out against his former team, surrendering singles to Jermaine Dye and Joe Crede before making a throwing error, intentionally walking Tadahito Iguchi, and plunking AJ Pierzynski for the walkoff hit batter.

#501---ATL @ LA, 4/3/2006

 

This Opening Day game had plenty of fireworks. The Braves scored eight off of Derek Lowe in five innings, punctuated by three run homers from Adam LaRoche and Andruw Jones, but the Dodgers came back with four of their own in the bottom of the fifth on six hits, all runs charged to Tim Hudson. Atlanta got a two-run double from Edgar Renteria in the sixth and a leadoff homer to Ryan Langerhans from Ryan Langerhans in the eighth to pad the lead to 11-5, but Los Angeles wasn’t done. They got three in the eighth and Rafael Furcal singled and Jose Cruz doubled to start the ninth before Chris Reitsma induced three straight groundouts from JD Drew, Jeff Kent, and Olmedo Saenz to preserve an 11-10 Atlanta win.

The teams combined for twenty-nine hits and eight walks, with every starter in both lineups reach safely except Jeff Francoeur, who was 0-5 and saw thirteen pitches.