Angels pitchers held Texas to four hits on Opening Day, with Ian Kinsler’s homer providing the only run for the visitors. Los Angeles got single tallies in the first, second, fifth, and eighth and dominant work from the back end of their bullpen (Justin Speier, Scott Shields, and Francisco Rodriguez retired all eleven batters they faced) to win it 4-1.
Appropriately Barry Bonds started the Opening Day offense with a second inning double, scoring on Lance Niekro’s single, but it was all Padres from there. Mike Piazza led off the bottom of the second with a homer and Khalil Greene would later go deep as well as San Diego scored four off Jason Schmidt in seven innings. Other than the second, Jake Peavy was superb, going seven and allowing just the one run on four hits and one walk with five Ks.
The Cubs pounced on Javier Vazquez for seven runs in the first two innings, and homers from Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez helped keep it going as they ruined Opening Day for the Diamondbacks, 16-6. Ramirez and Lee had the two biggest days for the Cubs as Ramirez went 3-4 with a walk, scoring three and driving in four while Lee went 4-6, scoring two and driving in five.
It was Opening Day in Minnesota, exciting for the home fans as local hero, #1 draft pick, and top prospect Joe Mauer made his major league debut catching and batting eighth. He didn’t disappoint, going 2-3 with two walks. However, three solo homers (two from Travis Hafner, one from Jody Gerut) and a fine start from CC Sabathia (seven shutout innings, two hits (both in the first), four walks, and eight strikeouts) had the visiting Indians up 4-0 entering the bottom of the eighth. Jose Jimenez allowed a walk and a single and getting a comebacker to put runners at second and third with one out. Lew Ryan pinch-hit, Scott Stewart relieved, and Michael Cuddyer hit for Ryan (“NB” notation indicating Ryan “never batter” as the pinch-hitter). He singled in the runs, Doug Mientikewicz singled, and Corey Koskie hit a ground-rule double to put men on second and third with still only one out. Rafael Betancourt was greeted by a Tori Hunter single, but fanned Jaque Jones and Matthew Lecroy to preserve a 4-4 tie.
Matt Lawton was thrown out at the plate by Jones in the tenth. In the bottom of the eleventh, Chad Durbin sandwiched two Ks around a Lecroy walk and Mauer single, but Shannon Stewart blasted a 1-1 pitch for a three-run walkoff homer.
The Indians scored four in the second (homers by Milton Bradley and Matt Lawton), one in the third, and an excellent start from Chuck Finley (six shutout innings, three hits, three walks, seven strikeouts). But after Einar Diaz doubled to lead off the fourth, they failed to record another hit, and their bullpen made it interesting. Jerrod Riggan allowed two runs in the seventh and was relieved by Ricardo Rincon who stranded runners on the corners. Paul Shuey made it through the eighth, and Bob Wickman retired the first two batters in the ninth before surrendering singles to AJ Pierzynski, Jacque Jones, and Cristian Guzman. He fanned Doug Mientkiewicz to earn the save in a 5-4 Cleveland win.
CC Sabathia’s major league debut got off to a rocky start as Jeff Conine took him deep for three runs in the first, but he allowed just one hit and one walk, striking out three over the next 5 2/3 innings. He would wind up with a no-decision as he left trailing 3-2 despite solo homers by Ellis Burks and Russell Branyan, but Juan Gonzalez’s two-out, two-run single off Willis Roberts in the seventh got him off the hook and gave the Tribe a 4-3 lead that Paul Shuey and Bob Wickman made stand.
Only four of them are, but nine of the eighteen starting position players in this game could be in the Hall of Fame. Pat Rapp and Charlie Nagy had battled 2-2 through five, but the game was decided in the bottom of the sixth. After Harold Baines lined out, Cal Ripken and Will Clark singled and Charles Johnson hit a three-run homer. Apparently Tribe skipper Charlie Manuel thought one of the balls to Johnson had been a strike, as he was tossed during Mike Bordick’s at-bat. He was lucky he didn’t see Bordick’s solo homer which chased Nagy. Cleveland mustered very little against Buddy Groom who recorded a three-inning save.
Pedro Martinez and Charlie Nagy squared off in this one and it was a doozy. Pedro went nine innings, allowing four hits without a walk and fanning twelve, but Brian Giles drove in two runs with a homer in the third and a single in the eighth. Through eight, Nagy scattered eight hits and a walk with eight strikeouts while blanking Boston. In the ninth, Nagy struck out Darren Bragg in between three singles that brought in a run and put runners at first and second for Nomar Gariciaparra. Mike Jackson came in and allowed a single that loaded the bases, bringing on Paul Assenmacher to face Reggie Jefferson. His sac fly to center tied the game, but John Valentin struck out and the game proceeded to the tenth.
Cleveland got Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez singles off Tom Gordon, but the rally ended there. Boston quickly had runners at the corners with singles from Mo Vaughn and Troy O’Leary, Damon Buford was intentionally walked, and Bragg singled to walk it off.
Some oddities in my scoresheet: The tenth was kept on a separate piece of paper in a sprawling fashion that would have been hard to maintain for a marathon game. I noted extra inning substitutions on the main sheet, and had not yet adopted the common sense solution of referring to mid-inning substitutions by referring to the lineup box (as I was already doing for pitchers, e.g. “Gordon 4-10” meaning Gordon entered the game to face the #4 hitter in the tenth inning), so instead I have clumsy notation like “2B 10 Thome” meaning that John Valentin moved to second base for Jim Thome’s tenth inning at-bat.
