A day unlike any other day
Opening Day finals:
Red Sox 9, Yankees 7
Phillies 11, Nationals 1
Mets 7, Marlins 1
Cardinals 11, Reds 6
Pirates 11, Dodgers 5
White Sox 6, Indians 0
Rangers 5, Blue Jays 4
Rockies 5, Brewers 3
Braves 16, Cubs 5
Tigers 8, Royals 4
Giants 5, Astros 2
D-backs 6, Padres 3
Mariners 5, Athletics 3
Angels 6, Twins 3
Still to come:
Orioles at Rays, 7:10 p.m. ET Tuesday
That will be the 15th and final season-opener — and then over the next week the pageantry will continue with the wave of home openers by those who started on the road.
It has been a truly special Opening Day so far, as they always are — from Neil Diamond leading the Fenway crowd in “Sweet Caroline” to Albert Pujols’ two homers to Mark Buehrle’s play to Tim Lincecum’s dominance to Hideki Matsui’s Angels debut. What makes it great is that everything is unscripted. All you have to do is watch. And fortunately there are more ways to watch this Major League Baseball action than in any season before. Have fun.
Thanks for following this liveblog since way back in the early part of the day. Be sure to follow us @MLB on Twitter all season as well.
West Coast update
Full count, two out, bases loaded, top of the 9th. Andrew Bailey, last year’s American League Rookie of the Year, surrenders a two-run single to Casey Kotchman and the Mariners take a 5-3 lead at Oakland. Mariners hold on and take first game of the series.
Angels are still nursing the 4-3 lead over Minnesota in the eighth in Anaheim.
Make that 5-3. Hideki Matsui, who gave the Angels their 4-3 lead, just hit a home run to right in his first game since coming over from the Yankees. Make that 6-3. Kendry Morales hits a monster blast to make it back-to-back jacks — just like Posada/Granderson did it on Sunday. You know, Hideki’s old team back East.
If these leads hold up, you can thank a couple of newcomers — Chone Figgins of Seattle and Matsui — for playing key roles. A new season means new players and new contributions.
Good to the last outs
Heart rate has come down a little bit since half-court shot just missed in Indy.
And now it’s going back up with the final two West Coast games. King Felix is gone with a no-decision after the A’s got to him in the sixth and seventh. Mariners and A’s are tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, and I’m watching that one on MLB.com At Bat on my iPhone. I have Angels-Twins on ESPN on the TV next to my computer, and the Angels are clinching to a 4-3 lead in the seventh after Justin Morneau hit an at-’em ball right at Kendry Morales to leave the bases loaded. There is some Opening Day magic at the end of the day.
Hope you are used to MLB.com’s brand-new live Scoreboard page by now. That’s the starting point for all the good stuff.
And we are by no means forgetting our friends in the Tampa-St. Pete and Baltimore areas. The final Opening Day game of the first 48 hours will be Orioles at Rays, and we are waiting to see if James Shields can beat the like he did two years ago when it started an eventual World Series run. These aren’t the same Orioles. Kevin Millwood starts for Baltimore.
Let’s see, we started liveblogging this morning, and have been tweeting as @MLB along the way all day and night, pausing for a giveaway. And there was the annual CEO’s opening-day toss at lunch in the cafeteria at the MLB.com offices in New York. We’ve seen Mark Buehrle’s classic between-the-legs, Roger Federer-like defensive gem. We’ve seen a slew of first-at-bat homers, including Jason Heyward’s clout in his first Major League AB. We’ve seen packed houses, Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s walk-off homer for Texas after Shaun Marcum lost his no-hitter in the seventh for Toronto, we’ve seen a little bit of everything.
Now let’s see how it all ends on this big Monday of Opening Day action.
Best 2010 Opening Day starting pitcher is…
Tim Lincecum looked like a defending two-time National League Cy Young Award winner tonight at Houston. He gave the Astros nothing to work with over seven innings, leaving with a 5-0 lead. Never mind that the Giants bullpen blew the shutout, doesn’t matter to San Francisco fans. After some sluggish going through the spring, he was just Tim again. Giants won, 5-2.
His performance tonight raises the question: Which starting pitcher has been most impressive so far on Opening Day? While two games are still in-progress — and Felix Hernandez likely will show up here — thought we’d bring these up:
Lincecum. 7 scoreless at Houston.
Roy Halladay. Wins debut for Phillies, gives up 1 run in 6 innings.
Mark Buehrle. 7 scoreless vs. Cleveland.
Johan Santana. 6 innings, 4 hits, 1 run vs. Marlins.
Shaun Marcum. Loses no-hitter in 7th, then Texas wins game.
Dan Haren. 7 innings, 3 hits, 1 run vs. San Diego.
Ubaldo Jiminez. 6 innings, 1 run at Milwaukee.
It’s a tough call. Jiminez really silenced a tough Brewers lineup in front of that home crowd. Marcum commanded our attention in his first start since 2008. Lincecum and Buehrle were practically identical. Opinion here is Lincecum. You never had a doubt through this one that he was going to keep putting up zeroes. He’s in another league at times, like now.
Monday night attention-deficit disorder
Duke-Butler is in the second half. Trying to watch both. They are so
incongruous. Baseball, the pastoral sport, at its own pace, the beauty
of the game, the strategy, the glorious moments. Duke vs. Butler:
Fast-break city, frenetic. Both pulse-pounding. What a night. I have the game in Oakland on my MLB.com At Bat app on the iPhone, the game in Anaheim on MLB.TV on my laptop, and the NCAA title game on my TV at home.
You have to wonder what Pat Neshek is thinking right now. His mind is on his Twins as he watches from their bullpen at Angels Stadium. Meanwhile, his alma mater, the Butler Bulldogs, are in the thick of this title game. Hoping someone is keeping him informed.
This is what Opening Day has looked like, meanwhile. That is the scene tonight at Angels Stadium, site of this year’s All-Star Game. The Angels jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning against the Twins in a game between two returning AL playoff clubs.
The Angels are not thinking only about a division title, though. They brought back memories of their 2002 World Series title with a pair of tribute videos and former Angels great Tim Salmon throwing out the first pitch. It was all part of the festivities that included current Angels Brian Fuentes, Mike Napoli, Torii Hunter, Howard Kendrick and Bobby Abreu raising the 2009 AL West flag in left field.
The sellout crowd heard a National Anthem sung by 12-year-old Taylor Longbrake with an American flag covering nearly all of the outfield. There was also a flyover by a C-17 Globemaster III coming from March Air Force Base in nearby Riverside, Calif.
Hank and the J-Hey Kid
One of the lasting images of Opening Day 2010 will be Hank Aaron and Jason Heyward together as The Hammer threw out the ceremonial first pitch — and then Heyward crushing a home run in his first Major League at-bat moments later. Hank finished with 755 homers, including No. 714 on Opening Day in 1974. Heyward has one homer and a lot of people think he will ring up a big total. Not fair to compare them but what a great scene it was. Here are pics of them today (courtesy Rich Addicks/AP):
The Chase is on
Sellout at Chase Field today, Kurt Warner throws out first pitch, Dan Haren blowing away Padres hitters and a 6-3 victory to start. It couldn’t be a better scene there today for D-backs fans, but what you might remember most from this day is Stephen Drew.
He hit the sixth inside-the-park home run in club history during this opener against the Padres. It came with two out in the fourth, a shot off Jon Garland that clanked against the side of the overhang in center.
Tony Womack was being interviewed by the Fox Sports affiliate later in the game, reminiscing about the 2001 World Series title, talking about his seven rounds of golf per week, and he also talked about the inside-the-park homer. “That overhang, we had it put up there back then for little guys like me.”
And Drew.
Tony Gwynn Jr. leapt at the wall to try and snare the ball, so when it hit off the overhang, left fielder Kyle Blanks had to come over and retrieve it. Haren came around to score from first and Drew followed without even a play at the plate.
MLB.com beat reporter Steve Gilbert reports that the last D-backs player to hit an inside-the-park homer at Chase Field was Luis Gonzalez in 2002. It will be one of the lasting images from around the Majors on this Opening Day.
Photo credits: Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Where we are so far
MLB.com Live Scoreboard
Today’s finals:
Phillies 11, Nationals 1
Mets 7, Marlins 1
Cardinals 11, Reds 6
Pirates 11, Dodgers 5
White Sox 6, Indians 0
Rangers 5, Blue Jays 4
Rockies 5, Brewers 3
Braves 16, Cubs 5
Tigers 8, Royals 4
In-progress
Giants at Astros: Lincecum vs. Oswalt
Padres at D-backs: Dan Haren cruising
Tonight
Twins at Angels, 10:05 p.m. ET
Mariners at A’s, 10:05 p.m. ET
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