Friday, April 1, 2011

Closing the Opening

Opening day. If you're an American I'm just going to assume its on your list of top 10 days of the year. Probably behind Christmas, Thanksgiving, March Madness day 1, and the day EA releases the new NHL. Or maybe that's just me. Nonetheless you've probably read a million Buster Olney or Matthew Berry articles drooling over opening day and how wonderful it is to start anew in the spring time air. So I'll skip that paragraph full of cliches and just say, I agree.

Due to some Friday dorm room doldrums, (see what i did there, see how i incorporated the title like a bad Nic Cage movie) I decided to recap what happened in Thursday and Friday's openers. Something I really like by the way, it's like March Madness day 1. Games staggered throughout each day, allowing fans to see more baseball from different teams. Really it feels like an extension of the weekend before it arrives, well done Selig. Now lets see if i can close these games out better than Franklin, Lyon and Axford.

Braves at Natinals Nationals
Braves win this opener in Washington D.C. 4-2. Derek Lowe started his third straight opening day and pitched pretty darn well. 5.2IP, 3H, 6K, and gets the W. Even if it was against the Nationals, I guess they do have silver slugger Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson "Not" Werth $120 million. Braves hitting also looked solid. Someone told Chipper it was 1999 and Heyward that is was opening day.

Tigers at Yankees
Our boy Buster Olney reports that CC cut down on the Captain Crunch and lost some weight. No joke. I know its April fools but seriously. He must have given his left over boxes to Joba "the hut" who enters fatter than ever. I think he's competing with Bartolo Colon to see who makes the Biggest Loser first. Yankees won 6-3 off a lucky Grandershit career day.

Angels at Royals
Jered Weaver picked up where he left off last year, and so did the Royals. Angels win 4-2 off a Hunter bomb. I keep thinking he's gonna lose it one of these years.

Padres at Cardinals
Wainwright Carpenter had good stuff in the opener but a valuable quality start was wasted by a team that has learned how to lose games really well. Schumaker needs some stickem, Albert needs to use an MLB 2k10 flyball swing, Franklin needs to die, and Theriot needs to learn fundamentals. Yes, I know the Cubs didn't stress the importance of fielding a rolling ball, but in this baseball town its semi-important. The Cards filed papers to enter the NBA where they could play all offense and no D, but were denied when news of Holliday's appendectomy arrived. Lets hope the whole season isn't like the opener otherwise Albert is gonna want out in a hurry. Padres win 5-3.

Brewers at Reds
The Reds got a lucky walk off on a crappy closer. Dusty either thinks he won his first game ever or is a 5 year old girl. Although he has done this before. Reds win 7-6.

Giants at Dodgers
The Giants win the world series and don't get to start their season at home. If I was a Giant fan I'd be rather upset by that, seems pretty disrespectful to me. But really this is all that matters and is awesome. Dodgers won 2-1 in a great pitchers duel.

White Sox at Indians
A crazy game that ended with 25 total runs. White Sox started off blowing up Fausto Carmona and had a 14-0 lead at one point. However the Native Americans made a comeback including a Carlos Santana home run that led to a 15-10 ending. White Sox win.

Astros at Phillies
Who would have thought that the Astro's senior citizen Brett Myers would stay even with Roy Halladay, leading to a 4-2 win. That must have been too good for Brandon Lyon to be a part of since he completely self destructed in the ninth. He looked 10 times worse than Ryan Franklin. Ok, 5 times worse. Ok, 2 times worse? Who knows what happened, his jersey was either broken or he thought he was throwing batting practice. Phillies get a lucky 5-4 walkoff victory.

Red Sox at Rangers
This game was surprisingly on ESPN, every analyst got off their knees in the Boston locker room just in time to announce it. So what if I am jealous Boston gets 100 times the amount of coverage as St. Louis. Whatever we're both 0-1. Rangers win 9-5.

Pirates at Cubs
"Ace" (try not to laugh) Ryan Dempster, gave up a grand slam to Neil Walker in the fifth. That's all the Pirates needed to win 6-3. I'd say more about this game, but I don't want people to get bored and leave.

Twins at Blue Jays
The Blue Jays attempt to do nothing but hit home runs again this year, as they hit 4 off Pavano's porn stache. Arencibia hit 2, trying to prove he's the real deal and Bautista hit 1, killing everyone who placed a bet on the under for over/under 1 homerun for Bautista this year. Let me know when he hits 20 this year and maybe I'll consider him legit. Twins get mauled and lose 13-3.

Diamondbacks at Rockies
The Diamondbacks do us all a favor by taking a baby step towards proving Ubaldo's start last year was a fluke, and he's nothing close to a CY Young candidate. Justin Upton goes bomb squad and the D-backs win 7-6 in extras.

Orioles at Rays
The game was a shocker, Zobrist proved he isn't allergic to home runs and David Price lost his first game. Johnny Damon sucked in the outfield though so the game wasn't really all that shocking. The Orioles won 4-1 and are goin places under Buck "trash talking" Showalter.

Mets at Marlins
The Mets can't hit, or pitch. John Buck hit a grand slam. Josh Johnson was beastly. Seems pretty predictable to me. Marlins win 6-2.

Mariners at Athletics
This game is still in the 7th at the moment with the Mariners up 4-2. Felix is cool, the A's drool. Really who cares about how this ends up, they both play in stadiums that take up half their state.






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