Ok, so the season kicked off with a big opening day clash between the Yankees and Red Sox on Sunday night, and there were 13 more games happened yesterday... for the benefit of those with a passing interest in the game, I'm going to give short summaries of everything that goes on
for as long as I can be arsed all season. If anyone is really bothered about spoilers then shout up and I will oblige by hiding things, but for now I can't be bothered.
So, Sunday night was defending champions vs biggest rivals.
It was a good day for:
1) baseball
2) Boston as they rally from 5-1 and 7-5 down to win
3) Curtis Granderson, the new Yankees centre fielder who hit a home run in his first at bat for his new club
It was a bad day for:
1) the Yankees bullpen, who are the one thing that stops the team being an unstoppable machine
2) Steven Tyler, whose version of the national anthem I didn't like.
And then 13 different opening days on Monday, with every team apart from Baltimore and Tampa Bay getting down and dirty.
It was a good day for:
1) Roy Halladay, who won his first start as a Philadelphia player with ease in front of a watching Barack Obama. Placido Polanco also set standards high for himself by hitting a grand slam on HIS Phillies debut, with 6 Runs Batted In in total.
2) Mark Buehrle, who blanked Cleveland to give his Chicago White Sox an opening win, in the process breaking the record for most consecutive opening day starts by a Chicago White Sox pitcher.
3) Albert Pujols, the best hitter of this generation, who hit not one but two home runs in St Louis' 11-6 win over Cincinatti; having led the league last year with 47, it looks like he ain't going to slow down.
4) Andrew Heyward, the rookie phenom who is only 20 but played so well pre-season that the Atlanta Braves just had to give him his debut. He hit a home run in his first ever major league at bat to lead an Atlanta romp over the Chicago Cubs.
5) Tim Lincecum, who started his bid for a 3rd consecutive Cy Young award by not allowing a run as his San Francisco Giants topped Houston.
6) Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who has the best name in baseball. He also had the day's only walk-off game-winning hit, sending the Texas fans into raptures with a bases loaded single in the bottom of the 9th as the Rangers toppled Toronto 5-4
It was a bad day for:
1) Carlos Zambrano, who was pulled from the Cubs/Braves game after less than two innings after being mauled for 8 runs... it finished 16-5.
2) Vincente Padilla, a surprise choice by the Dodgers to pitch their opening game; the young Pittsburgh team hit him pretty hard in what ended up an 11-5 Dodgers loss.
3) Jason Frasor, who blew the game in his first outing as the Bluejays official closer, getting only 1 out in the 9th inning as Texas rallied to win (see good day #6)
4) Zach Greinke, whose Kansas City team mates continue to torment him. Last year he pitched well enough to win 24 games, but only won 16 because his hitters couldn't hit. This year began with him only giving up 1 earned run against Detroit, only for his bullpen to give up 6 runs in the very next inning as the Royals slumped to an 8-4 defeat.
Seven games tonight!!!