Major League Opening Day 2009

Play Ball!

St. Louis 1 Florida 0 - This year, the first game of the year was played in Florida, and featured a 1-0 pitchers duel between St. Louis' Javier Mercedes, and Florida's George White. In the 3rd inning, Dennis Affleck (not related to the actor Ben, but the famous Duck) singled home Cody Fett (or at least someone who looked like Cody Fett). Florida comes up on the wrong end of this one, but George White looked great going 8-4-1-1-2-9 in the loss. Mercedes goes 8-4-0-0-3-9 and Papelbrad notched the save. No steals for Kenny Jr., but Conn went 1-3 with a walk and a steal.

New York 5 Hawaii 4 - New York gets HR's for Chad White, Manfred Mueller, Roy Brown, and 3 hits and 2 steals from Ricky Buckley to get the win. Hawaii's offense was provided on one swing of the bat with a homerun from Charlie Howard. Pedro gets the win, going 6-6-4-4-4-8 and Benser picks up the 1 out save, after Rudiger Rocker did the heavy lifting, getting 5 outs against a heavily left-handed Hawaii lineup.

Denver 3 Toronto 2 - Danny Almonte strikes out 14 in 7 innings but gets a no-decision. Gaedel has 3 hits, scores 2 runs, and new closer Paul Williamson slams the door in the 9th.

Bay Area 5 Philadelphia 2 - Bill Herrera homers for Bay Area and Fred Lewis knocks in 2 with a pair of doubles to help Brian Curtis get the win (8-6-2-2-1-2). The Philly offense comes on solo homers by Bulger and Foreman.

Hollywood 9 Green Day 6 - Green Day gets off to a 6-2 lead in the 6th, behind Jek Lewis' 2 hits and stolen base, but the bullpen blows up in the 7th and 8th innings (Peterson and starter/reliever Jim Farmer). Miguel Tejawa and Jim Koons homer late in the game to give Hollywood a comfortable opening day victory. Mark my words: A jawa shortstop will be the MVP this year (that should give me about 4 legitimate chances between the two leagues).

Los Angeles 4 Detroit 1 - Reigning triple crown and MVP Hank Crowell hits a homer as does Alphonso Soprano, and David Mulder cruises to victory going 7-6-1-1-1-6. Randy Wagner notches the save.

Portland 1 Alaska 0 - Another great pitching matchup, this time between a pair of future HOF's with quite a collection of Cy Youngs. Of course, this is Roger and Jojo Lewis (no relation). Roger gets the better of Jojo courtesy of an 8th inning solo homerun from new multi-million dollar shortstop Luciano Cedeno. Roger gets the win, going 8-7-0-0-4-8, and Jetstorm gets the save. Jojo goes 7-5-0-0-1-8 and gets a no-decision. New closer Luther Trautwein gets the loss, going 2 innings in a non-save situation. Why is it that some closers can't pitch in tie games?