Opening Day Part 1

Today I got to watch the Yankees-Tigers game and coming up in a few I'll be watching the Dodgers-Giants game. The game in New York was a good one today. There were a lot of really good catches in the outfield. I thought Detroit had the upper-hand, based on how good Verlander was this spring. However, his notoriety for slow starts seemed to catch up. He looked pretty good, but it seemed he missed the zone every time he tried to elevate. All in all the Tigers tried to chip away at Sabathia, but in timely homers by Teixeira and Granderson put the lead out of their hands.

Things we Learned:
Kansas City is showcasing: Jered Weaver sliced up the Royal bats today. But, Aaron Crow made his debut out of the 'pen for the Royals, and only needed 19 pitches to go 1.1 perfect innings with 3 strikeouts. Maybe he should have been the opening day starter.

Atlanta is a pretty darn good team too: With all the talk of the Phillies rotation people have forgotten about another really good NL East club. The Braves won 2-0 on a day where Chipper looked healthy, Heyward reminded us, again, as to how good he is, and the Braves pitching dominated. Derek Lowe had a solid start, but the bullpen really took over in the 6th and Craig Kimbrel looked elite in the 9th.

The NL Central is going to be epic: The Brew Crew dominated both sides of the ball, with Yovani Gallardo pitching a solid 6 innings, and first AB homers from Weeks and Gomez, as well as a timely 5th inning bomb by Ryan Braun. However, 2010 NL MVP Joey Votto kept his Reds in the game with a late game bomb, and Ramon Hernandez taught John Axford a lesson with a walkoff blast. I still think Milwaukee's pitching will dominate the division, but boy what a game for Opening Day. 

Other Notes
Giants-Dodgers: I've got LA pegged to win tonight's pitching duel. Lincecum is good, but I like Kershaw for NL Cy Young this year, and that means I like him to dominate tonight.


Pujols: Prince Albert had an awful game today going 0-5, hitting into 3 double plays. However, it's Pujols, he'll probably hit 5 bombs in the next game.


Maybin: Maybe the Marlins traded this kid a little too early, since he went 2-5 today with a tying blast in the 9th, and a single up the middle that combined with an error to score the go ahead run in the 11th.


With all these things it was a great opening day and I look forward to the game tonight. It should be a good one!