Opening Day 2009 is Here- Part Deux

The Royals-White Sox and Rays-Red Sox began their season after snow and rain postponed their openers on Monday. Kansas City meet Kyle Farnsworth. See Kyle pitch. See Kyle turn his head. See Kyle watching Jim Thome's game winning 3-run home run sail over the fence. And it was only day one!

Josh Beckett was dominant in the Red Sox 5-3 win over the Rays. Reigning AL MVP Dustin Pedroia homered in his first at-bat and Jason Varitek went yard as well.

The Brewers and Giants played their first game of the year and another ace had a rough start. Giants young star Tim Lincecum (3 IP 4 H 3 ER 3 BB 5 K) didn't last long, but Travis Ishakawa drove in 3 runs, and Aaron Rowand, Randy Winn, and Bengie Molina went deep in the Giants 10-6 win. With CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets gone, Jeff Suppan moved up to the number one slot for Milwaukee and got tagged for 6 runs in 4 innings.

It's only two games, but Derek Lowe and Jair Jurrjens made the Phillies sick in the first two games. Atlanta has won the first two games of the series 4-1 and 4-0.

The Brandon Morrow closer experiment didn't get off to a good 2009 start. With the Mariners leading the Twins 5-2, Morrow walked the bases loaded to start the ninth inning. Miguel Batista came on, gave up singles to Denard Span and Alexi Casilla and the Twins emerged 6-5 winners.

The A's picked up their first win despite a poor outing from rookie Trevor Cahill, who walked 5 batters in 5 innings. But Jack Cust, Jason Giambi, and Ryan Sweeney had three hits each and Cust drove in 2 runs to propel the A's to a 6-4 win over the Angels.

The Padres won their first game with a 4-2 triumph over the Dodgers. The Pads have to be preying Chris Young stays healthy. He picked up the victory after allowing two earned runs in six innings. Despite a walk, Heath Bell struck out the side in the ninth for the save.

After Monday night's 9-8, eight home run barn burner, the Rockies and Diamondbacks settled into a good old fashioned pitcher's duel. Rocks' starter Ubaldo Jimenez (7 IP 0 ER) out pitched Dan Haren (7 IP 1 ER) in the Rockies 3-0 win. Troy Tulowitzki homered for the second straight day.

Newly acquired Jeff Keppinger singled home the winning run in the 10th inning in the Astros 3-2 victory over the Cubs. Alfonso Soriano had tied the game in the eighth for Chicago with his second home run in as many days.

Albert Pujols, Chris Duncan, and Yadier Molina went deep as the Cards rolled over the Pirates 9-3. Winning pitcher Kyle Loshe is now 16-6 in 34 career starts as a Cardinal.

Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla homered off former Marlin Scott Olsen in Florida's 8-3 win over Washington. Josh Johnson struck out eight in 6.2 innings and has won 8 of his last 9 decisions.

Toronto rallied in the eighth and ninth innings to beat the Tigers 5-4. Scott Rolen (solo) and Aaron Hill (3-run) homered off Edwin Jackson and Brandon Lyon in the eighth to put the Blue Jays ahead 4-3. But Brandon Inge homered for the second straight day, this time off of closer B.J. Ryan, to tie the game in the ninth.

Lyon ran into more trouble in the bottom of the ninth though, issuing a walk to Adam Lind and a single to Scott Rolen to start the inning. After an intentional walk to Lyle Overbay, Rod Barajas brought home pinch-runner Jose Bautista with a sac fly to win it for the Blue Jays.