Game Logs

Another Opening Day Game Log

130 Comments

This will act as the post for everything today, although maybe I'm the only one who cares.

Up first: let's see if these Tigers are any good against Nick Punto and the Red Sox.

130 thoughts on “Another Opening Day Game Log”

  1. Delmon caught the first and third outs of the season for Detroit.

    Will he be there at the end of the year?

  2. Awesome strike three curveball by Verlander there. I don't care that it's a division rival...man, that pitch is a gorgeous thing to see after so long.

    1. Delmon with the first pitch DP to erase him. Prince-Delmon should be hilarious throughout the season. One can only get to first on a double, and the other will constantly hit into double plays. Yeeha!

      2. Oh man, that will be glorious. I completely forgot about Delmon's inability to not ground out combined with Fielder's running abilities.

        1. Its not a complete inability to not ground out, he occasionally (err, oftenally) strikes out.

      1. Indeed. The three completed games were all low-scoring, too. Sportswriters everywhere, your 2012 storyline is, once again: "Talent is diluted."

          2. And then he gets out of 2nd and 3rd with 1 out with no damage. Theory proved!

          1. It's either that or doctored/dead baseballs. I'm pretty sure those points are in the Manual.

            1. I always thought that blowouts were supposed to mean diluted talent because teams couldn't come up with enough pitchers. Maybe I have the AP manual and you have the Reuters manual?

              1. It seems like opening day games should tend to be low-scoring games, since in theory each team has its best pitcher on the mound.

          2. It doesn't, but writers use it anyway. "There are more no-hitters because with this many teams, they're not all full of good hitters like they used to be." That's a common explanation for the rash of no-hitters and perfectos recently.

  8. Nick Punto apparently earned the nickname "Shredder" last year because he'd rip the jersey off of the guys who got the walk-off hits. Seriously, the worst hitter on this team gets the coolest-sounding nickname?

    1. I thought it would be because he shredded his shirt with all the face-first slides.

      1. I've seen that picture at Twinkie Town. I'm going to go rub some infield dirt in my eyes now.

  11. NESN's lead-in music to their commercial breaks...so strange. "Invisible Touch" just now. The Eagles' "Take it Easy" earlier. There was some techno track earlier, too. I'm not sure what the common thread is.

  14. MLB.com brings the pain with this headline:

    Jeter has top-selling jersey again in 2011

    Good Lord. Though, I guess, it's as safe a jersey as any as far as the "He'll never play for another team" factor.

      1. I'd just like to believe that at this point, everyone who wanted a Jeter jersey should have one already.

        Plus, there are tons of exciting young players in this league. I don't have a problem with the Jeter sales - I have a problem with the lack of other sales. Of course, I don't buy jerseys with names on them period, so maybe I'm the problem.

        1. I'd just like to believe that at this point, everyone who wanted a Jeter jersey should have one already.

          Everybody wants to be in the winning group. /docbait

  18. I'm pretty sure that the Indians just played the chime from Super Mario when you get a coin for when Hannahan crossed the plate after his HR.

    1. The Wolves use that sound effect whenever a player a) makes both free throws, or b) makes the free-throw to convert a three-point play.

      1. that's jane's ring tone for text messages. she gets very annoyed when i watch t-wolves games because of that.

  19. Delmon pulled late for defensive purposes. So, the Tigers get it. Now if only they had like six more guys to replace the other black holes they have in the defense.

  21. Does anyone know who the Twins chose for the song this year, or is that a thing of the past?

  22. I don't like to see the Sawx win, but I'd love to see Jose blow up Verlander's gem.

  27. Valverde: NOT the King of the Savers.

    Give me endless shots of Verlander! In fact, show me the postgame where he punches Valverde out.

  28. Bill Murray was giddy before leading Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Wrigley: "We're going to win today! We're going to win tomorrow! WE'RE GOING TO WIN EVERY GAME THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!"

    He truly is the greatest.

      1. Has anyone else ever seen video of the game when Bill Murray filled in for Harry Carey after Carey's stroke in the late 1980's? It used to be on Youtube and was hilariously great (I remember Eric Gregg was the home plate ump).

      2. That movie didn't really do it for me, but he sure did. He's the comedic equivalent of Liam Neeson. He'll do meh movies, but you still want to see it for his performance.

    2. Im surprised Bill Murray has not done or produced a baseball movie. He is in the booth on WGN talking about Big head Tood and the Monsters

  31. Lots of surly fans near the mikes this afternoon. I mean, it's Detroit so there are a lot of surly fans all over the city, but we've gotten a healthy helping of whining on the broadcast today.

    1. but not Surly fans. Those are all in Minnesota, at least for baseball stadium purposes, amiright?

  34. Sawks lose, Valverde's a loser (not as a stat, but...you know). Not a bad start to the season, though I would have taken either of these teams losing.

    The Austin Jackson walk-off was past a diving Punto. I'm giddy!

  35. Miguel Cabrera with his first error of the year. That needs to be part of a contest question.

      1. If only he'd show up piss drunk for an impromptu interview that goes nowhere and embarrasses the game, the announcers and the network, maybe they'd move him out.

          1. And unfortunately, then MLBN immediately hires you...

            Jim Rome just got brought on by someone. Fox Sports, maybe? Was anyone begging for him to stay on the air? Why is it so hard for a loathsome tool to be shunted aside in favor of someone who's just as entertaining, but not a chaunce?

  43. I hate that the Twins aren't playing today, but I think it might be worse if they played today and were off tomorrow.

    Also the "new" Blue Jays jerseys sure are nice.

    1. Big fan of the Blue Jays changes.

      I think last year or the year before, the Twins played opening day and then had a day off. Yeah, it was annoying.

      1. They typically do this for opening series in roofless stadiums in places that are likely to have weather postponements. That way, they can reschedule opening day for the next day, and they don't need to worry about other opening day festivities going to those tightwads who bought game 2 tickets.

        See, for example, next week:
        Monday: LAA@MIN, Twins Home Opener
        Tuesday: off day
        Weds: LAA@MN
        etc...

  44. It seems like really strange scheduling to have the Marlins at home last night for one game and then send them to Cincinnati this afternoon. I get wanting to let Miami show off its new park, but why not let them have a three-game series there?

    2. Agreed. The Mariners have had spring training games since their opener last week. Just really bizarre scheduling this year.

    3. They did the same thing for the first Nats game. The Marlins are newly relocated (from Florida to Miami), so this is similar.

  46. Indiginous Persons with runners at the corners and one out in the bottom of the 12th and can't get the run across. Twins Baseball.

    1. going to the bottom of 13. With the firepower that the Jays have I can't imagine that this one goes much longer.

      1. They'd better hope so. They've used seven pitchers already.

        It also turns out Omar Vizquel is 1B-RF for the Jays. Shouldn't he be retired or dead by now?

          1. He's still looking for the bits of forearm that sprayed the crowd during his last at bat with the twins.

  47. Did Joey Bats overrun second base? Anyone able to explain what happened in that DP?

    2. Rajai Davis stood in the box after he popped the bunt into the air, so the fielder let the ball fall and turned an easy DP.

    1. Right where closing day of 2011 ended (complete with Red Sox walk-off loss!).

  49. Who had Clayton Kershaw and Edinson Volquez, respectively, as the first players to get hits for the 2012 Dodgers and Padres?

      1. Holy crap. That's pro wrestling-level boneheadedness on the part of those fans.

        I love how American sports fans think of Canadian teams as teams full of Canadians because they play in Canada. Truly, ignorance is the most American of all personality traits.

        1. Yeah, it's pretty stupid.

          Surprised they didn't start a "Canada Sucks!" chant after Arencibia crushed that homer.

      2. Even classier considering the dustup was started by... Shin-Shoo Choo!

        In the mid-90s, whenever GW played at Dayton (I know, completely other part of Ohio), the crowd would chant "USA" all game long at players like Yinka Dara, Yegor Mescheriakov, and Alexander Koul.

  51. Three-run homer for Arencibia in the top of the 16th after a failed bunt attempt. I swear, the only positive outcome to a bunt attempt is to fail and be forced to do something besides bunting.

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