As neatly as it turned out, it's tempting to wonder if the Mets scripted it just this way. A one-run lead after seven innings. J.J. Putz pitches a scoreless eighth. Francisco Rodriguez a scoreless ninth.
The 2009 bullpen holds a lead to which the 2008 'pen would have set fire. Sure, they might rather have plated some of those 11 runners they left on base in the first six innings, but they got the Opening Day win anyway, and they did it in a way that sends their fans a message.
One of the most regular complaints from readers of classic G1 The Dugout is our portrayal of Dusty Baker. As the manager of the long-suffering Chicago Cubs, Dusty would often play the straight man, standing by and going "uh oh" while space shuttles fell on Kerry Wood. Cubs fans demanded we show the real Dusty, the one who is coo-coo for some sort of space coco puff, but the running gag of getting trapped in wells and being hurled into hay-balers or whatever was just too great to splinter.
Enter 2008, and Dusty Baker is the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. While there are key differences between G1 and G2 The Dugout, G2 is birthed FROM G1, so consider it fully canon and a fulfillment of your years of wishing as we continue our NL Central Spring Training Dugouts with a look at Dusty Baker without the Cubbies. What you find may shock you.
Oh who am I kidding, Dusty couldn't manage a Yu-Gi-Oh deck without burning his house down. /clicks to read more
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Chicago Cubs (3-6) vs. Cincinnati Reds (6-4)-1:05PM Est.
He's only nine games into his tenure as manager of the Chicago Cubs and Lou Piniella is already tired of his team. After the way Big Z and the pen blew yesterday's 5-0 lead it's pretty obvious that no matter how much money they spend, or who they bring in to manage, they're still the Chicago Cubs. I can't wait until Rich Hill gets into trouble and Piniella comes to the mound. "What's wrong, Skip?" Piniella then rips Hill's heart out and bites into it. "Nothing."
Pittsburgh Pirates (4-6) vs. San Francisco Giants (3-7)-7:05PM Est.
Barry sure did have a happy homecoming to Pittsburgh on Friday didn't he? Two home runs, four RBI, and a Giants romp. If Barry played the Pirates everyday he'd catch Hank Aaron by Thursday. This game will also be Barry Zito's third attempt to get his first win as a Giant. So far he's making $15.59 million for every point on his 8.08 ERA. Also, as far as the Pirates are concerned, remember when they were 3-0 and in control of the NL Central? Boy, those were the days.
Boston Red Sox (5-4) vs. Los Angeles Angels (6-5)-FOX 3:55PM Est.
Something tells me that sitting around all week hearing nothing but talk of Daisuke Matsuzaka will arouse the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of his soul. So I'd expect a very philosphical performance from the pitcher turned blogger this afternoon. Hector Carrasco will make the start for the Angels in place of Kelvim Escobar as the Angels continue to rack up injured starters like Britney does new wigs.
Carlos Zambrano has never exactly refrained from holding in his emotions on the mound or in the clubhouse. The Brewers learned this yet again this weekend after reading his comments following Saturday's game. From the Chicago Sun-Times:
While explaining the difference between his poor outing last Monday in Cincinnati and his good one Saturday, Zambrano said the key was the quality of the lineups he was facing.
''In Cincinnati, they're better hitters than in Milwaukee,'' he said. ''I don't say that the Milwaukee Brewers are nothing, but the offense of the Cincinnati Reds is better.''
Honestly, I don't think he really crossed any lines. I mean, he simply expressed an opinion I'm sure a lot of people would agree with, although I will say that one of the most intimidating aspects of facing the Reds is having to pitch in the bandbox known as the Great American Ball Park. Within the confines of "sportsmanship," though, the Brewers felt Big Z crossed the line:
''You've seen his act out there. Why listen to anything that guy says?'' Brewers catcher Johnny Estrada told Milwaukee reporters before the game. ''Seriously, that guy doesn't have much etiquette as far as I'm concerned. Zero mound presence. We'll face him a lot, and maybe we'll get him next time.''
For the most part, Estrada's sentiments echoed that of most of his teammates -- a combination of off writing Zambrano as a blowhard and feeling slighted all at the same time. Big Z did pitch better against the Brewers than the Reds, but considering he gave up two home runs to each team, he can't exactly say he dominated either lineup.
Beyond the Cards drubbing of the 'Stros, there were actually two other games of note involving the other four NL Central teams today, making it a pretty good day for the division.
It took a week, but the Pirates finally got the 2006 NL batting champ back into their lineup today in Cincy and Freddy Sanchez picked up where he left off last year. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and Zach Duke pitched very well for six innings (before getting shelled in the seventh) while the Pirates did one of the very few things they're good at, beating Eric Milton and by extension the Reds, 6-3. To build on to Red's Canadian meme from earlier, BC native Jason Bay hit his 2nd homer of the year to finish the Reds off and Pittsburgh's Brad Eldred made the most of his first playing time this year by homering and doubling in another run. Ken Griffey Jr. had 2 RBIs for the Reds and Xavier Nady went a full nine innings without batting any flyballs over the fence with his glove.
Meanwhile in Milwaukee, Wade Miller made his first start in Cubbie blue and he didn't look much like the Wade Miller of old, giving up six earned runs in less than 5 innings of work. Geoff Jenkins and Gabe Gross both went deep against Miller for the Brewers and Craig Counsell knocked in three runs to help the Brew Crew a 9-4 win to even off both teams' records at 3-3.
Pittsburgh and Chicago both move on to their home openers against the Cardinals and Astros, respectively, while both the Brewers and Reds will head on out towards warmer weather in Arizona and Florida.
After a rough spring, things had been going pretty well for Xavier Nady in the early goings of the 2007 season. On opening night he hit a two out, two strike, game tying homer off of Brad Lidge to help the Pirates erase a deficit and win their opener in extra innings. On the second night of the season he hit another homer, he had a key RBI in the Pirates third win over the Astros, and he knocked in a run in the first inning of today's game against the Reds. That's a pretty good five games for a guy that only had three homers and 23 RBIs in 55 games after being traded to the Pirates on last year's deadline. The karma gods got their revenge on Nady today while he was trying to track down an Adam Dunn fly ball in the bottom of the first inning of the Reds' 7-5 win. From the AP report:
Dunn's high fly got caught in the swirling wind and drove Nady within a step of the green-padded wall. Nady reached for the ball, which smacked the middle of his glove and then deflected into the first row of seats, hitting a gray-coated man wearing a Reds cap.
Luckily for Nady there weren't many people in the stands to see this one. The game was originally scheduled for a 7:10 start, but the wintry weather in Cincy forced the Reds to move things up to 1:05 this afternoon. It was still ridiculously cold for the game (the temperature hovered around 30 the whole game), but at least there wasn't much snow. The paid attendance was around 16,000, but the Pirate radio announcers estimated it be "closer to 6,000 than 16,000." I suppose some Pirate fans may want to blame Nady's strange play for the loss since it provided the margin of defeat, but that would be overlooking the nine walks the pitching staff issued.
For the Reds, Aaron Harang threw a decent five and two-thirds innings, especially given the incredibly cold temperature, to earn his second win of 2007 and Edwin Encarnacion added three hits, two RBIs, and a run scored to Dunn's homer to lead the charge for Cincy offense. The Reds also used the win to end the Pirates' five day reign of terror as division leaders and take over first place by themselves.
If you happen to accept an invitation to go on late night television to redeem yourself for throwing a bad opening day pitch, you should probably try as hard as possible to ensure that the pitch on national TV is at least somewhat better than the one from opening day. Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory did not do that.
In everyone's favorite ongoing saga, Mallory took his pitching act to Jimmy Kimmel last night and threw another awful pitch to someone who wasn't Eric Davis. I'm no pitching coach, but Mallory's problem on Opening Day was that he held on to the ball too long and had a late release point. On Kimmel he overcompensated and let the ball go too early. Lucky for him he was on Kimmel and not Letterman or Leno, so there's a good chance that no one was watching anyways. Unfortunately for Mallory, that's what YouTube is for.
The Cubs and GM Jim Hendry received a ton of ridicule this off-season for their ginormous spending spree. Chief amongst the complaints was the money spent on pitchers Ted Lily (4 years/$40 million) and Jason Marquis (3 years/$21 million). The two guys certainly provide an upgrade over what the Cubs had in their rotation last year, but the price tag paid by Hendry is certainly steep.
After one series, the two new pitchers have acquitted themselves quite well. Ted Lily was flat out brilliant yesterday, tossing seven innings and allowing only one run on three hits to go with nine strikeouts to lead the Cubs to their first win of the year. Today was Jason Marquis' turn and he gave the Cubs another good performance, going six innings and only giving up one run on four hits. Unfortunately for Marquis, the 2-1 lead he had staked them out to didn't last very long as the Reds scored four runs off of the only part of the team the Cubs didn't spend an arm and a leg on this off-season, the bullpen, to gain the 5-2 win and take the season opening series from the Cubbies.
Scott Hatteberg lead the offensive charge for the Reds today scoring twice and ripping a two run homer in the eighth inning to give the Cubs enough insurance to pull away. Edwin Encarnacion also knocked in a run and scored a run and Kyle Lohse managed to only allow 2 runs in 6 and 1/3 innings despite allowing 10 hits over his outing. The biggest enemy to the Cubs, however, was themselves as the Reds' go ahead 7th inning rally was keyed by two walks and a wild pitch.
From here the Reds stay home to host the division leading (?!) Pirates (assuming the snow can hold off) while the Cubs go to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers.
Josh Hamilton almost threw his career and perhaps his life away due to drug addition. He was out of baseball for almost four years before re-emerging for 16 games in Single-A last year. If you weren't familiar with him before he made the Reds' Opening Day roster this year, it's difficult to put into context just how big of a prospect he once was -- he was being called the next Ken Griffey, Jr., and that was back when Griffey was still arguably the best player in the game.
In any case, Hamilton's story keeps getting better. Reds fans have latched onto his comeback story, giving him a standing ovation when he made his long-awaited major league debut with a pinch-hit appearances on Opening Day. Reds skipper Jerry Narron thought about giving Hamilton a start this afternoon, and though he ultimately decided not to you have to figure that first start is just around the corner. Heck, even his endorsements are coming back:
Hamilton re-signed with Nike to wear its shoes, wrist bands and batting gloves. He had been with the company but had his contract terminated after he was suspended for drug violations.
"We talked to them early in the spring," he said. "They weren't interested. But then I started having a good spring and they were."
Because he was drafted out of high school, he's still only 25 years old. Had he kept his nose clean (literally), he probably would be entering at least his third year in the majors, but it's still entirely conceivable that he'll wind up having a long and fruitful big-league career. Considering what he's overcome, that's damn impressive. (via Ben Maller)
As neatly as it turned out, it's tempting to wonder if the Mets scripted it just this way. A one-run lead after seven innings. J.J. Putz pitches a scoreless eighth. Francisco Rodriguez a scoreless ninth. 
Nice Gallagher hat, Roc. 
Beyond 
After a rough spring, things had been going pretty well for Xavier Nady in the early goings of the 2007 season. On opening night he hit a two out, two strike, game tying homer off of Brad Lidge to help the Pirates erase a deficit and win their opener in extra innings. On the second night of the season he hit another homer, he had a key RBI in the Pirates third win over the Astros, and he knocked in a run in the first inning of today's game against the Reds. That's a pretty good five games for a guy that only had three homers and 23 RBIs in 55 games after being traded to the Pirates on last year's deadline. The karma gods got their revenge on Nady today while he was trying to track down an Adam Dunn fly ball in the bottom of the first inning of the Reds' 7-5 win. From 
The Cubs and GM Jim Hendry received a ton of ridicule this off-season for their ginormous spending spree. Chief amongst the complaints was the money spent on pitchers Ted Lily (4 years/$40 million) and Jason Marquis (3 years/$21 million). The two guys certainly provide an upgrade over what the Cubs had in their rotation last year, but the price tag paid by Hendry is certainly steep.
Josh Hamilton almost threw his career and perhaps his life away due to drug addition. He was out of baseball for almost four years before re-emerging for 
