April 06, 2004
Games of the Day
More home openers today. The Florida Marlins kick off the afternoon and their defense of their championship against the wandering Montreal Expos. Livan Hernandez will face Josh Beckett, but they may be warned before the game about hitting batters.
It's good to see that both the Yankees and Tampa Bay are using the early start of their seasons to get extra starts for their aces. The first game of the North American season for them will feature the same starters as opening day in Japan, Mussina and Victor Zambrano. Tampa hopes they get the same result.
One of the more interesting matchups happens in Arizona, where Randy Johnson faces Colorado's Shawn "The Wilting Man" Estes. If the Diamondbacks are smart, they'll leave the roof open to expose Estes to the full heat of the Phoenix afternoon. :-) Actually, it's either a great story (cast off Cub starts opening day for Rockies) or a scary story (cast off Cub is the best Rockies can find for an ace). Beating Randy Johnson will tend to favor story 1.
Meanwhile, Johnson's former co-ace makes his Red Sox debut in Baltimore. Curt "Don't quote my publicly viewable statements!" Schilling will face Eric DuBose at Camden Yards. I'll let you know if Schilling deserves to be booed later in the day.
Finally, the Barry Bonds watch continues. ESPN2 will have the game again tonight, and I assume ESPN will cut in whenever Bonds comes to bat until he reaches the Mays milestone. Oh, and Andy Pettitte is making his Astros debut, too.
Enjoy!
Posted by David Pinto at
10:43 AM
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I'm headed up to Baltimore for that game in about 15 minutes - going with with Ed from Bambinos Curse.
Since Moose was shelled, it's a non issue this year. But do you think that a team starting the season a week early is getting any advantage from that extra start they get for the ace? I could see a second place team raising the question if they are a 1/2 game back at season's end. Baseball really has gone away from the idea of a neutral schedule since the advent of inter league play anyway.
So why didn't Beckett come up with the obvious soundbite:
"No, I don't even start thinking about throwing at batters until August."
Looking forward to a Schil win...
I think any advantage conferred by getting an extra start for their ace is counterbalanced by the jet lag effects of traveling to Japan. Also, in this case, Moose doesn't pitch well on long rest. I would have pitched him in exhibition over the weekend and started him later this week. I'd be very surprised if he's on his game tonight.
