Opening Day 2011 at a Glance

Opening Day for the 2011 Major League Baseball season is over, but it was full of excitement. There were a total of 16 homeruns hit today in the six games, all of which were very exciting. Rickie Weeks and Carlos Gomez hit back to back homeruns in the first two at bats. This feat has not happened on Opening Day since 1969 by Pete Rose and Bobby Tolen, which was 42 years ago. Also in the Brewers-Reds game, Ramon Hernandez hit a 3-run walk-off homerun to beat the Brewers 7-6. Another powerful homerun was hit by Mark Teixeira, who is notoriously known for slow starts, who blasted a 3-run homerun off Justin Verlander. Going into that at-bat, Teixeira had a walk and carried a .059 batting average against Verlander. Pat "The Bat" Burrell hit a homerun off Jonathan Broxton in the top of the 9th, showing that Broxton "Has never been the same since Matt Stairs' blast in '08." The last "special/exciting" homerun that I would like to talk about was Jason Heyward's homerun, making his first at-bats in both the 2010/2011 seasons homeruns. Let's check on Heyward in 2012's first at-bat, just to see what happens. 

Other things happened on Opening Day other than homeruns:

• C.C. Sabathia did not have the strongest outing on Opening Day, something that he always struggles with, but gave up 3 runs in 6 innings. Joba Chamberlain got the win for the Yankees, Rivera had the save. 
• The Angels won against the Kansas City Royals, allowing the Angels to go 7 and 8 on Opening Day in the past 8 seasons. 
• Tim Lincecum pitched 7 innings with 0 ER, with 5 hits. Kershaw got the win with 7 innings, 4 hits, 1 BB, 0 ER. Broxton with the SV
• Nationals lost....big surprise and Jayson Werth had a hit. (That's about it)
• The Padres and Cardinals went to the extra innings, with the Padres winning 5-3 in the 11th. Albert Pujols had a record setting day: Grounding into 3 Double Plays. Wow.
• As stated above, the Brewers lost to the Reds on a walkoff homerun. Joey Votto picked up where he left off in 2010, he also hit a homerun. There were a total of 6 HRs hit in that game.

(And Pete Rose was wearing what is pictured above)