NEW YORK – The thrill of the Tom Glavine era lasted all of one pitch for Mets fans. After that, Corey Patterson and the Chicago Cubs flattened them.
Glavine started the season with a called strike, then completely fell apart. Booed off the mound in the fourth inning, he was long gone by the time Patterson finished with two home runs and seven RBIs Monday in a 15-2 romp over the embarrassed New Yorkers.
Sammy Sosa stayed stuck at 499 career home runs, hitting an RBI single and drawing three walks before leaving early. Everything else went right for the Cubs in their highest-scoring opener since 1884.
New manager Dusty Baker saw ace Kerry Wood win with five effective innings on a cold, blustery afternoon and watched Juan Cruz tie a team record by striking out six straight batters in relief.
For new Mets manager Art Howe, his debut was an utter disaster. Glavine struggled, and New York’s defense – which led the majors in errors last year in a last-place finish – looked even worse. Mets pitchers walked 12 and gave up 16 hits.
The sold-out stands at spruced-up Shea Stadium were half-full by the middle innings, with fans sitting through a gametime temperature of 39 degrees with winds at 20 mph. Yet that didn’t stop the bundled-up crowd from jeering when the Mets couldn’t even throw the ball around the infield without a mistake.
Cardinals 11, Brewers 9
ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Cardinals are looking forward to a full season with Scott Rolen.
Rolen capped a six-run rally in the eighth inning with a three-run homer as the Cardinals overcame an shaky start by Matt Morris, beating the Brewers 11-9 Monday.
St. Louis, the NL Central champion, trailed 4-0 and 7-5 before rallying against a team that finished a franchise-worst 56-106 last year.
Kerry Robinson, who secured the final spot on the Cardinals’ roster earlier in the day, hit a go-ahead single in the eighth on a drag bunt off loser Mike DeJean. Rolen, obtained from Philadelphia last July, hit a long home run to left for an 11-7 lead.
Giants 5, Padres 2
SAN DIEGO – Benito Santiago and J.T. Snow homered on consecutive pitches in the ninth inning, and the defending NL champion San Francisco Giants opened the season with a 5-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Monday.
Until Santiago and Snow connected off rookie Clay Condrey, the Giants had just four hits off two Padres pitchers. They got five hits in the ninth to give Felipe Alou a victory in his first game as San Francisco’s manager.
Santiago, a former Padres catcher, opened the ninth by hitting a 1-0 pitch to left-center, putting the Giants ahead 3-2. Snow hit the next pitch from Condrey over the fence in right-center.
Barry Bonds, who won a record fifth MVP last year, was 0-for-3 with two intentional walks and two strikeouts.
Dodgers 8, Diamondbacks 0
PHOENIX – Hideo Nomo pitched a four-hitter and the Los Angeles Dodgers handed Randy Johnson his first opening-day loss, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-0 Monday.
Brian Jordan improved his career average against Johnson to .333 by going 2-for-3 against him with a home run and three RBIs. Paul Lo Duca had a two-out single off Johnson in the seventh, and Shawn Green had a pair of doubles.
Nomo, 14-1 in his last 26 starts last season, struck out seven and walked one in his eighth career shutout, his first since 2001.
Jordan, 20 pounds slimmer than last year and coming off knee surgery, had a two-out RBI single off Johnson in the first inning, and a two-out, two-run homer on his first pitch from the Big Unit in the sixth. He is 13-for-39 against Johnson in his career
Johnson, who led the NL in wins, strikeouts and ERA last season, entered 5-0 in 11 opening-day starts since 1992. He had won his previous three openers with Arizona, but the 39-year-old left-hander allowed five runs, three earned, on nine hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out five, walked two and hit a batter.
Pirates 10, Reds 1
CINCINNATI – They forgot to build a home-field advantage into the Cincinnati Reds’ new ballpark.
Reggie Sanders, Kenny Lofton and Jason Kendall homered in succession Monday, and the Pittsburgh Pirates ruined the Reds’ first game at Great American Ball Park with a 10-1 victory.
Ken Griffey Jr. got the first hit, a double that inspired hopes of a shining new era in the long-awaited park. Every other moment belonged to the Pirates.
The crowd of 42,343 waved flags during a patriotic pregame program, then bundled together on a 53-degree afternoon and watched the NL’s worst offense last season have its way with the Cincinnati pitching staff.
Expos 10, Braves 2
ATLANTA – Baseball’s road warriors started with a win, appropriately, on the road.
The Montreal Expos sent Greg Maddux to his first opening-day loss, defeating the Atlanta Braves 10-2 Monday behind Jeff Liefer’s four RBIs and Orlando Cabrera’s two-run homer.
Tony Armas Jr., in his first opening-day start, allowed one run and five hits in six innings to get the win for the vagabond Expos.
Maddux, 6-0 with a 1.66 ERA in seven previous opening-day starts, gave up four runs in the first inning.
Phillies 8, Marlins 5
MIAMI – Upgraded in a winter spending spree, the Philadelphia Phillies looked like much better ballclub on opening day. The team they beat looked like the same old Florida Marlins.
With newcomers Jim Thome, Kevin Millwood and David Bell leading the way, Philadelphia took advantage of a sloppy showing by Florida to win 8-5 Monday.
Thome, whose $85 million, six-year contract was the largest of the offseason, went 3-for-4 with a walk, hitting an RBI double on his first pitch.
Bell went 2-for-4 with a walk and scored three times. And while former Atlanta teammates Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were hit hard in opening-day defeats, Millwood allowed three runs – two earned – and four hits in six-plus innings.
The game drew a crowd of 37,137 on a rare 65-degree afternoon, the coldest home opener in Marlin’s history, but Florida’s hapless play was all too typical.
Josh Beckett, at 22 the youngest opening-day starter in the team’s 11-year history, lasted just 2 2-3 innings. Errors by third baseman Mike Lowell and second baseman Luis Castillo led to five unearned runs in the third, and $10 million acquisition Ivan Rodriguez let in another run on a passed ball.
Seven Florida pitchers walked eight, and the Marlins trailed by eight runs before Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the sixth.
The Marlins scored in the seventh on a throwing error by Bell at third, and pinch-hitter Brian Banks tripled and scored on a groundout in the eighth to make it 8-5. Jose Mesa pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.
Each fan received a coupon for a free hot dogs, a gesture of goodwill after the Marlins angered fans by running out last season in their first home game under owner Jeffrey Loria. But an hour into the season, the well-fed crowd – the Marlins’ largest since July 14, 2001 – was booing the home team.
Thome doubled off the base of the wall with two out in the first to score Bobby Abreu, who had walked. Bell also singled in his first at-bat for the Phillies, then scored on Marlon Byrd’s bloop single to make it 2-0 in the second.
Lowell’s wild throw kept the third inning going, and two runs scored when a bases-loaded roller went between Castillo’s legs. The rally also included four walks and RBI singles by Abreu and Mike Lieberthal.
Millwood did the rest, retiring 14 in a row during one stretch in the first opening-day start of his seven-year career. He also drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk.
As promised, the Marlins unveiled an aggressive running game. Newcomer Juan Pierre reached on a bunt in the first, then stole second and third but was stranded. In the next inning, the slow-footed Lowell reached on an infield hit and surprised the Phillies by stealing second. But he was also stranded, and by the third inning, Florida was down by six runs and no longer stealing.
Beckett, who has yet to win in April in six career appearances, needed 80 pitches to retire eight batters. He gave up five hits, four walks and seven runs, but only two were earned.
Notes: LHP Tommy Phelps, who has been in professional baseball since 1993, made his major league debut in the third in relief of Beckett. He pitched one-third of an inning and gave up a hit and a walk. … Millwood went 0-3 with a 7.65 ERA against the Marlins last year. … The Phillies improved to 8-21 in openers since 1975, with two wins against Florida.
AP-ES-03-31-03 1943EST
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