This date in baseball
1913 Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field hosted its first game, an exhibition. Before a crowd of 25,000, the Dodgers beat the Giants 3-2. Casey Stengel hit a an inside-thepark home run for Brooklyn. 1971 In their last opening day, the Washington Senators, behind pitcher Dick Bosman, beat the Oakland A’s 8-0 before 45,000 fans at RFK Stadium.
1979 Baltimore Manager Earl Weaver got his 1,000th career victory when the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox.
1983 The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants 16-13 in the highest-scoring opening day game in 50 years. Winning pitcher Tim Lollar (Arkansas Razorbacks) also drove in three runs.
1993 The expansion Florida Marlins won their first game, 6-3 over the Los Angeles Dodgers, at Joe Robbie Stadium. The new Colorado Rockies lost to the New York Mets 3-0 in New York.
1998 Andy Benes pitched seven strong innings and Matt Williams had three hits and an RBI in to lead Arizona to its first-ever victory, a 3-2 victory over San Francisco. The Diamondbacks (1-5) had the second longest, season-opening losing streak for an expansion team in its first season.
2003 Kansas City became the first major league team to start 5-0 after a 100-loss season.
2004 Carlos Beltran of Kansas City and Shannon Stewart of Minnesota combined to set a record. For the first time in modern history, two players hit game-winning home runs on the same day. The Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-7, while the Twins overcame the Cleveland Indians, 7-4, in 11 innings. The Royals also were the first team since 1901 to recover from a ninth-inning deficit of four runs on opening day. 2005 The Washington Nationals, formerly known as the Montreal Expos, lose their inaugural season opener Philadelphia 8-4.
2006 Ivan Rodriguez went 5-for5 with a single, home run, three doubles and five RBI, leading Detroit to a 14-3 rout over Kansas City.
2009 Atlanta’s Jordan Schafer becomes the 10th Brave in franchise history and the 99th overall player overall to hit a home run in his first major league at bat. Schafer connected off Philadelphia’s Brett Myers in the second inning.
2010 Garrett Jones homered in his first two at-bats, pinch-hitter Ryan Church doubled home three runs in Pittsburgh’s 11-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
2010 Atlanta’s Jason Heyward hit a three-run home run in his first major league at-bat in the Braves’ 16-5 rout of the Chicago Cubs. 2012 J.P. Arencibia’s three-run home run in the 16th inning sent the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians in the longest opening-day game in major league history.
2013 Chris Davis extended his hot start with a grand slam and five RBI, and the Baltimore Orioles beat Minnesota 9-5 in their home opener. Davis became the fourth player in major league history to homer in his first four games of the season, joining Willie Mays, Mark McGwire and Nelson Cruz. TODAY’S BIRTHDAY Jorge De La Rosa, 37.