Bumgarner, Giants fall to Zona
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because of presstime, the Chicago Cubs-St. Louis Cardinals game was not available. The game was tied, 3-3, in the ninth inning.
PHOENIX—Madison Bumgarner hit two homers but the Arizona Diamondbacks scored twice with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning off new San Francisco closer Mark Melancon to beat the Giants 6-5 in a wild season opener Sunday.
Derailed by a dreadful bullpen last year, the Giants started this season the same way—even after trying to solve the problem by bringing in Melancon on a $62 million, four-year contract. They wasted a record-breaking performance by Bumgarner, who retired his first 16 batters and became the first major league pitcher to hit two home runs on opening day.
Arizona got a double and three singles after Melancon (0-1) retired his first two hitters in the ninth. A.J. Pollock singled in the tying run and Chris Owings dumped a base hit into right field to end it.
New Diamondbacks closer Fernando Rodney (1-0) gave up a run in a shaky ninth but got the victory.
San Francisco took a 5-4 lead when Joe Panik led off the ninth with a triple and scored on pinch-hitter Conor Gillaspie’s sacrifice fly.
Bumgarner struck out 11 with no walks in seven innings. He gave up three runs and became the first Giants pitcher to go deep twice in one game since Jim Gott in 1985.
RAYS 7, YANKEES 3
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— Chris Archer pitched seven
solid innings and Tampa Bay won the first game of the major league season, roughing up New York ace Masahiro Tanaka.
Evan Longoria and Logan Morrison homered and drove in three runs apiece before a sellout crowd of 31,042 at Tropicana Field on opening day. Tanaka (0-1), who had baseball’s best ERA in spring training, was tagged for a career-worst seven earned runs in 2 2/3 innings.
A first-time All-Star in 2015 who lost an AL-leading 19 times last season, Archer (1-0) limited New York to two runs and seven hits. He narrowly escaped a bases-loaded jam and turned a five-run lead over to a revamped bullpen.
Alex Colome replaced rookie Austin Pruitt with the bases loaded in the ninth, yielding a sacrifice fly to pinch-hitter Chris Carter before finishing for a save.