Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
DeJong’s two home runs help Cards avoid sweep
CARDINALS 5, METS 1
NEW YORK — Paul DeJong made the right decision to give up the scalpel, trumpet and piano to concentrate on baseball.
A rising star on the St. Louis Cardinals, the 24-year-old shortstop had the first multihomer game of his young big league career Sunday and helped the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets 5-1 to avoid an opening three-game sweep.
DeJong hit .285 with 25 home runs and 65 RBIs as a rookie last year, earning a $26 million, six-year contract. He had 13 homers at Triple-A Memphis before his major league debut on May 28 — when he homered off Colorado closer Greg Holland on his first big league swing.
“I know that I can consistently hit for power, whether it’s doubles or homers,” DeJong said.
A 2015 graduate of Illinois State who majored in biochemistry and pre-medicine, he was selected by the Cardinals in the fourth round of that year’s amateur draft. During spring training last month, when the Cardinals gave him the big contract, he attended several social events of the Palm Beach Symphony — not a regular nightlife stop of most big leaguers.
“I like all types of music, from Metallica to Chopin,” he said.
His younger brother Matthew is in a master’s program for piano at Florida State.
“He was always more devoted to music than I was,” DeJong said. “I played the piano, as well. Also the trumpet. But I stopped sophomore year in high school for the trumpet and a little earlier than that for the piano.”
DeJong sent a fastball from Steven Matz off the facing of the left-field second deck in the second inning and drove Jacob Rhame’s slider off an orange M&M advertisement just over the left-field wall in the eighth for his second solo homer.
“He’s dangerous,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “I won’t put a ceiling on him.”
DeJong was 9 for 12 in a series against the Mets just before last year’s All-Star break and is 15 for 41
versus New York with five doubles, six homers and eight RBIs overall. He is 3 for 3 with a pair of homers against Matz.
“I had two strikes on him and I left the ball right over the plate,” the lefty said.
Luke Weaver (1-0), a rare starting pitcher with a single-digit uniform number (7), struggled through a 27-pitch first inning in his first outing and gave up Amed Rosario’s tying single in the second. The 24-year- old right-hander, who last summer became the first Cardinals rookie to win seven straight starts since Ted Wilks in 1944, wound up allowing five hits in five innings, four of them singles.
“A grind is like the perfect definition of what it was,” Weaver said.
Marcell Ozuna broke out of an 0-for-9 start with three hits, including an RBI double in the third and a run-scoring single in the fifth. Yadier Molina hit a leadoff homer in the fourth for the Cardinals, outscored 15-6 in the first two games.
After solid starts by Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, Matz (0-1) tried to put behind an injury-decimated sophomore season in which the lefty slumped to a 2-7 record. He struggled with his control and was up to 51 pitches after two innings and 73 after three. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs and four hits, as the Mets kept up their terrible trend of last year, when they were 16-36 in series finales.
“All three runs I gave up I had two strikes on the guys,” Matz said. “I was leaving the ball up a lot.”
NATIONALS 6, REDS 5 Bryce Harper hit two home runs, leadoff man Adam Eaton capped his big opening series with a two-run drive and Washington beat Cincinnati for a three-game sweep under new manager Dave Martinez. The Nationals are 3-0 for the fourth time in their history. They last swept an opening series in 2014.
MARLINS 6, CUBS 0 Dillon Peters threw six scoreless innings, Brian Anderson hit a three-run double to highlight a five-run fifth and Miami split its opening four-game series with Chicago. Peters (1-0) helped a well-worked bullpen out in a big way, rarely getting himself into any trouble. He threw 89 pitches, 56 for strikes, striking out two and walking only one.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
ASTROS 8, RANGERS 2 Gerrit Cole struck out 11 over seven innings in his Houston debut, and the defending champion Astros finished a solid opening weekend with an 8-2 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday. The hard-throwing right-hander, acquired in an offseason trade after he was the opening day starter for Pittsburgh last year, allowed two hits to help the Astros take three of four from their Texas rivals.
ANGELS 7, ATHLETICS 4 Shohei Ohtani won his major league pitching debut, throwing three-hit ball over six innings and leading the
Los Angeles Angels past the Oakland Athletics 7-4 on Sunday. The two-way star from Japan took the mound three days after he was the designated hitter in the opener. Reaching the upper-90s (mph) with his fastball and showing a nifty splitter, Ohtani struck out six and retired 14 of his final 15 batters. Ohtani didn’t hit while pitching. Albert Pujols was the DH and went 0 for 5. BLUE JAYS 7, YANKEES 4 Justin Smoak hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth to rally Toronto past New York. After connecting off reliever Tommy Kahnle in the seventh, Smoak brought the crowd of 29,091 to its feet with his second career slam, a drive against David Robertson (0-1).
MARINERS 5, INDIANS 4 Dee Gordon and Mitch Haniger homered, Mike Leake pitched seven strong innings and Seattle topped Cleveland. Edwin Encarnacion went deep twice for the Indians, his 29th career multihomer game.
TWINS 7, ORIOLES 0 Jose Berrios pitched a three-hitter for his first career complete game, and Minnesota got two home runs from Brian Dozier in a rout of Baltimore. Only one batter reached against Berrios over the first eight innings -- No. 9 hitter Chance Sisco, whose third-inning double whisked by the raised glove of left fielder Eddie Rosario at the wall.
RED SOX 2, RAYS 1 Hector Velazquez continued a season-opening stretch of strong starting pitching by Boston, working into the sixth inning. The first four Red Sox starters — Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello and Velazquez — combined to give up two runs over 24 innings.
INTERLEAGUE
PIRATES 1-8, TIGERS 0-6 Josh Harrison, Starling Marte and David Freese homered as Pittsburgh completed a doubleheader sweep of Detroit. The Pirates won the opener behind six no-hit innings from Trevor Williams (1-0), then took control of the second game with five runs in the fifth off Buck Farmer (0-1). Pittsburgh swept the three-game, season-opening series against the rebuilding Tigers. The highlight of the day for Detroit was Miguel Cabrera’s first home run of the season, a solo shot in the second game.