Opening Day is twice as nice!

The 2010 season kicked off yesterday with a doubleheader for most teams. Let's take a look at some of the highlights...

Carolina and Sardine City faced off in an odd home and home series, with the Cats crushing the Straphangers in both locales. Troy Tulowitzki started the season off perfectly with a 3-3 line in the first game, leading the Mudcats to an 11-3 shellacking of Josh Johnson and the Sardines. Then Tulo hit his first homer - a 3 run shot - in the second game and Prince Fielder also hit a homer and drove in 4 runs to lead the team to 10-3 victory in game 2 in mysterious Sardine City. "We lost one run in the second game" said Cats skipper Mark Carreon. "That king of dropoff is unacceptable."

Hillsborough and Philadelphia battled it out in both games, taking it to overtime in both matches. Game one started out as a pitchers duel between Felix Hernandez and Roy Halladay. The Hitmen took a 3-1 lead after 6, but the Endzone Animals racked up 5 runs in the 7th and 8th to take the lead 6-3. The Hitmen rallied to tie the game up in the 9th, tying it up on a Tony Gwynn double. The Hitmen continued their offensive surge into the 10th, scoring another 2 runs to take the lead. George Sherrill finished the bottom half of the inning to earn a save. The Hitmen were still reeling off runs when Game 2 began, scoring 3 runs right off the bat in the first inning. But in the 6th, the Animals tied up the game on a Mark Teixeira home run. It took until the 10th inning for the Hitmen to answer, but Shin-Soo Choo smacked a solo homer to reclaim the lead and Sherrill sent down the side in order again in the bottom of the 10th.

It looked pretty unusual to see Newark with a losing record, but thanks to Tim Lincecum and the Rat Pack, the Sugar Bears start the season at 0-1. Lincecum struck out 9 in 6.1 innings of work, holding the Sugar Bears to 2 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks and earning the W.

The defending champion Mighty Men are also off to a good start, defeating the Buddahs by 9-1 and 7-1 margins. Joel Pineiro pitched a complete game in the first game, holding New Jersey to 4 hits and Derek Jeter was 4-4 with 3 RBIs in Game 2, as John Danks struck out 9 in 7 innings of work.

What a game between Bridgewater and Vancouver in their game 2... After taking care of the Mallers 4-2 in game 1, the Fist were anxious to keep the momentum rolling. Both offenses showed up for the contest, however, as the lead changed several times before Vancouver unleashed a 5-run eruption in the bottom of the fifth to take an 11-6 lead. But the Mallers kept coming back and tied the game up in the 7th on a Ryan Zimmerman double. Both bullpens blanked their oppositions for the next 5 innings until the 13th when Bobby Abreu broke the tie with a single to right field. The Mallers tacked on another run to make it 13-11. Huston Street was perfect in the bottom frame, preserving the victory - their first in Bridgewater.

Greinke streak over

Well it had to happen eventually, but I think Greinke was hoping it wouldn't go down like this. The D.C. Bushslappers had enough and throttled Greinke to the tune of 7 runs in 5 innings to hand the youngster his first loss of the season. Vancouver went on to lose 14-4 after Billy Wagner let up 6 more runs in 2/3 of an inning. "Actually it's a huge monkey off my back" said Greinke after the game. "All those reporters and the paparazzi hanging around..."

Marietta and Blue Ridge played a marathon 16-inning match yesterday that took them into the wee hours of the night. Blue Ridge took the initial lead in the first inning on a Prince Fielder 2-run single, but Marietta came back in the 5th when Orlando Hudson tied it up with a 2-run single of his own. Derek Jeter gave the Mighty Men the lead in the top of the eighth, but his counterpart Edgar Renteria tied it up in the bottom half. Soon the teams were off to extra innings. Marietta was forced to go to starters Kyle Lohse, who pitched 3 scoreless innings, and Ervin Santana. Meanwhile Blue Ridge got a gutty performance out of reliever Tim Byrdak (4 IP, 1 H, 7 K). Derek Jeter once again broke the tie in the 15th with an RBI-single, but it was short lived as Dan Uggla scored on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 15th. Matt Diaz singled with the bases loaded in the top of the 16th and Blue Ridge escaped further calamity by inducing Derek Jeter into a strikeout-double play. Santana then finished off Blue Ridge for the win.

Vegas reeling after 12-3 rout

Las Vegas dropped their sixth straight yesterday - a 12-3 shellacking by Vancouver. Greg Maddux moved into a first-place tie with Tom Glavine for most career starts. Maddux, who has had a bit of a rejuvenation this year, won his 5th game and lowered his ERA to 3.46 after a six-inning, one-run effort. David Ortiz was 3-3 with 3 doubles and Chase Utley drove in 3 runs to power the Fist's offense.

Doug Davis, spot starting for the injured Adam Wainwright, held New Jersey to two hits and one unearned run over six innings yesterday. It was Davis' first win in two starts this year. Prince Fielder had two homers and 5 RBIs and Garrett Atkins also had two homers and drove in 4.

D.C. and Sardine City battled for 14 innings before D.C. pulled out with a 6-2 win. D.C. led the game 2-1 early on, but the Sardines tied it up in the eighth. Jonathan Papelbon and Joe Nathan shut down the Straphangers for the next five innings and Akinori Otsuka and Matt Capps did their best to keep up from the other side. But in the 14th, things quickly got out of hand for the Straphangers. Edgar Gonzalez gave up a leadoff single and then walked the next two batters. C.J. Wilson then came into the game and gave up a grand slam to Jeff Kent.

Marietta's Daniel Cabrera (8 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 9 K) outduelled Hillsborough's C.C. Sabathia (CG, 7 H, 1 ER, BB, 7 K) to give the Mighty Men a 2-1 victory. Derek Jeter's RBI double in the seventh gave the Mighty Men the lead and Mariano Rivera shut down the Hitmen for his 7th save. The loss drops the Hitmen into a fifth place (overall) tie with D.C.

Monday Squeakers

Vancouver pounded out 20 hits against the Buddahs yesterday, though it took them 11 innings to pull off the victory. Moises Alou hit five of the hits and drove in three runs. Mike Piazza had four hits for New Jersey, putting him at 1998 for his career.

Newark barely escaped with a 9-8 victory over Hillsborough. The score bounced back and forth between the two teams. The Hitmen held a 6-3 lead until a 5-run seventh gave Newark an 8-6 lead. But the Sugar Bears couldn't hold on and the Hitmen tied it up in their half of the ninth. Mark Teahen then hit the winning single in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to give the Sugar Bears their seventh straight win.

Derek Jeter tied Edgar Martinez for 10th on the all-time hits list as Marietta eked out a 6-5 victory by D.C. Jim Thome had a three-run homer in the contest and A.J. Burnett got the win despite surrendering five unearned runs in 6.1 innings. A Wes Helms error and a passed ball by Jorge Posada allowed four runs to score for the Bushslappers in the third inning yesterday and Jeter's error in the fifth gave D.C. their fifth run of the game.

The new guys are having an immediate impact for Hoboken. Brandon League picked up his ninth victory of the season after pitching two scoreless innings and Greg Norton had two RBIs to help the Cutters edge the Mudcats 7-6.