The Morning After: Opening Day
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 6, 2010 3:00PM
For half the city, it was a gorgeous Opening Day at home with homers and acrobatic plays and victory. For the other half, it was a day that just turned plain ugly.
Sox Trounce Tribe
The White Sox got off to a winning start thanks to a 6-0 win over the Cleveland Indians. The Sox got off to a quick start thanks to a two-run homer by Paul Konerko in the first and added a few more batting around in the third and fifth innings; Mark Kotsay was responsible for two of those runs. Alex Rios put a late cap on the victory with an eighth inning solo homer. On the mound, Mark Buehrle was outstanding, throwing seven innings of shut out baseball, allowing three hits and striking out three. Oh, and did we mention the amazing play he made?
Yeah, it was that kind of day for the Sox. The teams take a breather today and go at it again tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., WGN).
Braves Obliterate Cubs
The game had such a promising start for the Cubs but it quickly went south as soon as the Braves got their first turn at bat. New Cub Marlon Byrd smacked a three-run homer in the top of the first to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead and more hope for the new season. But that optimism soured quickly as the Braves' big bats, including rookie sensation Jason Heyward, knocked Carlos Zambrano around for six runs in the first and two more in the second en route to a 16-5 thrashing of the Cubs. Zambrano was pulled with one out in the second inning after giving up 8 runs (his ERA currently stands at 54.00). Aramis Ramirez knocked a two-run shot in the top of the third to cut the lead to 8-3, but the Braves made quick work of Jeff Samardzija in the seventh, putting up another six-spot and added two more in the eighth inning for good measure. The Cubs will collect themselves and make another go at it on Wednesday night (6:10 p.m., CSN+).