Three "first's" happened today that not many people would not have expected to wait over a week to see (or in the last example, expected at all). The Kansas City Royals hit their 1st homerun of the season and the Cincinnati Reds speed demon Billy Hamilton stole his first two bases of the season. Toronto Blue Jays catcher Dioner Navarro stole his first base since 2009.
Many people likely expected Ervin Santana to have some rust in his pitching debut for the Atlanta Braves. 8 innings played, 0 runs allowed, 3 hits against, no walks allowed, 6 strikeouts. It doesn't matter that it's against the 4th lowest scoring team in the NL because coming in, Atlanta themselves are the lowest scoring team. That's the real surprise, Atlanta is barely averaging 2 runs per game heading into Santana's debut.
Baltimore Oriole starter Miguel Gonzalez is set to earn $529,000 this season. New York Yankee starter Masahiro Tanaka just commenced a seven years, $155M contract. Both have almost identical lines from their meeting against each other, biggest difference, Tanaka was plus 7 in the strikeout category! The Orioles would win the game in the 9th with Tanaka out of the game and no option to put in Mariano Rivera or his "replacement" David Robertson for the Yankees.
Game of the night honors goes to the Miami Marlins/Washington Nationals! Marlins surge out to a 5-0 lead after two innings. After marching back to take a 6-5 lead in the 6th, the Nats leave the bases drunk which naturally means the Marlins tie it the first chance they get. The tying run came via the first uncontested homerun (first two were reviewed) of the game in the top of the 7th. Marlins would take the lead in the top of the 8th on an umpire reviewed home plate play. At this rate of reviews before reacting to anything on the field, you may want a minute or so.
I have professed my affinity for fantasy baseball in previous articles and through that affinity, I have learned that the last adjective to describe relief pitcher Carlos Marmol is reliable. Now pitching for the Marlins, the game of the night would effectively end when the Nats were able to load the bases against him in the bottom of the 8th and Jayson Werth would empty the bases with a (un-reviewed) grand slam.
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