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Mark Bowman / MLB.com:
Cool, calm Lowe tosses gem in debut — Righty throws eight scoreless innings, gets early support — PHILADELPHIA — With a frenzied crowd prepared to bring the defending World Series champion Phillies into the 2009 season, Derek Lowe wasn't provided the best setting to make a good first impression …
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Hardball Times, Ken Davidoff's baseball …, Archie Bunker's Army and Sons of Steve Garvey
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David O'Brien / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Braves dominate Phillies in season opener — Lowe pitched eight scoreless innings; McCann, Francoeur and rookie Schafer homer — Philadelphia — Yes, it was only the first game of 162. But on Sunday night, the Braves provided a few reasons to believe things might be different this season.
Discussion:
New Jersey Online
Mark Bowman / MLB.com:
Schafer homers in first career at-bat — Center fielder: ‘I felt like I was floating. It was awesome’ — PHILADELPHIA — Jordan Schafer spent the past seven weeks attempting to prove that he was ready for the Majors. It took him just one at-bat to indicate that the Braves were wise to provide him this opportunity.
David Lefort / Boston Globe:
Opener postponed until tomorrow — Due to a forecast of heavy rain in the Boston area, today's Red Sox-Rays season opener at Fenway Park has been postponed to tomorrow at 4:05 p.m. — “All of the festivities surrounding Opening Day will take place tomorrow,” Red Sox president Larry Lucchino confirmed …
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Ted Berg / SNY.tv:
What's cooking — Is faith in Murphy a sign of organizational enlightenment? — It's Opening Day and I'm revved up. — There's all the usual Christmas-in-April stuff, complete with a sleepless Sunday night spent wondering what the 2009 baseball season has in store for my Flushing Nine …
Discussion:
ESPN
Tom Krasovic / San Diego Union-Tribune:
Peavy likely will be gone if Padres get off to bad start — The backdrop to a Padres season that begins today at Petco Park is that if the team falls out of playoff contention, Jake Peavy could be traded before or shortly after the All-Star break, perhaps to the Dodgers club that opposes Peavy this afternoon.
Bob Nightengale / USA Today:
Incredible shrinking payroll: 14 MLB teams cut back — Fourteen of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball will have a lower opening-day payroll than a year ago, according to USA TODAY's annual salary survey. — Ten of the 14 teams are cutting their 25-man-roster budget by at least $10 million.
Amalie Benjamin / Boston Globe:
Pitching plans — The Sox were clearly prepared for this rainout. They had already said that if today's game were postponed, they would flip-flop Josh Beckett and Brad Penny this weekend with the sudden need for a fifth starter. — So Penny will start on Saturday, with Beckett taking the finale of the series in Anaheim, Calif.
Discussion:
The Joy of Sox
Jose De Jesus Ortiz / Houston Chronicle:
Astros eager to open at home, face Cubs' Zambrano — Club thinks this time it will be fair fight with Cubs' Zambrano — As Chicago Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano visits Minute Maid Park to start the 2009 season, it's impossible to forget he was part of the Astros' lowest point last year.
Bill Ladson / All Nats All the Time:
Acta announces starting lineup for Opening Day — About an hour after addressing his team, Nationals manager Manny Acta announced his starting lineup for Opening Day against the Marlins. — 1. Lastings Milledge — CF — 2. Cristian Guzman — SS — 3. Ryan Zimmerman — 3B — 4. Adam Dunn — LF
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Tyler Kepner / New York Times:
Yankees Rest Their Hope on the Singular Sabathia — With so much data in the annals of baseball, so many games and players and sets of skills, it is tempting to think everything can be quantified and each player can be compared with someone else. — It is rare to find an outlier, a player unlike any who has come before.
Peter Botte / NY Daily News:
Mets' bitter past brings sweet motivation to 2009 opener … Jerry Manuel doesn't support the notion that the heartache endured over the last few seasons no longer matters for the Mets. — Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS; two straight September collapses thereafter; a disaster of a bullpen …
Bill Madden / NY Daily News:
Madden: Lou's heart is always in the Bronx — It was hard to tell what impressed Lou Piniella more in his nostalgic two-day stop at his old South Bronx stomping grounds - the new Yankee Stadium or the Yankees themselves. — Sitting behind his desk in the new Stadium's visiting clubhouse Saturday morning …
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