Hi all.  Here’s how I see baseball on this Tuesday, April 4.

Unfortunately I was too ill Sunday and Monday to write about the Sunday opener which was easily one of the best openers for this season.  The Giants’ Madison Bumgarner has to be asking what he has to do to win a game.  He hit two home runs, was firing a perfecto through 5-and his team lost it 6-5 to the woeful D-Backs.  The home team came up with a walkoff win in Phoenix. No doubt MadBum was in fact a MadBum after that one and I wouldn’t put it past him to become an angry hobo when he becomes eligible for free agency.

The Mets’ Noah Syndergaard showed the Braves the nasty stuff he’s famous for but the Mets’ lackluster offense got him no runs.  He left with an opening-day blister in the 6th. How Mets-like to have two starters-Steven Matz and Seth Lugo-already on the Dl and their stud horse Syndergaard likely to miss a start with a blister.    The Mets finally scored 6 in the 7th with the help of 5 walks, 3 by former Met Eric O’Flaherty now with the Braves. The one hit in the inning of any consequence was a 3-run double by Lucas Duda that turned a 3-0 lead into a rout.

The most exciting game on Monday was the Indians’ 8-5 win over Texas at Arlington. Indians’ starter Corey Kluber who had blister issues of his own gave up 5 runs including 2 home runs by Rougned Odor in 3 innings.  The Rangers’ Yue Darvish wasn’t much better giving up 4 runs to the Indians in his 6 innings of work.  That being said the Rangers held the lead at 5-4 in the visiting 8th until newly acquired Indian Edwin Encarnacion launched one into the Texas night to tie the game.  An inning later, Abraham Almonte singled home Tyler Naquin to make it 6-5.  Carlos Santana doubled home Almonte and Michael Brantley (who wasn’t a part of the 2017 Indians’ chase to the World Series) brought home Santana to make it 8-5.

Later today the Tigers and White sox hope to get their season opening game in at the second Comiskey Park.  Big shock-the weather in Chicago was too awful to allow the opening game on Monday.  If it goes off, Justin Verlander will go for the Tigers against Jose Quintana, last year’s All-Star and subject of more rumors than Fleetwood Mack this past off-season. If the game happens it would be Verlander’s 9th start on Opening Day.

Tuesday will be game 2 for most teams.  For their second game the Yankees turn to CC Sabathia aginst the Rays’ Jake Odorizzi. Though the Rays play in a dome they left an open date between Sunday’s opener and today’s second game.  That’s an unnecessary precaution in a dome, especially a dome located in sunstruck Florida. The Indians will see the return of Carlos Carrasco who was injured late last season and missed the World Series. He may not be healthy even now, having lost part of the spring with elbow trouble. He may or may not last 5 innings in his first start for this reason. Jake Arrieta goes for the Cubs in St. Louis.  He won the 2015 Cy Young award, won 18 games last year-and still wasn’t the opening day starter. Is there a word in Spanish for “HUH?” He’ll be facing Adam Wainwright.  I would use the term “ageless” to describe him except the Braves have both Bartolo Colon and R. A. Dickey who are marginally older than Wainwright.  all 3 of them can eat the Early Bird Special at IHOP before the usual 7 PM gametime. Johnny Cueto will hope to help the Giants’ bounce back from their surprising loss in Sunday’s opener at Arizona. Kenta Maeda gets the call for the Dodgers following their Monday night demolition of the Padres. It’s sure to be the first of many.  If the Padres were in any sensible business they would declare bankruptcy and save 25 men considerable embarrassment. As it is, their pay roll (28 million dollars) is less than the 2017 salary of the starting pitcher who vanquished them on Monday afternoon. Clayton Kershaw will get $33 million for the season.