Baseball

The Philadelphia Phillies' 2-1 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday was a bit of an oddity for the National League's hottest team.

It was the first time all season that the Phillies have no gotten at least 10 hits.

No matter. Their ace, Roy Halladay was on the mound, giving up one unearned run in a seven-hit, no walk, eight strikeout performance. Oh, yeah, and it was Halladay's first complete game of the season.

The Phillies pounded out six hits, featuring Jimmy Rollins's home run to start the game and a Carlos Ruiz ground-out RBI in the second inning.

From 1946 to 1950, Boston Braves moundsmen Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain were two of the top five starting pitchers in all of baseball. Sain, who went on to great renown as the game's greatest pitching coach during the 1960s and 1970s, won 20 or more games in four of those five years. Spahn would go on to win 363 games. In 1947, at the tender age of 26, he won the ERA and WHIP titles in the National League, and led the league in both shutouts and innings pitched.

Unfortunately, Spahn and Sain had relatively little support in Boston for most of their five seasons together.

Who needs the Minor Leagues? Mike Leake, that is who.

He pitched the first professional game of his career yesterday at Great American Ball Park against the Chicago Cubs.

In the first inning, he had the bases loaded with no outs, yet managed to keep his cool and leave the innings unscathed. That's what I'm talking 'bout.

He showed the poise of a veteran as he worked into the seventh inning of his pro debut. He was wild as a buck but allowed minimal damage from his control problems.

Now that the first week of the baseball season is behind us, let’s take a look at some observations from the week.

Despite starting 0-6, the Houston Astros can't be written off just yet.

Back in early April of 2005, I went to see the Astros against the New York Mets at Shea. The Astros looked horrific.

They went on to go to the World Series that year.

I am not saying the Astros are going to make the World Series, but they won’t be the worst team in baseball either.

If there is any consolation from the tough start for the 2010 Baltimore Orioles, it might simply be that they at least can’t match the start of the 1988 Birds.

Of course, that squad set a Major League Baseball record for futility by dropping its first 21 games on its way to a miserable 54-107 record.

The 2010 Orioles already have one victory, but following their three-game home sweep at the hands of the only team in the division predicted to be worse than the O’s, things are not looking bright in Baltimore.

David Ortiz’ recent profanity-laced tantrum with the Boston media isn’t his first meltdown, and if he continues to hit poorly, Big Papi’s spoiled inner child will certainly rear his ugly head once again.

Yet Papi isn’t the only head case roaming the diamonds of America’s pastime. As you read this, half-whacked megastars and journeymen alike are getting ready to take the field all over today’s MLB slate.

They are all so different.

Every single year we are amazed at how fast the first week goes, but that's part of the beauty of baseball.

It’s way too early to care about league leaders and standout performances, but there's no shame in looking, is there?

Here are the top story lines from each team during the first week of the 2010 season. 

The Giants are six games into the regular season and look good at 5-1 (compounded by Tim Lincecum being 2-0, with another brilliant, seven-inning, 10-strikeout performance in a 6-3 win tonight ).

However, while the Giants' pitching has been solid so far, it has been a very different story offensively after the first two series of the year against the Astros and Braves.

Neftali Feliz will be the beneficiary of the early season troubles of Frank Francisco. 

Manager Ron Washington has announced that Feliz will take over the closer’s job “temporarily” from Francisco until he can feel confident that the Rangers closer can get people out again. 

First of all, if you didn't see, I posted my No. 3 Twins prospect for the 2010 season.

Now, on to the post...

The Twins (officially) open Target Field at 3:05 pm today against the Boston Red Sox. Carl Pavano will take the mound against southpaw Jon Lester.

Both pitchers have struggled against the opposition in the past, but it will be interesting to see what kind of momentum Pavano has in his first (real) start at Target Field.