For Openers, Aces Deal Different Hands

So the first two of 324 just-about-daily soap operas is over. For the Mets, a win. The Yankees, meanwhile, had their hands full with the usually all hit, no pitch Baltimore Orioles and dropped their opener. It was a tale of two different days for the lefty aces.

In Cincinnati, Johan Santana was good, not great-good enough for a win. His line, 5 and 2/3 IP, a run on three hits, 7 K's and 4 walks. He got some big outs, and some good defense from Ryan Church and (after Johan had left) Daniel Murphy to finish off the 6th and preserve a 2-1 lead. Murphy knocked in both Met runs with a solo shot and a sac fly as well.

The key to this game-the Mets bullpen: 3 and a a third scoreless from Sean Green, J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez. The bullpen blew 7 potential wins for Santana last season, and this game SURE had 2008 cough it up written all over it. But, despite the fact the Amazins were 1-for-12 with men in scoring position (and where have we seen THAT before) the bullpen locked it down.

Meanwhile, in Baltimore, C C Sabathia never looked right facing the Orioles. 4 and a third innings, 6 runs on eight hits. He struggled right from the get go. Result: Three runs in the third inning and three in the sixth. A telling stat: No strikeouts for a guy that had 251 K's last season. Also, Sabathia kept laying what looked like a heating pad on his right side. But manager Joe Girardi and Sabathia says nothing was wrong. C C says he was trying to stay loose.

At the plate, plenty wrong for Mark Texieira-0 for 4 at the plate in front of his hometwon fans who think he bailed on the O's and Nationals by signing with the Bronx Bombers for big bucks in the offseason. The new Yankees first baseman is supposed to be staying at his childhood home in suburban Maryland. The way they sounded at Camden Yards, Tex may need temporary housing from the Federal Witness Protection Program.

I have to admit, I was surprised that once the Yankees got it to 6-5 that they would win. Derek Jeter failed in the clutch and the O's had a controversial homer-I thought Johnny Damon was interfered withon Caesar Izhuris' blast. The normally leaky Orioles' bullpen shutdown the Yanks over the final two innings. Orioles win 10-5.

Moral of the story: It's one game, one day. But getting too high or two low is what the baseball soap operas are all about in the Big Apple. There's plenty of twists and turns to the script yet to come.