Eternal Baseball – Game #01 – Opening Day – The St. Louis Cardinals at the San Francisco Giants

LATE HOMER SEALS CARDINALS OPENING DAY WIN OVER GIANTS

Eternal Baseball Press

SAN FRANCISCO – It was billed as the best pitching matchup of Opening Day, but one of the aces folded.

St. Louis’ Bob Gibson held the Giants at bay (and OUT of the Bay), outdueling San Francisco ace Christy Mathewson in a 7-2 Opening Day win for the Cardinals.

Chick Hafey had already homered in the first inning, before his double off the left field wall scored Stan Musial and Rogers Hornsby to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead in the third inning. In the fifth, Willie McCovey’s RBI groundout knocked in Mathewson and cut St. Louis’ lead to 3-2. In the seventh inning, Hornsby’s double in the left/center field gap scored Gibson and the Cardinals stretched their lead to 4-2.

Both pitchers tired and were relieved in the eighth inning. Cardinal reliever Al Hrabosky got pinch hitter Kevin Mitchell to ground out to end the eighth inning, and John Tudor pitched a clean ninth inning to seal the game. Giants reliever Madison Bumgarner got in trouble on just his second batter – allowing a single and then a walk before Hornsby hit a monstrous three-run home run to left field to lift St. Louis to a 7-2 lead.

Gibson (1-0) notched his first win of the year (7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K) while Christy Mathewson took the loss (8 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K).

Game two of this three-game set is tomorrow night, St. Louis sends right hander Adam Wainwright to the mound to face San Francisco right hander Juan Marichal. First pitch from Oracle Park is at 7:05 PM PST.

Photo Credit: Giants Stadium by Harold Litwiler

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