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Pena back with a bang

by Matt Smith

It was quite a homecoming for Carlos Pena on Friday. The first baseman has returned to the Tampa Bay Rays after spending 2011 with the Chicago Cubs. He showed how happy he is to be back by getting the better of two of the best pitchers in the game.

A grand slam off CC Sabathia was a great way to start; a game-winning single off Mariano Rivera was the perfect way to finish.

Rivera’s reputation is so formidable that it’s always a shock when he doesn’t come out on top. You expect to go a long time before seeing him cough up a lead. Watching that happen in the Yankees’ first game of the year was almost surreal and took me back to the magical happenings at Tropicana Field on the final day of last year’s regular season. The Rays don’t have large home crowds to call on, but they seem to find something to inspire them when they need it most.

It wasn’t quite such a happy home opener for my A’s. There was a rare full house of 35,000 at the Coliseum and they didn’t get the win they were hoping for against the Mariners. However, what they did get was one great moment to show why they, and everyone else, should be excited at watching Yoenis Cespedes in his rookie Major League season.

I’ve watched on MLB.tv many a well-hit ball land harmlessly at the warning track during night games in the cavernous Coliseum. Cespedes clearly is not a man to be denied by the trivialities of ballpark dimensions and atmospheric conditions. Three games into his Major League career (the first two coming in the Tokyo Dome) and he’s already proved that he has devastating raw power.

Us A’s fans haven’t had much to get excited about in recent years and that’s like to continue in 2012. Cespedes looks like being a very welcome exception.

One feature of Oakland’s loss was the two errors committed by third baseman Josh Donaldson. He’s one of a number of players trying to make the transition to the hot corner this season. In Donaldson’s case, he’s a converted catcher playing there due to Scott Sizemore’s cruel season-ending knee injury suffered early in Spring Training.

The Angels’ Mark Trumbo has moved across the diamond from first base to third due to his team acquiring Albert Pujols (only one of the greatest players of all-time, so not exactly a slight against Trumbo) and being able to welcome back Kendrys Morales to the lineup as the DH after missing the best part of the last two seasons through injury.

I’ve yet to read the thoughts of anyone not connected to the Angels that are confident Trumbo can play third base in the Majors and he matched Donaldson with two errors of his own on Friday.

While the A’s are unlikely to be postseason contenders and are taking a flyer on Donaldson due to a lack of other compelling options, the Angels already have a decent third baseman in Alberto Callapso and are only playing Trumbo there as a way to keep his bat in the lineup. If his struggles continue – it is only one game so far, after all – then Trumbo would be a prime trade candidate, although his low on-base percentage last year does show he’s far from the finished article at the plate despite the home-run hitting prowess he displayed last year.

Trumbo’s errors didn’t cost the Angels and neither did the quirk of Pujols being the only starting position player not to get a hit in their 5-0 victory over the Royals. Jered Weaver was extremely impressive on the mound in his season debut and he’ll be challenging for the AL Cy Young award this season.

The other team in L.A. also received an excellent performance from their starting pitcher. Chad Billingsley has almost become the forgotten man due to the form of his rotation-mate Clayton Kershaw, but he’s a good pitcher in his own right and amassing 11 strike-outs in your season debut is a promising way to start the season.

Giving up four home runs isn’t quite as promising and the Cardinals put the Brewers’ Yovani Gallardo to the sword at Miller Park. Meanwhile Ryan Braun went 0-for-5, which is definitely not the way he wanted to start his reigning MVP year after scuffling badly throughout Spring Training.

Braun will look to get back on track today and the Cardinals-Brewers game is one of seven that begin before midnight UK time (all times in BST)

18.05. Toronto at Cleveland (Morrow – Jimenez)

18.05. Washington at Chicago Cubs (Gonzalez – Garza)

18.10. Atlanta at NY Mets (Jurrjens – Dickey)

21.05. Kansas City at LA Angels (Hochevar – Haren)

21.05. Boston at Detroit (Beckett – Fister)

21.05. St. Louis at Milwaukee (Wainwright – Greinke)

21.05. San Francisco at Arizona (Bumgarner – Hudson)

Braun and his teammates will be facing the returning Adam Wainwright, who missed all of 2011 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Gio Gonzalez makes his Nationals debut after being traded away by the A’s over the offseason, while Ubaldo Jimenez needs to put all of the Rockies-related hoopla to one side as he starts for Cleveland against the Blue Jays. The Indians parted with some good young prospects to acquire Jimenez last year; it’s time for him to start repaying that faith on the mound.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  ESPN America is showing the Braves-Mets and Cardinals-Brewers games back-to-back.  The full schedule for today’s games can be found on MLB.com.

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