BALTIMORE, Maryland March 31, 2014 - Winter lasted until the last. Yesterday it snowed, it was cold, it was cloudy and a cold raw wind blew. It could have passed for mid-December. And then opening day dawned. It was sunny. It felt like at least early spring. By mid-afternoon, when the game started, the temperature had climbed into, are you ready for this, the mid-60's. The grass was green - how come the stadium grass is green and the backyard grass is brown - the uniforms clean and bright, and all thoughts of winter were fluttering gently away on the soon-to-be April breeze. And then the game started. For the Defending World Champs, it was John Lester and Chris Tillman for the Orioles. Lester was an Oriole killer last year, and the year before that, and the year before that... Tillman, on the other hand, was one of those lads with a ton of talent, on the verge of getting really good, then along came 2012, and more specifically, the second half of 2012, when he found himself and the Orioles found one whale of a pitcher. He finished 2012 with a record of 9-3 and a 2.94 ERA. Last year, he just kept getting better. He was the Orioles best starter, won 16 games, and had an ERA of 3.71. Today, the Sox hit him hard: sevem hits in five innings. But you know what, it didn't do them a damn bit of good because he only gave up one run, and that on a solo hemer by new centerfielder Grady Sizemore. The only consolation for the Sox is that Tillman didn't get the win. That went to Zach Britton, who was the first out of the bullpen in relief of Tillman. Britton went two innings, giving up one hit. Also on the mound before the ninth were Evan Meek and Brian Matusz, Meek went two-thirds and Matusz one-third. Then in the ninth came the new closer, Tommy Hunter, who was annointed the closer yesterday by Oriole Manager Buck Showalter. All Hunter did today was mow down the middle of the Sox powerful batting order to get his first save of the season. His pitches are all up in the 90's, one was measured at 99 miles per hour. Professional hitters are not fazed by speed unless it is accompanied by movement and the ability to change speeds, at least now and then, effectively. Hunter has great movement these days and, in addition to the awesome fastball, throws a mean looking breaking ball. In the ninth, Hunter entered, replacing hard-throwing lefthander Brian Matusz. There are those who think Matusz should be the closer. But he is more valuable right now as the lefthander who can get left and right-handed hitters out. Will Middlebrooks leads off for the Sox and Hunter plunks him. Then he gets Daniel Nava to pop up to third-baseman Ryan Flaherty. That brings Dustin Pedroia, one of baseball's best clutch hitters, to the plate. Hunter gets ahead of Petroia 0-2, but pitch after pitch are fought off by Pedroia until Hunter throws him a low fastball just off the outside corner of the plate. Replays will show that Pedroia swung, but the umps don't see the replay and to the naked eye it is real close. Pedroia gets the call, and two pitches later he raps a solid single to left. Middlebrooks, not fast afoot, stops at second. Now up comes David Ortiz. Two on, one out and it is bloody David Ortiz, another outstanding clutch hitter, in addition to being an intimidating power hitter. Hunter does not back down. and Ortiz finally sends a routine fly to left, which the hitting hero of the game, newcomer Nelson Cruz, easily corrals. Now, a move by the Sox outstanding manager, John Farrell, back in the top of the eighth inning, comes back to haunt him. Mike Napoli is the Sox cleanup hitter today. He leads off the eighth and draws a walk. He becomes the tie run and Farrell goes to his bench for the speedy Jackie Bradley, Jr. Bradley had been headed for Boston's top farm team at Pawtucket until Shane Victorino came up with an injury late in spring training and had to go on the DL. In the ninth, with the tying and winning runs on base, but with two outs, he is the hitter. He is not about to deal, competently, with a Tommy Hunter near one hundred mile per hour fastball. In an instant he is down on the count, 0-2. Then, he fights off a fastball right down the pipe. Then Hunter misses with a pitch. Then he drives one down the middle but letter high. A young guy like Larry Bradley, Jr. cannot take a pitch like that with two strikes. He will not get the call. But he took the pitch. He did not get the call. The Orioles win on opening day in Baltimore. The offensive hero is Nelson Cruz, the Birds' new leftfielder. He was leading off the seventh against Lester, and in his last inning today, Lester let one out over the plate against Cruz' lightning quick bat. It landed well up in the left field seats and the Orioles had what proved to be winning run. Don't say Farrell screwed up by sending Lackey out to start the seventh. After Cruz homered, he struck out the next three hitters. Britton was the winner, Lester was the loser, Hunter got the save. For the game, the defending champs banged out nine hits. Nine hits will win a lot of games. But the Orioles are put together to win games like this. They have a flexible bullpen that allows their outstanding game manager, Showalter, play to match-ups in the later innings. A lot of hits are wasted against the Orioles, today included. The Birds had two runs on six hits. One player on each team had two hits. Sizemore was the man for Boston. Adam Jones did it for the Orioles. The two teams have tomorrow off. The series continues Wednesday night, 7:05 pm, Ubaldo Jimenez, the Orioles key off-season pitching acquisition, starts for the Birds. The Sox counter with John Lackey. On Thursday, Buck Showalter has picked Wei-Yin Chen while Farrell has chosen Felix Doubrant.
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