April 4 2011 Baseball News 

Monday’s Baseball Scores from around the Major Leagues

Rangers top Mariners 6-4 … Pirates top Cardinals 4-3 … Orioles top Tigers 5-1 …

Braves top Brewers 2-1 … Yankees top Twins 4-3 … Cubs top Diamondbacks 4-1

Reviews by baseball historian

Texas Rangers 6 Seattle Mariners 4 - before a Monday crowd of 37,618 Nelson Cruz lined a homer in the 4^th inning becoming just the 3^rd player in baseball history to hit a home run in each of his team’s first four games tying Willie Mays of SF Giants in ’71 and Mark McGwire of Cardinals in ’98. Last season (2010) Nelson Cruz, rightfielder, hit 22 homers. Winning pitcher was Derek Holland (1-0) Texas’ starter. He work 6 innings, allowed 7 hits, 3 ER, had 1 walk and 5 so. Rangers’ Elvis Andrus also homered. The Rangers, last season AL pennant winners, have started 2011 by winning first 4 games. Mariners rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-5 and his batting average fell to a still robust .353 after 4 games.

Pittsburgh Pirates 4 St Louis Cardinals 3 – the Pirates’ 1B Neil Walker and CF Andrew McCutchen stayed red-hot again to help Pittsburgh nudge the Cardinals before 32,907 in St. Louis. In the 4^th inning Neil Walker lined a 2 run double and Andrew McCutchen followed with a 2 run homer off Cards starter and loser Kyle Lohse, who pitched 7 innings. Neil Walker went 3-for 4 and is batting a torrid .412 for 2011. Pirates starter Charlie Morton (1-)0 pitcher 6 strong innings, allowing just 3 hits, 1 run, 5 walks and 2 so. Closer struckout 2, 0 hits in 1.1 innings and collected his 3 save of season. Joel Hanrahan.

Baltimore Orioles 5 Detroit Tigers 1 – The surging Orioles won again, making it 4 wins in their first 4 games. Second baseman and leadoff hitter, Brian Roberts, lined a 3 run homer in the 5^th inning to pace Baltimore in his home opener before a crowd of 46,593. Teammate and catcher Matt Wieters had 2 hits in 3 at bats, scored once and had an RBI. Baltimore starter Jake Arrieta (1-0) allowed 6 hits, just 1 run, 2 walks, 3 so in 6 innings. Umpires H – Derryl Cousins … 1B Jim Joyce … 2B Ron Kulpa … 3B Jim Wolf. ---- baseball history by baseball historian

Atlanta Braves 2 Milwaukee Brewers 1 – Martin Prado and Dan Uggla lined homers and Brandon Beachy pitched well to pace the Braves (3-1) to a 2-1 victory over the Brewers who now have lost their first 4 games of 2011. Brandon Beachy allowed 4 hits, 1 run in 6 innings and left for a pinch hitter in 7^th. Reliever Moylan picked up the win, pitching 1 inning (1 hit, 1 so) Braves closer Craig Kimbrel stuckout all 3 Brewers batters in 9^th to gain his 2^nd save of 2011.

New York Yankees 4 Minnesota Twin 3 –In the 1^st inning, Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez lined a home run with a man and DH Jorge Posada belted a 2-run homer in the 2^nd propelling the New Yorkers to a 4-3 victory over the Twins, who fell to 1-3 for 2011. Minnesota’s DH Jim Thome lined a 2-run double in 4^th and 2B Tsuyoshi Nishioka doubled in the other run in the 5^th. Yanks starter Ivan Nova (1-0) yielded all 3 runs, working 6 innings and was the winning pitcher, while closer Mariano Riveria rang up his 3^rd save of season. Yankees drew 40331 fans at home. It was NY 12 win over Twins in last 14 games. Scott Baker was the losing pitcher – 5 hits, 4 runs in 6 innings.

Chicago Cubs 4 Arizona Diamondbacks 1 – Cubbies starter Randy Wells allowed 6 hits, just 1 run, 4 w, 6 strikeouts in 6 innings and leftfielder Alfonso Soriano had 2 RBI went 2 for 3 including a solo homer. SS and D’backs leadoff hitter Willie Bloomquist homered on the 4^th pitch of the game, but Randy Wells settled down to moved the Cubs to 2-2 for the year. Closer Carlos Marmol set down the D’backs in 9^th for 2^nd save of season. 26,292 in Wrigley Field on Chicago’s North Side. Cubs catcher Geovany Soto was 2 for 3, both doubles, 1 RBI. 1B Carlos Pena had Chicago’s other RBI. Joe Saunders, Arizona’s starter, was the losing pitcher. His stats were 5 hits, 2 runs in 6 innings. Reliever Mickolio yielded a pair of runs on Geovany Soto double.

This Day in Baseball History April 3 2011 - Baseball News of the Day by the first Internet baseball historian

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