Baseball Interesting Right Out of the Gates

We’ve only made it through the first weekend of the 2012 baseball season and there have already been plenty of interesting story lines:

• The Rays may indeed be the team to beat in the AL East after sweeping a three-game set against the Yankees in Tampa. That included beating Mariano Rivera in game one. Rivera gave up 2 runs, 3 hits, and walked two while recording just one out before Carlos Pena delivered the game-winning hit.
• The Red Sox fared even worse than the Yankees, dropping three to Detroit and giving up 26 runs in the process. Josh Beckett gave up 5 HRs in his outing, a 10-0 drubbing in the second game of the series. Bobby Valentine appears to have his work cut out for him.
• The Mets and Orioles, on the other hand, each came out of the gates  3-0. What is this, the olden days?
• Arizona got the jump on the Giants, taking three tight games against the team most figure to be the main challenger to the Diamondbacks for the NL West title. In the series finale, Arizona ralled from a 6-0 deficit to stun San Francisco. Fortunately – and surprisingly – for the Giants, much maligned pitcher Barry Zito put SF in the win column on Monday by shutting out Colorado. It was Zito’s first shutout in 147 starts as a Giant.
• It didn’t take long for Ozzie Guillen to create controversy in Miami. A magazine quote has put the new Marlins’ manager into apology mode. (update: Guillen has been suspended by the Marlins for five games)
• The A’s look destined for a last place finish in the AL West. But on the positive side, they appear to have found a big time slugger in Yoenis Cespedes. He is already opening eyes with 3 HRs in his first 4 games, including a mammoth blast in the A’s “official” home opener.

Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan has a good rundown of the first week craziness in this article.