Tagged: Kyuji Fujikawa

Firsts in the first 4 games of the season

The Astros became the first team in MLB history to strikeout 43 times in the opening series of the season.

The Mariners became the first team since the 1970 Reds to give up three hits or fewer in the first two games of the season.

Red Sox’s rookie Jackie Bradley Jr. recorded three walks, two runs and an RBI in his major league debut. He got the first hit of his career in the second game of the season.

Braves’ catcher Evan Gattis and Athletics’ first baseman Nate Frieman each collected an RBI in their first major league at-bat. Gattis hit a solo home run off Roy Halladay and Frieman hit a single off Joe Saunders.

Cubs’ reliever Kyuji Fujikawa recorded his first save in his first major league appearance.

Dodgers’ pitcher Clayton Kershaw hit his first career home run in the opening day game against the Giants. Kershaw went on to pitch a complete game four hitter for the Dodgers

Erik Bedard picked up the first save in his 9 year career on opening night for the Astros. Bedard pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to accomplish this feat.

Twins’ outfielder Aaron Hicks records his first MLB hit in the fourth game of the season. It was a two run single off Al Alburquerque in the 8th inning.

Padres’ Jedd Gyorko collected his first hit and RBI in the third game of the season. He hit an RBI double off Dillon Gee in the 4th inning of today’s game.

According to Elias sports Chris Davis is the first MLB player to beat in at least three runs in each of the team’s first three games.

Early Game Boxscore Notes

-Bryce Harper has homered in his first two at-bats of the season.

-Rookie Jackie Bradley Jr. worked a walk after being down 0-2 against C.C. Sabathia. This walk helped the Red Sox have a four run inning in the 2nd inning. Shortstop Jose Iglesias had an RBI infield single, Victorino had a two run single and Pedroia had an RBI single to get the fourth run on the board.

-Dustin Pedroia is batting third in the Red Sox order and Placido Polanco is batting fourth in the Marlins’ order today. Neither player is a prototypical 3-4 guy in the order, because of their lack of power.

-A.J Burnett has struck out ten Cub batters in 5 1/3 innings.

-Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs, Troy Tulowitzki/Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies and Collin Cowgill of the Mets have all hit home runs today.

-Jon Lester pitched a nice game for the Red Sox. He pitched five innings of two run ball with seven strikeouts.

– Mets’ Jonathan Niese (6.2 innings pitched, four hits, two runs, four strikeouts and a win), Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg (seven innings, three hits, o runs, 3 strikeouts and a win) and Cubs’ Jeff Samardzija (eight innings, two hits, 0 runs, 9 strikeouts and a win) had solid starts for their respective teams.

-Cubs’ pitcher Kyuji Fujikawa recorded his first career save in his first big league appearance.