April 9th, 2009
Thames hitting second
With Placido Polanco getting the day game off, Jim Leyland is up to his old trick of putting a power bat in the two spot — in this case, Marcus Thames. He’s playing LF today; Carlos Guillen is the DH.
TIGERS (1-2)
- Granderson, CF
- Thames, LF
- Ordonez, RF
- Cabrera, 1B
- Guillen, DH
- Inge, 3B
- Treanor, C
- Santiago, 2B
- Everett, SS
P: Rick Porcello
BLUE JAYS (2-1)
- Marco Scutaro, SS
- Aaron Hill, 2B
- Alex Rios, RF
- Vernon Wells, CF
- Adam Lind, DH
- Jose Bautista, 3B
- Lyle Overbay, 1B
- Michael Barrett, C
- Travis Snider, LF
P: Ricky Romero
HRs in first 3 games of season
Twenty-one other players have homered in the first three games of a season, according to home-run expert David Vincent from SABR. Here’s the list:
Mark McGwire, St. Louis 1998
Dean Palmer, Texas 1992
Kevin Mitchell, San Francisco 1991
Mike Greenwell, Boston 1989
Glenn Davis, Houston 1988
Willie Mays, San Francisco 1971
Frank Howard, Washington 1969
Frank Robinson, Baltimore
1966
Carl Furillo, Brooklyn 1955
Bobby
Doerr, Boston 1941
Bob Johnson, Philadelphia A’s 1937
Gary Sheffield, Atlanta 2002
Darryl Strawberry, NY Mets 1987
Billy Williams, Chicago Cubs 1971
Dave Winfield, NY Yankees
1983
Jim Wynn, Dodgers 1974
Derrek Lee, Florida 2002
Fernando Tatis, St. Louis 1999
Lance Berkman, Houston
2002
Chris Truby, Houston 2001
Grady Sizemore, Cleveland 2007
Jason Beck
