SCOREBOARD
Monday, April 9
Houston at Chicago (2:20 p.m. EDT). Ted Lilly makes his Wrigley Field debut for the Cubs.
STARS
Sunday
-Livan Hernandez, Diamondbacks, took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and Arizona beat Washington 3-1.
-Kevin Kouzmanoff, Padres, singled with one out in the 10th to snap out of a 2-for-20 slump and give San Diego a 2-1 victory over Colorado.
-Ivan Rodriguez, Tigers, went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead three run homer in the ninth inning of Detroit’s 3-2 win over Kansas City.
-Johan Santana, Twins, allowed one hit over seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts and Minnesota beat the White Sox 3-1.
-Luis Gonzalez, Dodgers, hit two home runs and drove in four runs in a 10-4 win over the Giants.
-David Ortiz, Red Sox, homered twice in a 3-2 win over the Rangers.
SNOW-GO
For the second day in a row, snow and cold weather has forced a doubleheader between Seattle and Cleveland to be postponed. The teams were snowed out of a day-night doubleheader on Saturday, when they were attempting to make up Friday’s game, which was postponed after the teams had played four innings and endured nearly 3 hours in delays. The Mariners and Indians will try to salvage half of their four-game series by playing two on Monday.
HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Houston lost to St. Louis 10-1 on Sunday. With the loss, the Astros fell to 1-5, matching its worst start since 1990. They open a six-game road trip Monday in Chicago against the Cubs.
SETTLING IN
Luis Gonzalez hit his first two home runs in Dodger Blue and Randy Wolf gave Los Angeles a third straight standout pitching performance to pull off a three-game sweep of the archrival San Francisco Giants, 10-4 on Sunday. Gonzalez connected for a solo shot and three-run homer in his 26th career multihomer game, and Wolf (1-1) outpitched $126 million fellow left-hander Barry Zito in the Dodgers’ eighth consecutive victory in San Francisco.
BREAKING OUT
Rookie Kevin Kouzmanoff singled with one out in the 10th to snap out of a 2-for-20 slump and give the San Diego Padres a 2-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. It was San Diego’s second consecutive win against the Rockies, and both came late. On Saturday night, Adrian Gonzalez doubled in Cruz with one out in the ninth for a 3-2 victory. … David Ortiz snapped out of a 2-for-18 slump with his first two home runs to help Boston beat Texas 3-2 to avoid a sweep.
SNAPPED
Roy Halladay won for the first time since last August and Toronto beat Tampa Bay 6-3 on Sunday. Halladay (1-0) had gone winless in seven starts – including his final six last year – since beating Baltimore on Aug. 20. He gave up three runs, seven hits, three walks and had seven strikeouts over seven innings. … Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer to snap out of a 1-for-17 slump and St. Louis beat Houston 10-1. … Washington’s 3-1 loss to Arizona marked the first time the Nationals did not trail 4-0 in a game this season.
INJURED
Hideki Matsui was put on the 15-day disabled list Sunday by the New York Yankees, a day after straining his left hamstring. After playing in 1,768 consecutive games with the Yomiuri Giants (1,250) and the Yankees (518), Matsui was sidelined from May 11 to Sept. 12 last year with a broken left wrist.
SPEAKING
“I’m going to call my mom in Venezuela to come here and cook for him. We’ll poison him. If he eats what my mom cooks, he will be in trouble to pitch the next day.” – White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, jokingly, on how to beat Johan Santana. Santana struck out nine while allowing one hit and three walks over seven scoreless innings in Minnesota’s 3-1 win over the White Sox on Sunday.
SEASONS
April 9
1913 – Ebbets Field opened in Brooklyn and the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Dodgers 1-0 before a crowd of 10,000. The stadium, which cost $750,000 to build, was named after Charles Ebbets, the club’s principal owner.
1947 – Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was suspended for one year by commissioner Happy Chandler for “the accumulation of unpleasant incidents” detrimental to baseball.
1965 – The Houston Astrodome opened with an exhibition game between the New York Yankees and Astros. President Johnson attended and Gov. John Connally threw out the first ball. Mickey Mantle hit the first home run, but the Astros won 2-1 in 12 innings.
1969 – Billy Williams of Chicago hit four consecutive doubles to lead the Cubs to an 11-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
1981 – Fernando Valenzuela made his first major league start a stunning success by pitching a 2-0, five-hit triumph over the Houston Astros in Los Angeles. He would go on to win his first eight games.
1985 – Chicago’s Tom Seaver made his 15th opening day start to break Christy Mathewson’s record. Seaver pitched 6 2-3 innings and was credited with the victory as the White Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2.
1993 – The Colorado Rockies beat the Montreal Expos 11-4 for their first win and set a National League record for attendance in their home debut. The crowd of 80,227 broke the record of 78,672 set on April 18, 1958, by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
2000 – In a 13-7 win over Kansas City, Minnesota’s Ron Coomer, Jacque Jones and Matt LeCroy hit consecutive home runs. The Royals’ Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye and Mike Sweeney repeated the feat, marking the first time in major league history that both teams hit three consecutive home runs in the same game.
2003 – Detroit became the second major league team to start successive seasons 0-7 after a 9-6 loss to Kansas City. The Tigers started 0-11 the previous year. The 1962-63 New York Mets started 0-9 and 0-8 in their first two seasons.
2006 – Cory Sullivan tied a major league record by hitting two triples during a seven-run fifth inning, helping Colorado rout San Diego 10-4.
Today’s birthday: Adam Lowen 23.
