interesting Stats n' Facts from Week 1

- Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer walked the first four Rays batters on Saturday, forcing in a run. That was all Tampa Bay needed as Cleveland didn’t score a run the whole game.

- Speaking of the Indians, they beat both of last year's Cy Young winners in the first week of the season.

- Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game Saturday with a double. The next Red Sox hit came with two outs in the ninth inning.

- Marlins starting pitching ERA is 2.48. Their relievers’ ERA is 8.10.

- Nationals pitchers allowed just one run in the entire series against the Marlins. Naturally, they gave up six homers and 15 runs in the next game against the Reds.

- There were three shutouts on Sunday, but the losing pitchers in those games were Justin Verlander, David Price and R.A. Dickey.

- Dickey allowed 5 first inning runs on Sunday against the Red Sox. That number matched his total runs allowed from all 33 first innings he pitched in 2012.

- Hanley Ramirez was injured in the WBC championship game. His replacement for the Dodgers, Luis Cruz, is 0 for 17.

- Rockies are hitting an amazing .333 as a team while their pitchers have tallied an impressive 5 quality starts.

- As a team, the Pirates are batting .119 and have scored just 8 runs in six games.

- How is this for irony: in the sixth inning with two outs, Phillies’ starter Kyle Kendrick was “relieved” by Jeremy Horst, who promptly gave up a bases-clearing triple. Kendrick was charged with all three runs while Horst, who got the next Royal to fly out, looked scot-free (one hit in a scoreless third of an inning). However, in the following inning Horst allowed the first three batters to all get on base and he was replaced. His “relief” also gave up a bases-clearing triple and three runs were all charged to Horst. So it all worked out. Needless to say, it was not a good day for the Phillies’ bullpen.

- On Wednesday, Fernando Rodney came in the ninth to save a one run lead. A walk and run-scoring double blew the save. But the leadoff man in the bottom of the ninth homered, and Rodney was credited with a win. You can call that a BS Win.

- Coaching Malfunction #1: With a one run lead in the seventh on Wednesday and the #8 and 9 batters up, O’s Buck Showalter called for an infield shift. The first batter bunted down the third baseline where nobody was for an easy single. The next batter grounded the ball to where the shortstop should have been but into a wide open hole in the shift. Both runners scored and Baltimore lost by one.

- Coaching Malfunction #2: On Friday with a 5-4 lead and runners on second and third, Twins’ Ron Gardenhire elected to intentionally walk Nick Markakis to load the bases. Consequently, Adam Jones hit his league-leading tenth base hit to tie the game and Chris Davis hit the next pitch for a grand slam.

- from The Amazing Astros:

– Starting pitcher Erik Bedard earned a save on Opening Night in an 8-2 game.
– Reliever Xavier Cedeno's ERA after Saturday was 108.00. And that's not including the three unearned runs he allowed.

– Rick Ankiel homered in his first at-bat this season. Since then he is 0 for 11 with 10 strikeouts.

– Brett Wallace singled in his second at-bat. Since then he is 0 for 15 with 12 strikeouts.

– As a team, the Lastros have struck out an amazing 74 times, with just 9 walks.

- Players of the Week

AL: Chris Davis – .455, 4 home runs and 3 doubles, 17 RBI, 1.636 OPS

NL: Clayton Kershaw – 2-0, 16 strikeouts in 16 innings, 0.00 ERA and hit a home run in the eighth inning of a 0-0 game