LIVE: MLB Opening Day 2012 Blog, Marlins New Stadium Sees First Loss

Culture

Updates: Wednesday -- St. Louis Cardinals v. Miami Marlins: Kyle Lohse ruined the Marlins' debut in their new stadium while pitching the Cardinals to a 4-1 win. Crushing. 

More Opening Day/ Week News

MLB Opening Day is finally here. Officially, anyways. Well, kind of. 

The season opener was, of course, last week, when the Oakland A's and the Seattle Mariners played a pair of games in Japan. But baseball is the all-American sport, and any "opening games" not in America, thus, do not really count as opening games. 

I digress. 

Discluding the Japan soft opener, Opening Day features the marquee game between the defending world champions St. Louis Cardinals play the Miami Marlins, who recently changed their name from the "Florida Marlins" and moved into their sparkely new ballpark. The Marlins are expected to be ony of the best teams in 2012, and will introduce new stars Jose Reyes and Heath Bel. New Cardinals manager Mike Matheny will have his hands full. 

The season goes into full swing after that. As Michael Rosenberg in Sports Illustrated neatly explains, "The next day, there are seven more games. And Friday there are nine more...."

Below is this week's slate of games, and some tidbits on the big ones. 

Try not to skip out on work too much.

Thursday 4/5

 

AwayHomeTime (ET)Away ProbableHome ProbableMLB.TVTickets Red Sox Tigers 1:05pm

Lester (0-0)

Verlander (0-0)

   Buy Braves Mets 1:10pm

Hanson (0-0)

Santana (0-0)

   Buy Phillies Pirates 1:35pm

Halladay (0-0)

Bedard (0-0)

   Buy Nationals Cubs 2:20pm

Strasburg (0-0)

Dempster (0-0)

   Buy Blue Jays Indians 3:05pm

Romero (0-0)

Masterson (0-0)

   Buy Marlins Reds 4:05pm

Buehrle (0-0)

Cueto (0-0)

   Buy Dodgers Padres 7:05pm

Kershaw (0-0)

Volquez (0-0)

   Buy

 

 

Boston Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers (4/5, 1:05 p.m. ET) - The Red Sox will look to redeem themselves after a massive 2011 late season collapse, after which GM Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona were fired. 

 

 

Friday 4/6

 

AwayHomeTime (ET)Away ProbableHome ProbableMLB.TVTickets White Sox Rangers 2:05pm

Danks (0-0)

Lewis (0-0)

   Buy Twins Orioles 3:05pm

Pavano (0-0)

Arrieta (0-0)

   Buy Yankees Rays 3:10pm

Sabathia (0-0)

Shields (0-0)

   Buy Cardinals Brewers 4:10pm

Garcia (0-0)

Gallardo (0-0)

   Buy Rockies Astros 7:05pm

Guthrie (0-0)

Rodriguez (0-0)

   Buy Giants D-backs 7:10pm

Lincecum (0-0)

Kennedy (0-0)

   Buy Royals Angels 10:05pm

Chen (0-0)

TBD    Buy Dodgers Padres 10:05pm

Billingsley (0-0)

Luebke (0-0)

   Buy Mariners Athletics 10:05pm

Vargas (0-0)

McCarthy (0-0)

   Buy

 

 

New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays (4/6, 3:10 p.m. ET) - This game will feature what will likely be the two best AL East teams. C.C. Sabathia and James Shields wil take the mound for the opener.

Source: MLB.com