The sun is shining and Garrett Jones just gave the ball a tour of the river

Well, the Pirates home opener has came and went. It was one for the history books folks, as the Pirates scored 11 runs, the most by the Pirates on opening day. For at least one day, the Pirates looked fantastic, and completely outplayed the Dodgers in every facet of the game. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but any time you can defeat a team as good as the Dodgers, it’s a good day.

Game started out shakey as the Dodgers jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, but in the bottom of the first, Garrett Jones quickly tied the game with a mammoth 2-run HR that landed in the river, to tie the game. He also gave the Pirates a 3-2 lead, when he homered to opposite field in the 3rd inning. To put is simply, Garrett was a monster out there. He also made several fantastic plays in Right Field, including a catch that saved two runs. Zach Duke’s line may not have been the most dominant ever, he went 5 innings and gave up 2 runs, but he did his job well and kept the Dodgers in check.

In the middle innings, the Pirates pulled away on a Ryan Church pinch-hit, 3 run double to take an eventual 8-2 lead. The middle relief was a little shakey as they gave up 3 runs to let the Dodgers back into the game going into the 8th inning. Then Ryan Doumit came up to bat with 2-men on base and hit a towering HR to give the Pirates an 11-5 lead, that they never gave up. The Pirates defeated the Los Angelas Dodgers by a score of 11-5. A very dominant start to the 2010 season.

Overall, it was a very good opening day experience, and it’s always good to start the season with a win. Once again, the Pirates will host the Dodgers tonight, and I will once again be in attendance. You will get to see more live blogging, as I really enjoyed doing it, and hopefully, the updates were worthwhile. I look forward to seeing Ross Ohlendorf pitch for the first time this season, and I hope the Pirates continue to play well. The most beautiful thing to remember is, it’s baseball season folks, and it doesn’t get any better than that.