Busy Opening Day/Night

Yesterday was Opening Day/Night for most of MLB. With all that action underway and many players getting their first taste of "for real" action, there was bound to be a number of box score nuggets to find.

Almost Cycles
Three players came within one hit of completing a cycle with Kosuke Fukudome almost completing one in his first career MLB game. All three players came up short by a triple:

                    AB  R   H  RBI  BB  K  LOB
K. Fukudome rf      3   1   3   3   1   0   0

2B - K Fukudome (1, B Sheets).
HR - K Fukudome (1, 9th inning off E Gagne 2 on, 0 Out).

                   AB  R   H  RBI  BB  K  LOB
J. Dye rf           4   2   3   1   1   1   0

2B - J Dye (1, C Sabathia).
HR - J Dye (1, 9th inning off J Borowski 0 on, 1 Out).

                   AB  R   H  RBI  BB  K  LOB
X. Nady rf          7   4   4   4   0   2   5

2B - X Nady (1, C Resop).
HR - X Nady 2 (2, 8th inning off M Acosta 0 on, 0 Out,
               12th inning off B Boyer 2 on, 2 Out).

The games: Brewers/Cubs, White Sox/Indians, Pirates/Braves

Pinch Hit Home Run
It's probably every manager's dream for them to pinch hit their starting pitcher and have the pinch hitter smack a home run. At that point, who can complain about the decision, right? Bob Melvin did just that in yesterday's Diamondbacks/Reds game and Jeff Salazar came through:

                   AB  R   H  RBI  BB  K  LOB
J. Salazar ph       1   1   1   1   0   0   0

HR - J Salazar (1, 7th inning off J Burton 0 on, 2 Out).

Nobody Likes First Anymore?
In last night's Angels/Twins game, the Twins seemed to have a strong dislike for first base. They managed 10 hits for the game, two of which were double. The other eight were all singles. With half of those singles, in just 6.1 innings of the game when Jared Weaver was the pitcher, the Twins stole second base:

SB - C Gomez 2 (2, 2nd base off J Weaver/M Napoli 2),
    D Young (1, 2nd base off J Weaver/M Napoli),
    M Cuddyer (1, 2nd base off J Weaver/M Napoli).

Here We Go Offense, Here We Go
The Texas Rangers have not been known for their pitching for a while; maybe even since Nolan Ryan last pitched for them. It was only a small surprise then when every single Mariners player reached base via a hit or a walk in last night's Rangers/Mariners game. Interestingly, no player reached base more than twice through a hit or walk.