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Dan Haren of the Los Angeles Angels will be looking to change his fortunes around when he gets the nod tonight against the Seattle Mariners (10:10 ET). He enters having lost four straight starts for the second time in his career, having previously done it in 2005. While Haren does have a 5.79 ERA in that stretch, the Angels have managed a total of two runs in those four games.

The Angels are 1-8 in his nine starts, and only Haren and Chris Volstad of the Chicago Cubs have seen their team lose eight of their starts this season. In addition, only teammate Ervin Santana has received worse support in the AL. The Angels have scored more than three runs just once in Haren's nine starts.

Ike Davis Slumping
The New York Mets are four games over .500 despite Ike Davis having one of the worst seasons in the majors. Davis has the second-lowest batting average among qualifying players, including a .065 average at home, and based on WAR, Davis is the least valuable player in the majors.

When he is making contact this year, Davis has seen a very high percentage of his balls in play turn to outs. Among all players this season, Davis' .188 batting average on balls in play is the lowest.

Last year, Davis found considerable success against the fastball, batting .343 with an OPS of 1.100. This year, those numbers have dropped to .157 and .448.

Other Key Notes
- Ichiro Suzuki was just 2-18 vs Dan Haren last season. He's a .227 career batter vs Haren.
- Hunter Pence is 7-12 (.583) in his career vs Jake Westbrook.
- Philip Humber has a 7.86 ERA since his perfect game.
- Albert Pujols has 3 HR, 8 RBI in his last nine games.
- Cincinnati Reds have a season-high five-game win streak.

The Tampa Bay Rays inched closer to the top of the AL East standings with a dramatic 5-4, extra-inning walk-off win against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rays victory coupled with the Orioles’ loss earlier means Tampa Bay is just a game back in the division after Wednesday’s games.

This was the Rays’ fourth walk-off win of the season, which is the most among AL teams. B.J. Upton delivered the game-winning hit with an RBI double in the bottom of the 11th inning.

It was his fifth career walk-off hit, and four of those have now come against the Blue Jays. The only other Rays player with a walk-off double in the 11th inning or later was Greg Vaughn against the A’s in 2002.

James Shields held Toronto to three runs in seven innings while striking out 10 batters for his second 10-strikeout game this season.

He was effective getting the Blue Jays to chase his pitches, recording 26 swings on 50 pitches out of the strike zone (52 percent), his highest chase rate since 2009.

All 10 of his strikeouts were swinging, and nine came in at-bats ending in a changeup, his most with that pitch over the last four seasons. The Blue Jays went 1-for-13 in at-bats ending in Shields’ changeup and missed on more than half of their swings at the pitch.

The Blue Jays probably wish they didn’t have to play the Rays 10 more times this season. Toronto is now 2-6 versus Tampa Bay and 22-15 versus all other teams this season.

Elsewhere Around The Majors
•  The offensive struggles continued for both the Oakland A’s and Pittsburgh Pirates this season. The two teams have been held to one run or fewer in 14 games, the most among all teams.

The last time the A’s had 14 games of one run or fewer in their first 45 games was 1979 (18), and the last time the Pirates had 14 games of one run or fewer in their first 44 games was 1918 (14).

• Jonathon Niese helped the New York Mets beat the Pirates, 3-1, allowing one run in 7⅔ innings. Niese threw 29 pitches on the inner-third of the plate, netting 11 outs and allowing just one hit in at-bats ending with a pitch in that location.

• Alex Liddi hit his first career grand slam in the Seattle Mariners’ 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers. It was the first grand slam at home by a Mariners player since July 2010. Liddi is the second Italian-born player to hit a grand slam, joining Reno Bertoia, who had one in 1958.

• The Milwaukee Brewers scored six runs in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants and held on for an 8-5 win. The six runs are the most in the first inning for any NL team this season and the most first-inning runs for the Brewers since a 10-run frame on April 18, 2010.

When the Chicago White Sox acquired Jake Peavy toward the end of the 2009 season, they anticipated they were getting a Cy Young-caliber pitcher.

Turns out, they had to wait three years for that to happen.

In his seventh start this year, Peavy held the Cleveland Indians to one run in seven innings of work, improving to 4-1 this season with a 1.89 ERA.

His fast start is comparable to the one he had during his Cy Young Award-winning season in 2007, when he also started 4-1, with an even-lower 1.75 ERA.

But the 2012 version of Peavy is much different than in past seasons.

In 2007, Peavy's fastball averaged 93.9 mph. This season? 91.0 mph. In fact, his fastest pitch all season topped out at 93.5 mph.

To make up for a decline in velocity, Peavy has exercised control. Among American League starting pitchers, Peavy's strikeout-to-walk ratio of 6.29 is tops. Peavy's never finished a season with a strikeout-walk ratio higher than 4.32 (2005).

On Wednesday, Peavy got the Indians out of character, getting them to expand their strike zone, something they’ve done less often than any team in baseball this season.

The Indians swung at 23 of Peavy’s 56 pitches out of the zone (41 percent), their highest chase percentage against any starter this season. This season, the Indians have the lowest chase percentage in baseball (21.7 percent).

NEW YORK MINUTE
• With a hit in his first at-bat Wednesday, Derek Jeter became the first player in New York Yankees history with at least 50 hits in the team’s first 30 games of a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Looking way ahead, if Jeter plays 148 games this season, at his current pace, he would finish this season with 197 hits. That would give him 3,285 career hits, which would put him two past Willie Mays for 11th on the all-time list.

If he maintained a 197-hit season pace, Jeter would get his 4,000th career hit sometime around the All-Star break of the 2016 season. He still would not pass Pete Rose on the all-time hits list until sometime toward the end of the 2017 season, when he'd be 43 years old and would end that season with 4,270 hits. Rose has 4,256 career hits.

• The New York Mets swept the Philadelphia Phillies on the road and they trailed in each of the three games. It's only the third time in franchise history the Mets won a road series of three or more games despite trailing in each of those games, according to Elias.

The others were in July 1986 at Cincinnati (3-0) and August-September 1987 at San Diego (3-0).

Jordany Valdespin's first career hit couldn't have come at a better time. With the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies tied at two in the top of the ninth inning, Valdespin golfed a splitter from Jonathan Papelbon over the fence, snapping a streak of six straight hitless at-bats to begin his MLB career.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Valdespin is the first player whose first career hit was a go-ahead HR in the ninth inning or later since Miguel Cabrera on June 20, 2003. He's the first player to record his first career hit via a pinch-hit go-ahead HR in the ninth inning or later since Steve Sisco for the Atlanta Braves on May 13, 2000 (also against the Phillies). While Cabrera has gone on to hit more than 280 HR in the majors, Sisco's HR was the only one of his short MLB career.

Papelbon earned his first loss as a member of the Phillies and allowed at least three runs in a game for the first time since June 4 of last year. Papelbon had good reason to think that Valdespin wouldn't be able to do much with the splitter that ended up in the bleachers. Entering Monday, opponents were just 2-13 (.154) against Papelbon's split-finger fastball this season.

Roy Halladay's streak of eight straight wins against the Mets came to an end after he allowed two runs on five hits over seven innings. After winning his first three starts of 2012, the Phillies have now lost four straight starts by Halladay for the first time since he came to Philadelphia in 2010. Halladay has a 5.13 ERA in those games after having a 1.17 ERA in his first three starts of the season.

Elsewhere in the majors on Monday:

• Philip Humber struggled for a third straight start, allowing eight runs and failing to reach the fourth inning as the Chicago White Sox fell to the Cleveland Indians 8-6. Since throwing the 21st perfect game in MLB history on April 21, Humber is now 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in his last three starts. According to Elias, Humber's 20 runs allowed in that span are the most by any pitcher in his first three starts after a perfect game since 1900.

• Brandon Snyder, who entered Monday with five total RBI in 27 career games, drove in a game-high six runs in the Texas Rangers 14-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Snyder became the first player to drive in at least six runs from the eighth spot in the order since Jorge Posada on August 13 last season.

• The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 11-5, improving to 12-16 on the season. Despite their subpar record, Monday was the MLB-leading eighth time the Red Sox scored 10 or more runs in a game this season. Baseball-reference.com tells us Boston is the fourth team to score 10 or more runs eight times in its first 28 games of a season in the live-ball era (since 1920), joining the 1997 Rockies, 1950 Yankees and 1928 Athletics.

The New York Mets face the Philadelphia Phillies tonight (ESPN, 7 ET) with Roy Halladay getting the nod for Philadelphia.

A key tonight will be Halladay's velocity, which has decreased significantly over the last several seasons. In 2010, Halladay's cutter averaged 91.3 miles per hour. This season, it has dipped to 88.9.

His sinker has also suffered the same fate. In 2009, his sinker averaged 92.6 mph and topped out at 95.8. In 2012, that average is at 90.6 with a max of 92.8.

No pitcher in baseball has thrown more innings than Halladay in the regular season since 2006, and he has the most complete games of any active pitcher, 16 more than the next-closest.

Tonight's opponent has yet to solve Halladay, however. Since joining the Phillies in 2010, Halladay is 7-0 with a 1.68 ERA in seven starts against the Mets. He has posted a 1.66 ERA with 15 strikeouts and just one walk in three starts at Citi Field, and he didn’t allow a run in two of those starts. He has never allowed a home run to a current Mets batter.

Halladay is also 20-3 against the NL East since the Phillies acquired him with a 2.24 ERA and a K-to-BB ratio of 8.39.

His opponent tonight, Jonathon Niese, is off to a relatively strong start this season thanks to his opponents' batting average on balls in play. Last season it was .344, the highest in the majors. This year it's down to .250, lower than 97 other pitchers.

Niese is allowing runs mainly because he's having trouble keeping the ball in the ballpark. He has a groundball-to-flyball ratio of 1.10, the same as 2011, but last season only seven percent of fly balls he allowed were home runs. This season, that's up to 10.8 percent.

A key matchup tonight will be Niese against Placido Polanco, as Polanco is 10-24 (.417) against Niese.

Stats & Info insights into this morning's top sports stories.

1. CLIPPERS MAKE HISTORIC COMEBACK: The Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies, 99-98, in Game One of their First-Round series. The Clippers trailed by 21 points at the end of the third quarter. The win tied the shot-clock era playoff record for the largest deficit overcome at the end of the third quarter. (2002 Boston Celtics vs New Jersey Nets)

2. BYNUM RECORDS TRIPLE-DOUBLE IN WIN: Andrew Bynum recorded a triple-double (10 Pts, 13 Reb, 10 Blk) in the Los Angeles Lakers 103-88 win over the Denver Nuggets in Game One on Sunday. According to Elias, was the first triple-double by a center in an NBA playoff game since May 7, 1993, when David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs (20 points, 17 rebounds, 11 assists) did it against the Portland Trail Blazers.

3. RONDO EJECTED, CELTICS DEJECTED: Rajon Rondo was ejected for bumping a referee during the fourth quarter of the Celtics 83-74 Game One loss to the Atlanta Hawks. NEXT LEVEL: If Rondo is suspended, the Celtics offense will likely take a hit. The Celtics averaged over seven points more per 100 possessions with Rondo on the floor this season compared to when he was off the floor or out.

4. RAYS ROMP RANGERS IN SERIES: The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Texas Rangers, 5-2, taking two of three games in their weekend series against the defending AL champions. According to Elias, the Rangers had won each of their seven previous series this season, tying them for the second-longest streak of consecutive series wins to begin a season for a team that had gone to the World Series the previous year. The 1907 Chicago Cubs won their first 11 series and the 2003 San Francisco Giants won their first seven.

5. METS WIN A CLOSE ONE: The New York Mets defeated the Colorado Rockies, 6-5 in 11 innings. According to Elias, it was the second victory in franchise history in which the Mets allowed a pair of game-tying home runs in the 8th inning or later. The other was New York's classic 19-inning, 16-13 win at the Atlanta Braves on July 4, 1985.

Albert Pujols continues to struggle since joining the Los Angeles Angels, going 0-for-3 on Wednesday as the Angels lost 3-2 to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Pujols has not recorded a hit in his last 19 at-bats. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the longest hitless streak of his major-league career. He failed to get a hit in 18 consecutive at-bats from August to September in 2010. It is only the fourth time in his career that Pujols has gone more than 15 straight at-bats without a hit.

Dating to last season, he has failed to hit a home run in his last 24 regular-season games, the second-longest streak in his career. Pujols had 26 straight games without a home run last season.

The home run drought to start the season has reached 72 at-bats. Pujols hit 37 homers last year for the St. Louis Cardinals. Elias reports that his season-opening drought is the second-longest to begin a season by a player who hit at least 35 home runs for a different team the previous season. After hitting 46 home runs for the Washington Nationals in 2006, Alfonso Soriano didn’t hit a homer until his 75th at-bat for the Chicago Cubs in 2007.

The problem for Pujols this season has been offspeed pitches. After hitting .302 with 12 home runs against such pitches last season, he is just 3-for-31 with no extra-base hits so far this year. His batting average against offspeed pitches was ninth in the majors last year; so far this year, he’s barely in the top 200.

He has been struggling to hold off on slow pitches outside the strike zone. After chasing only 28 percent of offspeed pitches outside the strike zone last year, he has swung on 31 of 62 such pitches so far this year. Two of his three hits against offspeed pitches this season are on pitches outside the strike zone … on those inside the zone, he is just 1-for-19.

Around the Diamond
• Clay Buchholz allowed five earned runs in 5⅓ innings against the Minnesota Twins. He’s the only Boston Red Sox pitcher in the Live Ball Era to allow at least five earned runs in each of his first four appearances in a season.

• Robbie Ross picked up another win in relief for the Texas Rangers. Ross is the first pitcher in major-league history to record four wins in the first six appearances of his career as a relief pitcher.

• David Wright hit a two-run homer in sixth inning to move past Darryl Strawberry for the most RBI in New York Mets history. Strawberry had 733 for the club, and Wright now has 735.

• Jordan Zimmermann allowed a run in the fifth inning for the Nationals, snapping a franchise-record 26-inning scoreless streak for Nationals starting pitchers.

• Pablo Sandoval extended his hitting streak to 18 games. That ties the Giants franchise record for longest hit streak to start a season. Johnny Rucker hit safely in 18 straight games to start the 1945 season.

Ryan Feldman contributed to this post

Jose Reyes returns to Flushing, NY to face his former team, the New York Mets, starting tonight at Citi Field as the Miami Marlins begin a three-game set against the Mets.

Reyes began his career in the Mets organization before signing a six-year, $106 million deal with the Marlins this past offseason.

Reyes ranks in the top three in several career categories in Mets history: first in runs (735), triples (99) and steals (370); second in hits (1,300) and third in doubles (222).

With a healthy Reyes in the lineup, the Mets were a much different team, winning over 53 percent of the time, compared to a .437 win percentage without him in the lineup.

Check out the article written by ESPN The Magazine’s Jorge Arangure Jr. about Reyes and his return to New York.

Early Morning Baseball in Japan
The New York Yankees and Texas Rangers play the second game of their three-game set in Arlington tonight with Hiroki Kuroda facing off against Yu Darvish at 8:05 pm ET (9:05 am Wednesday in Japan).

This is just the seventh time that two Japanese pitchers have started against each other in MLB history and the first time since July 22, 2010 when Kuroda (the pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers) pitched against the Mets Hisanori Takahashi.

The two starting pitchers – who never faced each other in Japan – have had some struggles this season. Kuroda, who spent his first four years in the majors pitching for the Dodgers, is limiting right-handed batters to a .133 average (4-for-30). However, lefties are hitting .432 (19-for-44).

Darvish allowed four runs to the Seattle Mariners in the first inning of his first MLB start (April 9), but has allowed only four runs COMBINED in his 16⅔ innings pitched since (two starts).

A Look Back at Last Night
• During the Yankees 7-4 win over the Rangers, Derek Jeter went 4-for-5 with a double and RBI.

That was Jeter’s 42nd career four-hit game and the first time he’s had two four-hit games in April in his career (went 4-for-4 against the Baltimore Orioles on April 9).

On July 9, 2011, Jeter went 5-for-5 against the Tampa Bay Rays and in the process registered his 3,000th hit. Including that game, Jeter has hit .354 in his last 81 games. Among players with at 100 plate appearances since July 9, 2011, only three other players have a higher batting average.

In his previous 81 games (Sept. 17, 2010 to July 8, 2011), Jeter had batted just .274

• The Kansas City Royals lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1, the Royals 11th straight home loss dating back to last season (the longest home losing streak in franchise history).

Kansas City finished its homestand 0-10. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only two other teams in major-league history went 0-10 or worse on a homestand: the Seattle Pilots (a first-year expansion team that became the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970) lost all 10 games of a homestand in August 1969; and the Arizona Diamondbacks went 0-11 on a homestand in July of 2004.

• The Chicago Cubs scored its first walk-off win of the season by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 on Joe Mather's two-run single in the bottom of the ninth, his second career walk-off hit.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us over the last 20 years the Cubs had only one other home win against St. Louis after trailing in the ninth inning or later. That occurred on May 29, 1999, with a ninth-inning rally that featured a game-tying home run by Glenallen Hill and a walkoff double by Mark Grace. Mather became the first former Cardinals player to have a walk-off RBI for the Cubs against St. Louis since Jerry Morales on September 22, 1981.

Nate Jones contributed to this post

One of the greatest improvements Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick made from 2010 to 2011 was his effectiveness against left-handed batters. As a right-handed pitcher, it was an issue for him in 2010 as they hit .312 with a .902 OPS and strikeout rate of just under 10 percent. In 2011, those numbers improved to .234 BA, .763 OPS and a 13.0 percent strikeout rate. And entering Monday, his 2012 performance against left-handers had continued to improve, with a .200 BA, .585 OPS and a strikeout rate north of 15 percent. And then the Arizona Diamondbacks came along.

Monday's action stopped Kendrick's improving trend right in its tracks. The Diamondbacks may have been aware of the trends, but they may have been paying attention to a different one - in four career appearances against Arizona, Kendrick had allowed a line of .357/.379/.607 (BA/OBP/SLG) to left-handed hitters, compared to a .234/.333/.404 line against right-handers. On Monday, left-handed batters registered four hits in eight at-bats against Kendrick, including two extra-base hits.

It becomes additionally painful when one considers who was supposed to start Monday's game - Cliff Lee. Not only has Lee held Diamondbacks lefties to a .229/.222/.314 line in his career, very few pitchers have been tougher on lefties overall since Lee came to the National League - he ranks fourth among starters in opponents batting average (.191) and second in OPS (.501).

For some historical perspective on just how ineffective Kendrick's start was, consider that he became the first Phillies starter to allow 10 or more hits and and seven or more earned runs in three or fewer innings pitched since Mike Mimbs did so on May 11, 1996. In fact, it's only the fourth time it's been done since 1980.

Sabathia leaning on slider: CC Sabathia's slider was effective on Monday against the Texas Rangers – he threw it to register six of his eight strikeouts. Sabathia threw a total of 34 sliders, increasing the number of times he's used the pitch for the third consecutive start. It also continues a multi-year trend of increased slider usage; Sabathia threw it 12.9 percent of the time in 2010, 22.9 percent last season and 27.3 percent this season. The merits of such an increase can be debated, but what cannot be is the effectiveness it has had this season – only one qualified starting pitcher has a higher strikeout rate with the slider than Sabathia (Jered Weaver).

Lincecum velocity issues remain: Tim Lincecum’s season-long struggles with his fastball continued in the win over the New York Mets. His average velocity on the pitch continues to drop, going under 90 MPH for the first time since July 2010. Despite the issues with his fastball velocity, Lincecum threw it 70 times, which is 21 more than he used it in his previous 2012 high.

Overall, his average fastball velocity now stands at 90.1 this season, compared to 92.2 last season. He has yet to hit above 93.1 miles per hour this season, whereas he topped out at 96.6 last season.

Philip Humber became the 21st pitcher in major-league history to toss a perfect game as the Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 4-0 on Saturday afternoon.

It was the third perfect game in White Sox history. That ties the club with the New York Yankees with the most perfect games in MLB history. With Don Larsen throwing a perfect game in the World Series for the Yankees, the White Sox are the only franchise with three in the regular season.

Humber became the fourth pitcher to toss a perfect game in the last four seasons. Roy Halladay and Dallas Braden threw perfect games in 2010 after Mark Buehrle threw one for the White Sox in 2009.

It was the first complete game of his career, and he tied a career high with nine strikeouts.

In fact, Humber became one of the least experienced pitchers to toss a perfect game. This was his 30th start and 12th victory of his career. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only one pitcher - Charlie Robertson in 1922 - had fewer wins and starts before retiring all 27 batters since 1900.

He recorded a game score of 96, the second-highest for the White Sox since the mound was lowered in 1969. Game score rates pitchers based on box score statistics, typically ranging from 0 to 100 with an average near 50.

Humber did not go to a three-ball count until the 9th inning. He was able to recover from both, striking out Michael Saunders and Brendan Ryan. His strikeout of Saunders was the first in Humber’s career after falling behind 3-0 in the count.

One key to Humber’s success was his slider. He threw 32 sliders against the Mariners, including 15 that ended at-bats with an out. Six of his nine strikeouts were on the slider, including both in the ninth inning. He induced batters to chase eight of 17 sliders outside the zone and miss on seven of 19 swings overall.

After throwing his slider on 5 of 37 pitches (14 percent) the first time through the order, he threw 27 on 59 pitches (46 percent) the rest of the game.

Around the Bases
• With Matt Harrison's win in the first game of their doubleheader, Texas Rangers starting pitchers improved to 10-0 this season. According to Elias, it is the first time in franchise history that their starters won their first 10 decisions. The last time it happened for any team was 2003, when the Yankees (16) and San Francisco Giants (10) each reached double figures.

• After blowing a three-run lead in the top of the 9th inning, the New York Mets won on a throwing error by Giants catcher Buster Posey. Elias confirms that it was the first win in Mets history in which the game ended on an error by the opposing catcher.

• The Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Ian Desmond. It was their third walk-off win of the season, tops in the majors.

Justin Verlander found himself in a familiar position after the eighth inning with a two-run lead on Monday night against the Kansas City Royals.

Unlike his two previous starts when he and the Detroit Tigers bullpen blew leads in the ninth inning, Verlander went the distance this time and made sure he got his first win of the season. Verlander threw 131 pitches, one shy of his career high, and now has an MLB-best 33 120-pitch games since 2010.

Verlander this season has allowed one earned run in the first eight innings of his three starts, and five earned runs in the ninth inning. Prior to this year, he had allowed just one earned run in the ninth inning in his first seven seasons combined.

Verlander cranked up the heat in the final frame, averaging 97.5 mph with his fastball. He threw four heaters to Alex Gordon in the last at-bat, and each one hit 100 on the radar gun. Those were the four fastest pitches he threw the entire game.

Since 2009, Justin Verlander has the highest average fastball velocity for any starter in the ninth inning. He is the only starter in that time frame to throw a pitch over 100 mph in the ninth inning.

Verlander also had success getting ahead and finishing off the Royals batters. He allowed just one hit in 17 at-bats that reached a two-strike count, and this season opponents are now hitting .073 (3-41) with two strikes against Verlander.

Big Game shuts out Red Sox
James “Big Game” Shields lived up to his nickname on Patriots Day in Boston, tossing 8⅓ scoreless innings as the Tampa Bay Rays avoided the sweep against the Boston Red Sox with a 1-0 win this afternoon.

Shields allowed just four hits – all singles – as he shut down a Red Sox offense that had averaged more than 10 runs per game in the first three games of the series. This was just the third 1-0 shutout by the Rays over the Red Sox and all three have come at Fenway Park.

Shields heavily featured his slider against Boston, throwing it 41 times, and using it to get 10 outs. Both of those are his most in any start over the last three seasons. He had thrown just 28 sliders in his first two outings this season and recorded only five outs in nine at-bats with the pitch.

Around the Diamond
• The Minnesota Twins beat the New York Yankees for just the sixth time in 34 regular-season games in the Bronx since Ron Gardenhire’s first season as Twins manager in 2002. Justin Morneau homered and now has five home runs in 11 career games at the new Yankee Stadium. He has five homers in 80 games at Target Field.

• Dillon Gee pitched seven innings of one-run ball as the New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves 6-1. Gee recorded 11 groundball outs, one shy of his career-best, and induced grounders on 65 percent of balls hit into play, the highest groundball rate in a game in his career.

The San Francisco Giants won for the first time in four games this season behind the arm of Barry Zito, who threw a shutout against the Colorado Rockies. He was just the second visiting left-handed pitcher to throw a shutout at Coors Field, joining Tom Glavine who did it twice.

Zito hadn’t thrown a shutout since April 18, 2003. He made 274 starts between shutouts, the longest streak between shutouts in major-league history. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the third-longest streak of consecutive streaks without a shutout, but Tim Wakefield and Kirk Reuter both ended their careers without breaking the streak.

Darvish overcomes shaky start
Yu Darvish struggled early in his debut for the Texas Rangers, allowing four runs and seven runners to reach base (four hits, three walks) in the first inning. He settled down after that, allowing a single run on four hits and a walk in his final 4⅔ innings. With the Rangers scoring 11 runs, Darvish was able to pick up the win.

It’s the second straight season that Darvish had some trouble shaking off the rust in the opener. In his first start with the Nippon Ham Fighters last year, he allowed seven runs in seven innings. In his other 28 starts, he didn’t allow more than three runs in a game.

Quick hits
• The Atlanta Braves fell to 0-4 for the first time since 1988, when they lost their first 10 games. Dating to last season, the Braves have lost nine straight games.

• Daniel Murphy recorded his second career walk-off hit as the New York Mets improved to 4-0 for the fourth time in franchise history.

• Homer Bailey allowed three home runs to the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning. It was the second time in his career that he allowed three homers in a game. The last time the Cardinals hit three home runs in the opening frame was a loss to the Chicago Cubs on July 24, 2005.

• Derek Jeter and Matt Wieters each recorded four hits in the New York Yankees win over the Baltimore Orioles. It was the 41st time that Jeter recorded at least four hits in a game but just the second time for Wieters.

• The Boston Red Sox scored three runs in the ninth inning to avoid starting back-to-back seasons at 0-4 for the first time in franchise history.

• Starlin Castro went 0-for-5, snapping his streak of reaching base safely at 43 games. That was one short of the most for the Cubs in the Live Ball Era (since 1920). Riggs Stephenson reach base safely in 44 straight games in 1928.

Pitching was the story of the day as opening week continued with 13 teams playing their first game of the season.

After Kyle Lohse tossed a gem on Wednesday, Roy Halladay, Justin Verlander, Justin Masterson and Ryan Dempster all allowed two or fewer hits while throwing at least 7 innings. Even with 13 teams yet to make their 2012 debut, this is the first time in the Modern Era (since 1900) that there have been five season-opening starts to meet that threshold. According to Elias, the previous high was three in 1910.

The New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds all opened their season today by throwing shutouts. Elias points out that the last time there were three shutouts thrown by teams that opened their season on the same day was April 9, 1976. That season, the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals all pitched Opening Day shutouts.

The Miami Marlins became the first team with two losses this season and have managed a single run on seven hits in their two games. From Elias, they are the first team with that low an offensive output in their first two games since 1993. That season, the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies each had one run on six hits after two games.

Not all of the pitching news was good. Justin Verlander was denied a win after pitching 8 shutout innings after Jose Valverde blew a save for the first time since Sept. 2, 2010. Valverde was 49-for-49 in save opportunities last season and had converted 51 in a row dating back to 2010.

Going Long
The highest scoring game of the day was the Toronto Blue Jays' 7-4 win over the Cleveland Indians. But that won’t be what the game is remembered for.

The game wasn’t decided until J.P. Arencibia hit a three-run home run in the top of the 16th inning. Elias confirmed that this was the longest season opener in MLB history. The Indians have the dubious distinction of losing two of the three season openers that lasted at least 15 innings. In the other, Walter Johnson threw a 15-inning complete game as the Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics.

Going Deep
The wait for a National League home run is finally over. Jay Bruce hit a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth as the Reds beat the Marlins. Four NL games had been completed before Bruce went deep, and his homer came in the 44th NL inning of the season.

After nearly winning the MVP Award last season, Matt Kemp added to his legend in the season opener this year. Kemp became the first right-handed hitter with two opposite field home runs at Petco Park since the start of the 2009 season.

The American League East, after a fairly quiet offseason, remains ahead of the field using the formula to rate baseball’s six divisions that the ESPN Stats & Information Group rolled out in 2011.

The formula accounts for four different variables that measure team and divisional strength: ESPN.com power rankings, non-divisional win percentage, strength of schedule and individual player rankings.

Each team is given a score from 4 to 120, based on those four variables (1-30 for each variable), and the total score is averaged by the number of teams in each division.

Based upon these ratings, the American League East was the strongest division at the end of the 2011 regular season with an average of 83.2 points. The National League East was second, nearly 15 points behind the AL East.

For much of 2011, both East divisions battled for the top spot in the rankings, but the American League East took a commanding lead in August and never was overtaken. The Florida Marlins, New York Mets and Washington Nationals combined to go 24-37 in non-divisional games last August. Even with the collapse of the Boston Red Sox in September, the NL East could not recover from a weak August.

Looking ahead to 2012, the American League West and Central divisions have gained ground on the top divisions -- thanks in large part to the additions of Albert Pujols (Los Angeles Angels) and Prince Fielder (Detroit Tigers). Both the AL West and Central divisions benefited from their arrivals -- both divisions have jumped 1.8 points since last season.

The AL East still remains far ahead of the other divisions after a fairly quiet offseason. Three of the top six and four of the top 12 teams in the ESPN.com preseason power rankings reside in the AL East, validating the strength of the division.

Even with the reigning World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, the National League Central is ranked as the weakest division heading into 2012. The division lost Pujols and Fielder, two of last season's top 12 hitters, according to ESPN’s Player Rater.

Expect the next edition of the divisional rankings to look drastically different, as many teams open the season against non-divisional opponents. Highlighted by Wednesday night’s matchup between the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins (ESPN, 7 ET), the first week of the season is filled with divisional and inter-divisional matchups of power teams sure to alter future rankings.

The New York Mets, the recipient of so much bad news over the past couple of seasons, got some good news on Tuesday with the return to the mound of ace starter Johan Santana.

Santana, who did not pitch for the Mets in 2011 due to a shoulder injury , threw 29 pitches and allowed one hit in two scoreless innings in the Mets win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Here’s a quick statistical snapshot of his performance, based on video review data from Inside Edge.

• Santana threw 23 fastballs, ranging from 86 to 89 miles-per-hour, averaging 87. In 2010, Santana’s fastball averaged just over 89 miles-per-hour.

• Santana threw 15 of those 23 fastballs for strikes, including 8-of-9 to left-handed hitters.

• Santana’s other six pitches were four changeups and two sliders and he threw two of his six offspeed pitches for strikes. He typically threw those pitches for strikes about two-thirds of the time in 2009 and 2010.

• Santana got a pair of swings-and-misses- one on an 88-mile-per-hour fastball to Matt Holliday, the other on a 77 mile-per-hour changeup to Yadier Molina that Molina told the media looked like a vintage Santana changeup.

Santana’s changeup historically has been a huge key to his past success. In 2009 and 2010, Santana got 286 swings-and-misses on his changeup, fourth-most of any pitcher in baseball.