[Nick Soulis]

Opening Night Shines For Mets

Sunday, April 4th, 2010
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
New York (N) Mets	0	0	0	3	1	5	0	2	0	11	11	3
Washington Nationals	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	5	8	10	1

Washington DC - A special night in Washington DC as the Cooperstown Baseball League opened its season and the best to ever play now have a showcase to play in the ultimate baseball league.

A beautiful jet flyover and a stunning National Anthem sung by Alicia Keys. President Barak Obama then threw out the first pitch and the legendary Walter Johnson took the mound. Opposing Johnson in this one was Tom Seaver, Seaver and the Mets were again out to prove that they could be a force in this division.

Jose Reyes flew out to Tim Raines in left and the season is now official. This day in the end would belong to the Mets who came after Johnson with mostly the long ball.

Trailing 1-0 in the 4th inning Lenny Dykstra hammered a Johnson fastball to right field over the fence for a three run home run. Johnson was being clocked as high as 104 miles an hour so the ball jumped off the bat. After five inning Felipe Alou took Johnson out of the game and went to his bullpen, and this is where things got away.

The Mets scored five runs in the 6th off Tim Burke as Mike Piazza singled in two and then Jeff Kent doubled in two more. Kent had a huge night as he homered in the 8th and ended the night with 4 RBI. Dykstra drove in three himself and by the 9th inning it was an 11-3 lead.

For the Nationals Marquis Grissom had the big day including making the game quite respectable as he hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth with two men out. The shot forced John Franco to come in and close the door for the save.

It was clear the Mets had a point to prove in their opener. Tom Seaver is going to be the leader of this staff and team but too many games remain to take anything from this one. Doc Gooden faces Pedro Madrtinez in game two of this series.