Hudson Opens by Pitching A’s to Victory

Forget the sophomore jinx for Tim Hudson.

Last year’s rookie pitching sensation opened his second season by holding the Detroit Tigers hitless for 6 1/3 innings en route to a 3-1 victory for the Athletics Tuesday night at Oakland.

Hudson allowed only one hit--Tony Clark’s double to the left-center field gap on the right-hander’s 100th pitch.

Hudson (1-0), who went 11-2 last year to finish with the highest winning percentage ever by an Oakland rookie, struck out eight and walked three in the A’s first win of the season.

He left after seven scoreless innings and T.J. Mathews worked the eighth.

Clark had Detroit’s only two hits. He singled in the ninth to set up a run that scored on Jason Isringhausen’s wild pitch.

A crowd of 10,188 watched the A’s win a day after a record 53,498 fans attended the opener.

Minnesota 6, Tampa Bay 5--The Twins have been saying all spring that they are an improved team and they backed that up by rallying for two runs in the ninth inning against Roberto Hernandez to beat the Devil Rays at Minneapolis.

Last season, Minnesota was 1-87 when trailing after eight innings.

“Whatever the stats were on comebacks in 1999, this is a new year,” said Minnesota’s Jacque Jones, who went three for four with two RBIs. “Baseball is strange that way. We hope to do a lot of things differently this year.”

Minnesota tied the score at 5-5 on a two-base error by second baseman Miguel Cairo on Todd Walker’s grounder, followed by Cristian Guzman’s RBI double.

After Matt Lawton fouled out, David Ortiz capped the rally with an RBI single to beat Hernandez (0-1), who converted 43 of 47 save chances last year.

Minnesota’s opening-night crowd of 43,830 saw few home-team highlights in a 7-0 loss. Tuesday’s crowd of 7,020 got more for its money.

Toronto 6, Kansas City 3--Before the smallest crowd in SkyDome history--13,514--Shannon Stewart hit his third home run of the season and Jose Cruz hit a two-run shot as the Blue Jays beat the Royals.

“The Raptors were playing tonight and until hockey and basketball is over, it is going to be a struggle,” Toronto Manager Jim Fregosi said. “We’ve got a good club and if we continue to win, they’ll come out.”

The previous smallest crowd at SkyDome, which opened in 1989, was 20,258 last May 4 against Oakland.

Stewart, who hit 11 home runs in 608 at-bats last season, tied it at 3-3 with a solo shot in the fifth inning. The Blue Jays leadoff man homered twice on opening day.

Cruz lined a 428-foot homer off a SkyDome restaurant window in the fourth inning.

Texas 12, Chicago 8--Rafael Palmeiro hit a three-run homer in the first inning at Arlington, Texas, and added an RBI single in a seven-run sixth to lead the Rangers over the White Sox.

So far, the Texas Rangers are coming out way ahead on the trade that sent Juan Gonzalez to Detroit. A day after Gabe Kapler starred in the opener, Frank Catalanotto hit a game-tying homer in the sixth and Francisco Cordero picked up the win.

So far, Texas fans are asking, “Juan who?”

“We hope they do,” said Catalanotto, who went two for four. “It’s great that we can contribute. Hopefully we can continue to contribute and show the trade is really going to pay off, because I think it is.”

By scoring 22 runs in their first two games, the Rangers have shown there’s plenty of pop left in their lineup even without Gonzalez, the Texas record holder in homers, RBIs and runs.

Chicago starter Kip Wells was knocked out in the fifth on an RBI single by Ruben Mate.

Catalanotto’s homer off loser Bill Simas tied the game at 6-6. Rusty Greer put Texas ahead with a bloop RBI double into left, then scored on a chopper up the middle by Palmeiro.

David Segui’s RBI groundout with one out and the bases loaded made it 9-6.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

* BERNIE WILLIAMS, New York: 3 for 4, two-run homer, 2 doubles, 3 RBIs in 5-3 victory over Angels.

* RAFAEL PALMEIRO, Texas: 2 for 4, three-run homer, 4 RBIs in 12-8 victory over Chicago.

* JACQUE JONES, Minnesota: 3 for 4, 2 RBIs in 6-5 victory over Tampa Bay.

* GABE KAPLER, Texas: 3 for 5, double in 12-8 victory over Chicago.

*

PITCHING

* PEDRO MARTINEZ, Boston: 7 innings, 2 hits, 11 strikeouts in 2-0 victory over Seattle.

* TIM HUDSON, Oakland: 7 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 8 strikeouts in 3-1 victory over Detroit.

* ROY HALLADAY, Toronto: 7 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs in 6-3 victory over Kansas City.