Calm Victory for Mets

No brawls, beanballs or even brushbacks Tuesday between the Nationals and Mets.

No sellout and no bouncing stands, either, at Washington’s home opener, which was much more low-key in just about every way than last season, when big league baseball returned after a 34-year absence to plenty of fanfare.

The announced crowd of 40,530 -- more than 5,000 shy of capacity -- didn’t have much reason to cheer. Rookie Brian Bannister shut down Washington’s struggling offense for his first major league victory, and Carlos Beltran homered off the facing of the upper deck, leading the Mets past the Nationals, 7-1.

“This is a team that is built to win,” said Bannister, whose father, Floyd, pitched in the majors. “I knew my role was to come in here and to lay low, to just eat up innings, to pitch any game they needed me to pitch, and to just give this team a chance to win every time. It wasn’t to come in here and take over the show.”

But he did precisely that Tuesday, giving up three hits without a walk over seven innings. The lone run he gave up was on Alfonso Soriano’s homer in the seventh.

During the teams’ series at Shea Stadium last week, seven batters were hit -- six by Met pitchers -- and a near-fight ensued. National right-hander Felix Rodriguez and Manager Frank Robinson were suspended by Major League Baseball; before Tuesday’s game, Robinson said, both managers were told umpires would watch all season for any sign of trouble when the NL East rivals meet.

“It was basically a warning: They have control of the game. It’s up to them. It’s what they feel about a certain pitch, and they don’t have to wait to put in a warning,” Robinson said. “Word is, there’s bad blood between the two ballclubs, and every time we play they’re going to put out a warning to the umpires.”

Cincinnati 9, Chicago 2 -- Bronson Arroyo had no homers in his first six major league seasons. Now the Cincinnati pitcher has two in one week.

Arroyo pitched seven shutout innings and hit one of Cincinnati’s six homers, and Edwin Encarnacion connected for a grand slam at Chicago.

San Diego 9, Florida 3 -- Khalil Greene drove in four runs with two homers at Miami as the Padres spoiled the Marlins’ home opener.

The Padres, who scored a major league-low 19 runs last week, ended a four-game losing streak.

Colorado 6, Arizona 5 -- Brad Hawpe fell a single shy of hitting for the cycle and drove in four runs at Phoenix.

Todd Helton drove in two runs with his first homer of the season for the Rockies, who were coming off a sweep at San Diego.

Houston at San Francisco -- The game was rained out and will be made up as part of a doubleheader Thursday.