MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ply walked in the ninth inning with a chance to tie the major league record Wilmer Difo Jersey , and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-5 Friday night.Brewers manager Craig Counsell signaled for the free pass with one out and a runner on second. Cardinals fans behind the visiting dugout cheered as Goldschmidt approached the plate and booed loudly when Counsell made the move.Just 18 players have hit four homers in a game, including J.D. Martinez and Scooter Gennett in 2017.Goldschmidt had four hits and drove in five in his second game with St. Louis. The six-time All-Star was 0 for 3 with three strikeouts in his first game Thursday after an offseason trade from Arizona. Set to test free agency after this season, Goldschmidt instead signed a $130 million deal to stay with St. Louis through 2024 last weekend.John Gant (1-0) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings.Christian Yelich and Ryan Braun homered for Milwaukee. Trevor Williams (0-1) relieved and allowed Goldschmidt’s second homer.DIAMONDBACKS 5, DODGERS 4, 13 INNINGSLOS ANGELES (AP) — Pinch-hitter Carson Kelly delivered an RBI double in the 13th, and Arizona won the longest regular-season game in Dodger Stadium history.Pinch-hitter Christian Walker hit a tying three-run homer in the seventh for the Diamondbacks, who persevered to win a 6-hour, 5-minute marathon that ended early Saturday morning in just the second game of the regular season.After Nick Ahmed drew a two-out walk from Yimi Garcia (0-1) and stole second in the 13th, Kelly dropped his 19th career hit just inside the right field line.Matt Andriese (1-0) walked four and escaped several jams during 2 1/3 innings of hitless relief for Arizona. Greg Holland pitched the 13th for his first save.A.J. Pollock had four hits, including a home run, driving in three runs and reaching base five times in his second game for the Dodgers after seven seasons with Arizona.RAYS 4, ASTROS 2ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Charlie Morton was solid in his debut for Tampa Bay, pitching five innings and striking out eight against his former team.The 35-year-old right-hander, two seasons removed from helping Houston win a World Series, allowed two runs and three hits in his first start since signing a $30 million, two-year contract as a free agent.Yandy Diaz lined an impressive solo homer off Astros starter Gerrit Cole (0-1), who also yielded three unearned runs in the third, when shortstop Aledmys Diaz’s throwing error paved the way for Tampa Bay. Diaz has two errors in two games filling in for injured regular Carlos Correa.Four relievers combined to pitch four scoreless innings for the Rays, with Jose Alvarado striking out Tony Kemp with two runners on in the ninth for his first save.RED SOX 7, MARINERS 6SEATTLE (AP) — Pinch hitter Mitch Moreland connected for a three-run homer in the ninth inning and World Series champion Boston rallied for its first win of the season.A day after losing their opener 12-4, Boston bounced back. The Mariners had started off 3-0.It was 6-4 when Rafael Devers opened the ninth with a double off closer Hunter Strickland (0-1), moved to third on a passed ball and pinch hitter Blake Swihart was hit by a pitch. Strickland got a huge out when Devers was nailed at the plate on Jackie Bradley Jr.’s groundball, but Moreland didn’t miss a 2-0 fastball in the middle of the plate and lined into over the right field wall.Matt Barnes pitched the bottom of the ninth to close out the victory for his first save since 2017. Brian Johnson (1-0) struck out the side in the eighth.PADRES 4, GIANTS 1SAN DIEGO (AP) — Manny Machado got his first two hits with San Diego and Ian Kinsler homered to lift San Diego to 2-0 for the first time since 2011.The Padres came within three outs of their second straight shutout before Evan Longoria homered leading off the ninth against Phil Maton. Kirby Yates came on and earned his second straight save the hard way, loading the bases with one out before striking out Gerardo Parra and Brandon Belt.The 17 scoreless innings to start the season by San Diego are the most in team history Brian Goodwin Jersey , bettering the 14 to open the 2008 season. Left-hander Joey Lucchesi (1-0) allowed three hits in 5 1/3 innings, struck out seven and walked one.Machado went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts in his Padres debut on Thursday. He struck out in his first two at-bats Friday night before lining a single to left off Derek Holland (0-1) in the fifth.ANGELS 6, ATHLETICS 2OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Matt Harvey pitched solidly in his first game with Los Angeles, Andrelton Simmons hit a tiebreaking single in the eighth inning and the Angels got their first victory under new manager Brad Ausmus.Mike Trout doubled in two runs, Kole Calhoun had an RBI single and Justin Bour drew a bases-loaded walk to spark an Angels offense that failed to score over the first 16 innings of the season.Oakland’s Khris Davis homered for the second straight day, but the A’s normally reliable bullpen didn’t hold the lead. Davis, who led the majors with 48 home runs in 2018, has three in four games.Jonathan Lucroy and Brian Goodwin singled off reliever Joakim Soria (0-1). After Calhoun doubled in Lucroy, Trout was intentionally walked to load the bases. Ryan Buchter replaced Soria and walked Bour to force in a run. Simmons, who was hitless in the opener Thursday, followed with a sharp single to right-center off Liam Hendriks to drive in Calhoun and Trout.Hansel Robles (1-0) retired three batters. Ty Buttrey pitched a scoreless eighth and Cody Allen worked the ninth.BLUE JAYS 6, TIGERS 0TORONTO (AP) — Matt Shoemaker (1-0) pitched seven sharp innings to win his Toronto debut, giving Charlie Montoyo his first victory as a major league manager. The Blue Jays gave Montoyo, an 18-year minor league manager, a beer shower to celebrate.Justin Smoak and Freddy Galvis each drove in two runs, a day after the Blue Jays were blanked in a 10-inning loss.Combined with Marcus Stroman’s seven scoreless innings Thursday, Shoemaker gave the Blue Jays a team record for consecutive shutout innings by starting pitchers to open the season. Toronto’s previous best was eight innings, set by Jack Morris in 1992.Matt Boyd (0-1) struck out 10 in five innings.ROCKIES 6, MARLINS 1MIAMI (AP) — Charlie Blackmon had three hits and drove in two, German Marquez struck out seven in six innings and Colorado pulled away late to beat Miami.Nolan Arenado and Tony Wolters each had two hits and an RBI for the Rockies. Colorado scored four times in the ninth to blow the game open, disappointing the few fans that remained from the 6,503 paid attendance for Miami’s second game of the season.Marquez (1-0) allowed two hits and one run. Adam Conley (0-1), the second of five Miami pitchers, gave up two hits and the go-ahead run in the seventh. Marlins starter Trevor Richards gave up four hits and one run in six innings.Curtis Granderson hit his first homer for Miami, which has four runs this season — all off solo homers. Lewis Brinson nearly tied it for Miami in the eighth http://www.nationalsfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-adams-jersey , but his fly to nearly straightaway center field in cavernous Marlins Park was caught near the top of the wall by a leaping Ian Desmond. Odds and ends around baseball from the last few months you may have missed. Some odder than others."It’s time to clear out some open windows on my phone before it crashes and I lose them all, so here goes...At Least They’re Not Blaming Millennials EditionWhile MLB revenue and TV ratings are solid, attendance is down. “Commissioner Rob Manfred has maintained that poor weather early in the season is largely responsible,” writes Gabe Lacques, although Lacques isn’t quite buying it. Over at Forbes (they’re the folks who estimate team values), Maury Brown has a few answers, but largely attributes it to stadium factors. AKA, the “new car smell” of stadiums wears off eventually, and almost every team got a new stadium during the last 20 years. That’s old enough for attendance to dip, not old enough to ask for a replacement (unless you’re Atlanta!)What’s your theory? Mine has a short and long version. The short version is “tickets cost too much.” The long version involves several decades of tax policy which I won’t dig into right now, I gots my own troubles. So do we all, so do we all...At Least They Don’t Charge You To Pee Yet EditionIf you’re remotely interested in how stadium economics work, you have to read Neil DeMause & Joanna Kagan’s witty website Field Of Schemes.* If you don’t have time to learn the ins-and-outs of this issue, here’s a recent overview by Rick Paulas. (Which DeMause recommended.)At the very end, Paulas goes off the rails a little; he suggests baseball adopt a system, like in English soccer, where the top teams in AAA get promoted and the worst teams in MLB demoted every year. His thought being, if cities knew they might soon be hosting minor-league crowds, they’d be less likely to get soaked for bad stadium deals.That’s fine, in theory, although in practice MLB would never let that happen. Plus, Paulas gets excited about “a World Series between Albequerque and Dayton, while Yankees and Red Sox fans spend an embarrassing season rooting for a team in the minors. That’s a win-win.” Nice sentiment; still, ask any English soccer fan if Team Bumblefartshire is ever going to beat the richest clubs with the richest owners. Up to that finish, a solid article.*(The asterisk on Field Of Schemes is because I believe I’ve seen our old friend Jesse S. in the comments section. So now I don’t read the comments section.)At Least They Once Had Vin Scully EditionIt sure looks like the Dodgers have been cheating when it comes to international signings. Not just, y’know Brandon Kintzler Jersey , break MLB rules cheating. Like, they’re under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice cheating. Whitney McIntosh explains the allegations as simply and amusingly as he can, including this magnificent paragraph:I once broke company policy at my old job and snuck a peek at my employee file in the corporate office. Lots of insubordination (naturally!), nothing criminal. That’s a relief; I keep worrying they’ll eventually find the $10 million I embezzled.Incidentally, the DoJ is investigating other teams as well. It ain’t just the Dodgers.At Least It’s Not Coors Light EditionFor a bubblier read, here’s Matt Osgood with a bit on booze-foam locker-room celebrations. Fun history, if a bit quick, on the ties between baseball & beer (there’s a LOT more to go into there). As for who started the pennant-winning spray-fest, even the Hall Of Fame doesn’t know.Osgood makes the excellent point that with clinching the division, or a wild-card-spot, then winning the wild-card-game, then winning the first round, etc., there’s just too dang much perfectly good alcohol being wasted when teams really haven’t gotten that far yet.In a book about the 1965 Twins, it said that when they won the American League, lifelong abstainer Harmon Killebrew sipped a beer with the team. He had religious reasons for not drinking, yet just that once, he shared a moment with friends. No prude, the Killer.At Least He’s Not Designing Killer Robot Bees EditionCleveland’s All-Star pitcher, Trevor Bauer, was an engineering undergrad at UCLA, and his dad IS an engineer. Dyani Sabin uses their story to explain some physics of how pitching works. Don’t worry, it’s not too science-y, it’s a lot of stuff you already know, different pitches move differently and so on.The great bit is how Bauer and his dad worked together on developing his new slider. With math & graphs! They sat down and mathed this stuff out for ages over how he should grip the ball, what arm angle Tanner Roark Jersey , etc. They used these data points on a ball:Maybe the Twins should hire Bill Nye, he used to work for Boeing. Just a thought.At Least They Got Their Day In Court EditionFinally, the priceless Craig Calcaterra shares a curious court case involving the Reds vs. the State of Ohio. Basically, Ohio was trying to collect $88K in back taxes against the Reds because of bobblehead giveaways. The Reds fought it (seriously, Reds, you can’t afford $88K?)The Reds won, but only by claiming that the bobbleheads weren’t a free giveaway, they were included in the ticket price. (Ohio tax law stuff.)So, Calcaterra notes, this means if you buy a ticket for bobblehead day and you don’t get one, you are legally being defrauded by the Reds. The team’s CFO actually said, in court, that “‘the Reds would “make it right” in ways such as giving another promotional item or complimentary tickets to fans who had failed to receive the designated items.’” (Cincinnatti, the Cleveland CFO says “thank you.”)Are bobbleheads even that much of a ticket draw, anymore? I know some people collect them, and that’s great, but just sell ‘em in the dang gift shop already. I sure wouldn’t mind seeing the end of that “first 10,000 fans” crap. Especially for anything aimed at kids.At Least This Link Post Is Over EditionSo, there you go! The real link post people will be back next week, as usual... unless they died from undercooked turkey, in which case I would advise friends & family to honor their memories by buying a dang meat thermometer.