Home Opener a Real Rusch for Brewers

Glendon Rusch can’t remember ever having such good control of his pitches, but the one he’ll never forget was a hanging, 77-mph curveball from Rick Helling.

Rusch sent it out of the ballpark for his first career homer, putting an exclamation point on his three-hitter and Milwaukee’s 6-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Brewers’ home opener Friday.

“I really didn’t know what to do. I had never hit one before,” Rusch said after his spectacular Brewer debut. “I probably made it around the bases faster than I ever will.” Rusch became the first Milwaukee pitcher to homer since Paul Rigdon connected off Rob Bell on Sept. 27, 2000.

Rusch’s two-run shot off Helling (0-1) in the fifth gave Milwaukee a 3-0 lead.

“You can’t make mistakes like that, especially against the pitcher,” Helling said. “The energy of the crowd, the energy of their team, you could tell changed. When the pitcher hits a home run, it’s a pretty rare occurrence, so I think that kind of energized them a little bit and deflated us a little bit.

“From there, the game was pretty much over. He pitched great the rest of the way.”

The last Brewer pitcher to throw a complete game in the home opener was Mike Caldwell in 1979.

Rusch did it with uncanny control of his changeup, fastball and curve.

“I feel like I’ve got the best command of my changeup that I’ve ever had,” said Rusch, who attributed his control to job security in spring training, which allowed him to work on the pitch without fearing repercussions.

New York 9, Atlanta 3--Jeromy Burnitz hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs, Mike Piazza had a solo homer and Pedro Astacio won in his Met debut, giving up three runs and seven hits in 62/3 innings at Atlanta.

Piazza scored four runs and Edgardo Alfonzo had three of the Mets’ 13 hits.

Montreal 8, Cincinnati 7--Masato Yoshii gave up one run and seven hits in six innings at Cincinnati as the Expos built an 8-0 lead and held off the Reds.

Vladimir Guerrero and Brian Schneider each drove in a pair of runs as the Expos had 12 hits off Jimmy Haynes and four relievers. Montreal scored five runs in the second, helped by three errors.

St. Louis 5, Houston 1--Jim Edmonds hit a two-run homer and went three for four to lead the Cardinals at Houston.

Edmonds, five for 10 with three home runs and seven runs batted it against Dave Mlicki, homered in the sixth inning.

Pittsburgh 2, Chicago 1--Dave Williams gave up a homer to Sammy Sosa--his third of the season--but the Cubs only had three other in their home opener.

Williams pitched six strong innings as the Pirates won for the third time in four games--their best start since 1996.

Philadelphia 6, Florida 2--Bobby Abreu went four for four with a homer and three RBIs, and Brandon Duckworth had a career-high 10 strikeouts to lead the Phillies in their home opener.

Julian Tavarez gave up six runs and six hits in three innings in his first start for the Marlins since being traded from Chicago.