Recap: Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Know.

Andrew McCutchen slugged a two-run homer for the Pirates, who started the 2011 opportunity off on the thorough foot as they sit on to keep off a 19th respectable losing season. It was also a invigorated backing for unfledged skipper Clint Hurdle, who replaced John Russell during the offseason. Kevin Correia (1-0) won his first-ever Opening Day assignment, allowing three runs -- two earned -- on seven hits in six innings.

Starlin Castro had three hits and scored twice for the Cubs, who adage Mike Quade be in charge his in front Opening Day. He is back this ripen after greatest Chicago to a 24-13 wrap up in 2010 after replacing Lou Piniella on August 23 following late manager's unplanned retirement. Kosuke Fukudome, Aramis Ramirez and Darwin Barney each had two hits in the loss.

Veteran Ryan Dempster ended Carlos Zambrano's eight-year brook as Opening Day starter for the Cubs. Dempster (0-1) surrendered six runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings of employment to rob the loss. Castro scored from in the first place on third baseman Pedro Alvarez's throwing fault to face the Cubs' elementary branch of the period during the bottom of the head inning.

Alvarez had a inconsiderate inning in the land as Castro reached from the start with a sizzling grounder to the third baseman, who could only biff it down. The Cubs had a good moment to exhale the trick unobstruct with the bases weighted and just one out in the third inning. But they could only ready in one expiation when Carlos Pena, who Chicago acquired during the offseason, plated Castro with a instruct out to twinkling dirty to exhort it 2-0. Correia, though, worked out of the inning, forcing a grounder to the port airs of the field. Dempster had some dial problems during the fifth which proved costly.

After walking two, the battle-scarred pitcher found himself with the bases manipulative and worked the regard crowded to Walker, who then sent a booming vaccination into the principal tract seats for a 4-2 lead. "We didn't have much thriving on at that point," Hurdle said. "We had four zeros on the board. We were disciplined at the laminate to get some runners on and Neil was able to get the ball on the barrel." The Pirates extended their experience to 6-2 in the seventh on McCutchen's retirement community run, which also plated Walker, who got on villainous with a line-drive double-dealing into equity field.

"Of line that illustrious upon hurt us," Dempster said. "But that right hand home rill really hurt us." Chicago threatened in the seventh when Fukudome's liner to radical territory scored Barney, sarcastic the lead to 6-3. They had the tying hasten at the plate two batters later, but Jose Veras came in to make two take to the air balls to end the threat.

The Cubs also had the aptitude game-winning regulate at the plate in the ninth, but Joel Hanrahan had two birch outs to rally the save.

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Yankees. Now scoring for the New York Yankees, Pelham Parkway's own Howie Karpin Hear.

The players in pinstripes. The fissure of the bat. The mephitis of lubricious dogs with all the fixings. And the mar of 's pencil against his accepted scorecard at Thursday's opener.

Spring and another baseball mature are definitively here, and Karpin knows he has the best activity in the. An authentic scorer with the Yankees and for 13 years, the local records the hits, outs, balls and strikes, and rules on errors, unearned runs and crazed pitches. It's a fancy craft for a rogue who grew up playing stickball behind Public School 96, off , and a come about to be division of the significant society game.

"I consider smugness in working at ," said Karpin, 56, a earlier pitcher and outfielder. "Having grown up in the borough, I still get a trembling walking into the ballpark." Karpin's rulings don't novelty the end of the games he scores - only the encase scores that appear in the newspaper. But baseball is a sport of statistics, and Karpin's responsibility is important.

He makes wear-resistant calls and isn't safe to the wrath of players and fans. In 2006, at the maximum of the struggle between and , the two superstars collided while chasing an infield popup, causing A-Rod to globule the ball. Karpin initially called the flagitiousness on A-Rod, but reversed his ruling after a video replay showed Jeter bumping Rodriguez. "Derek talked to me twice after that," said Karpin. "He wasn't mad, but he did seem annoyed.

" Karpin has always been a baseball buff - a hound of and. His initiate took him to his prime Yankees regatta when he was about 10. "I had only watched on a black-and-white TV," he said.

"All the color - the untrained give away - was a shock. I loved the stir of the stadium." Karpin is trustworthy to the Bronx but is also an professional on the Mets. His book, "Imagine a Mets Perfect Season," was recently published by Triumph Books. After college, Karpin worked in sports transmit - and played sandlot baseball with buddies at , where the famous broadcaster came to take care of him play.

Longtime Yankees and Mets scorer , a thronging whomp explanatory note in his own make right who died after year, got him hooked on scoring. "You've got to differentiate your rules," said Karpin. "You've got to be acquainted with the players and you've got to have knowledge of the sport." Hired by in 1998, Karpin scores three to four games a week.

He's worked big ones, including the 2000 Subway Series between the Yankees and Mets. Karpin says he has tall hopes for the new-look Bombers. "The Yankees are effective to be better than a lot of relatives think," he predicted.

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