Fresh from the humidor, it’s … The inaugural edition of Game Notes 2013!

[Cue Gene Rayburn & the funky “Match Game ’77” music. All game feats are “since 1916,” unless noted.]

@Dodgers 4, Giants 0: Both aces were dealing, but Matt Cain ran through his deck in 6 innings, while Clayton Kershaw breezed to LA’s first Opening Day home shutout since Fernando ’81. He also cracked the goose-egg cipher in the 8th with his first career HR — to center field. In his conventional chores, Kershaw allowed 4 singles in different innings, and no Giant reached second base after the 1st.

• Last year, the Giants were 8-3 in games tied after 7 innings.
• The last Opening Day pitcher’s home run in MLB was in 1988 by Joe Magrane. The last 2 by a Dodger belonged to Don Drysdale, 1965 and ’59. The last Dodgers pitcher to homer off a Giant was Claude Osteen in this 1970 laugher; SF pitchers had hit the last 10 HRs in the series.

Tigers 4, @Twins 2: Was it an April Fools joke? Jim Leyland’s approach to a 9th-inning save situation looked like a simple matter of managing matchups — Joaquin Benoit took the righty, while Phil Coke handled the lefties. But we all know he has to anoint a Closer before the month is out.

• In 35-degree chill, Justin Verlander left after 91 pitches and 5 scoreless innings, with 7 Ks — his shortest stint ever allowing 1 run or less.
• Tigers fans hope this is the year that Al Alburquerque lasts a full season. He took on Drew Smyly’s bases-full mess with 1 out in the 7th, and after a hit brought the Twins within one, Al-Al set down the next two on strikes. His 37% K rate is 4th-best ever among those with 50+ innings, but he’s logged just 57 IP in 2+ years with the club.
• Remember when … On Leyland’s 1990–91–92 division-winning Pirates, the nos. 2 and 3 men always combined for more saves than the number 1 guy.

@Nationals 2, Marlins 0: Money. The 21-year-old Don Money had been the youngest to homer twice on Opening Day, 2 months before his 22nd birthday. Bryce Harper chopped 16 months off that record, and trimmed 6 months from Gary Carter’s franchise record for youngest O.D. tater. Each of his blasts carried over 400 feet.

• In his first Opening Day assignment, Stephen Strasburg hurled 7 brisk scoreless innings, using 80 pitches while whiffing but 3. His previous 7 games lasting 7+ IP averaged almost 10 Ks, with at least 5 in each.

Red Sox 8, @Yankees 2: From 1986-2011, the Bombers had won their last 11 Opening Days at home. But as The Captain once said in another context, “Not this team.”

• Boston had runners all over the place — 18 ABs with men in scoring position, 6 singles, 5 of them producing 7 runs.
• First homerless Yanks-BoSox game in the Bronx since July 5, 2008.
• Believe it or not … 8 is the most O.D. runs against the Yankees at home since 1919, when Boston won 10-0; the 6-run margin also matches the largest since then.

Angels 3, @Reds 1 (13): In the first-ever interleague opener, both teams scored in the 3rd, followed by 9 scoreless innings with a total of 5 hits. In the 13th, J.J. Hoover loaded the bases without a hit. Chris Ianetta, who started the scoring with a HR, ended it with a 2-out, 2-run single in the 13th — the only hit in 18 chances with RISP by the two teams.

• Jay Bruce went 0-5 with 4 whiffs — 0-4, 3 whiffs with RISP.
• The game featured 30 strikeouts and 9 base hits.

@Brewers 5, Rockies 4 (10): Each side blew a late lead, but Milwaukee sent the fans home happy, if a little behind schedule, by scoring without a hit.

• John Axford fanned the first 2 in the 9th on full counts, then allowed Dexter Fowler’s first-pitch tying HR. Last year, Axford’s 10 HRs allowed and 9 blown saves led all 30-save men.

@White Sox 1, Royals 0: Tyler Flowers, Chicago’s first new Opening Day backstop since 2005, connected in a way that A.J. Pierzynski never did. His drive off new KC ace James Shields reached the gloved and coated bleacherites, and Chris Sale & Co. turned it into the second 1-0 opening win in Pale Hose history.

• The other such game was A.J.’s White Sox debut.
• The 1906 Hitless Wonders scored 5 on Opening Day.
• The biggest of Sale’s 7 Ks came in the 3rd against Billy Butler, bags full, 1 out.

Cubs 3, @Pirates 1: Anthony Rizzo provided the early lead with a HR, and Jeff Samardzija kept the Bucs joyless through 8, whiffing 9 and allowing 2 hits. The Cuddlies surmounted .500 for the first time since this April 2010 game that Samardzija won in relief.

• The ex-footballer made a goal-line stand in the home 1st, stranding men at the corners with 2 of his 9 strikeouts.
• Carlos Marmol showed midseason form with a 5-piece puupuu platter — strikeout, HBP, steal, scoring hit and walk — before his mates bailed him out.
• Kyuji Fujikawa threw 2 pitches, got 1 out, and earned the save in his MLB debut.

@Mets 11, Padres 2: The last of New York’s five 2-out RBI hits was Collin Cowgill’s granny. He’s the first to taste salami in his Mets debut, and joins Todd Hundley (1995) as Mets with such an Opening Day feast.

• The 11 runs were a Mets home O.D. record. Their only other home O.D. with 10+ runs was 1969.
• Edinson Volquez was ragged after the 1st and rubbed raw by the 3rd, when he reached 72 pitches. But the Pads didn’t clear his spot in their 4th, and Bud Black tried to sneak him through an inning that began with the pitcher. A 4-pitch walk and a ringing double wrote a quick coda for Volquez, and when the dust settled, the Mets had 3 more runs and a 7-1 lead.
• Black helped disperse the satisfied Mets crowd (not including your humble narrator, harrumph) with a gratuitous pitching change in the 8th, 2 outs and none on, down by 9.

What else happened? Don’t be shy, contestants!