Giants Win Home Opener in Extra Innings

Update 7:08 p.m. From AP:

The San Francisco Giants raised the flag and the Cardinals dropped the ball.

Aaron Rowand(notes) hit a game-winning single off the left-field wall with the bases loaded in the 12th inning and the Giants celebrated raising the World Series flag with a 5-4 victory over St. Louis on Friday.

First baseman Albert Pujols(notes) dropped what would have been an inning-ending grounder by Andres Torres(notes) with two outs in the 12th. Torres reached on the error and advanced to second on defensive indifference. Brian Tallet(notes) (0-1), the sixth Cardinals pitcher, intentionally walked Freddy Sanchez(notes) to load the bases. Rowand then drove a pitch to deep left-center, capping a long, festive home opener that lasted 4 hours, 24 minutes.

Dan Runzler(notes) (1-1), the Giants’ eighth pitcher, tossed a 1-2-3 12th for the victory. Full article

Earlier post
Follow pitch by pitch and take part in a live chat at Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area.

The Merc's also got a chat going on.

From Twitter: "Giants baseball."

The Splash live-blogged the opening ceremonies, which included this entry:

1:21 After presenting Ross and Lincecum with some post-season awards, team honors fallen Giants fan Bryan Stow, who was hurt badly in a fight after a Giants-Dodgers game in Los Angeles last week. After a moment of silence, the crowd breaks into a "Beat L.A." chant.

Update 4:20 p.m. On SFist, watch Brian Wilson help raise the World Series flag. And then eat it!

Ha ha just kidding. But I bet you believed it for a second.

And some A's news. Justine Siegal of Baseball for All, an organization that encourages participation in the sport by girls, tweeted this morning that she will throw batting practice to the A's on May 13.