Rockies Rout Padres In Opener

As America's pastime opened for the first time in Mexico, it was a festive evening for everyone except the defending NL champion San Diego Padres.

Five brothers with their hair colored purple saluted Mexican hero Vinny Castilla, peppy music blasted from the speakers and Dante Bichette went 4-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs in the Colorado Rockies' 8-2 win Sunday night in baseball's first season opener away from the United States and Canada.

Castilla also went 4-for-5, helping Jim Leyland win his debut as Rockies manager.

Darryl Kile, who led the majors with 17 losses in his first season with Colorado, limited San Diego to two runs and in 6 1-3 innings. He also had two of Colorado's 18 hits.

San Diego's highlight was Tony Gwynn's RBI single in the first inning, leaving him 71 hits short of 3,000.

Otherwise, it was pretty dismal for San Diego as ace Andy Ashby was chased after allowing six runs on eight hits in one-plus innings, matching his shortest start ever. It was reminiscent of the pounding he took in Game 2 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, when he allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 2 2-3 innings.

The 27,104 fans who packed Estadio Monterrey got to cheer Castilla, who's from the southern state of Oaxaca. Although he didn't homer in the bandbox stadium, Castilla delighted the crowd with three singles and a double.

Castilla received a standing ovation during pregame introductions, but the crowd was subdued from then on. It politely cheered every time he came to bat, although some jumped out of their seats when he singled to left in the fourth, and someone threw a roll of toilet paper onto the field.

"The only thing missing is a home run," said fan Luis Farias, 30.

With 170 career homers, Castilla is Mexico's most prodigious power hitter.

But it was Bichette who lofted a solo shot into the right-center stands in the sixth off Carlos Reyes.

Medical student Alan Gonzalez, wearing a Padres cap, was among the few fans rooting for San Diego. "I came for the Padres and everyone else for the Rockies," he said. "I feel very alone."

At a news conference earlier in the day, Gwynn said the Padres were excited about playing the major league opener.

But just before the game, he said the team's opener should have been in San Diego. Playing this game as the International Opener was baseball's idea, inspired in part by the Padres moving a series to Monterrey in 1996 and one to Honolulu in '97.

"With the year we had last year and then having to come down here, traveling 2,000 miles (round trip) to have the opener, I don't get it," Gwynn said. "I understand baseball going global. I understand planting the flag in new places, but our flag's already planted here."

So the Padres will raise the pennant and receive their NL championship rings Tuesday afternoon in San Diego before the second game of this series.

Bichette hit an RBI single in the first, then Ashby got in trouble when he allowed a leadoff single to Make Lansing in the second and walked Kirt Manwaring and Kile. Darryl Hamilton, Neifi Perez and Lenny Harris followed with RBI singles, and Bichette had a two-run base hit to chase Ashby.

Notes

• Castilla wore No. 14 in tribute to former teammate Andres Galarraga, out for the season because of back cancer.
• Hamilton got the season's first hit, on the first pitch. In 1997, he had the first-ever interleague hit, for San Francisco at Texas.
• Garth Brooks, who was with the Padres in spring training, was invited to sing the national anthem before Tuesday's home opener, but his managers declined the invitation, club spokesman Charles Steinberg said. Brooks sang the national anthem before the 1993 Super Bowl, and said it was the hardest song in the world to sing, another club spokesman said.
• California Gov. Gray Davis was supposed to have participated in the ceremonial first pitch, but a cracked windshield on his plane stranded him in San Diego.

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