Around the Majors | Dodgers, Padres tie in China's first game

BEIJING — The vendors sold peanuts, hot dogs and tea. Blue sky replaced gray smog, and a breeze in left field unfurled China's red flag alongside the Stars and Stripes.

It was opening day for baseball in China on Saturday.

And the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers left the nearly sellout crowd of 12,224 at the new Olympic venue with an inconclusive outcome — a 3-3 tie in an exhibition game in major-league baseball's first foray into China.

Not that the result proved all that troubling. Most fans knew so little about the day's events that nobody booed when play was called after nine innings. And forgive them if they didn't sing along to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

"It's historic if nothing else," commissioner Bud Selig said.

Dodgers manager Joe Torre said all the hoopla made things feel closer to a regular-season game.

"It took on a little bit more than an exhibition game for me today," he said. "In spring training you go out there and you basically practice even though you play a game. There was the attention, the number of media, the number of questions involving being here in China. That type of atmosphere made me feel it was more than just an exhibition game."

Except for the prices of concessions — a 12-ounce beer cost $1.50 — it seemed like an afternoon at any ballpark in America. There was one problem: Vendors and concession stands kept running out of drinks, creating long lines before reinforcements arrived.

"You didn't really capture the fact you were in China unless you knew you were in China," said Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, whose windblown double in the eighth tied the score. "The atmosphere was great and the field was in great condition. ... You just felt like you were at a ballpark playing baseball."

The teams were to play another exhibition today. Selig said there would be additional games in China, and he left open the possibility of a regular-season game.

"The ballpark had a good feel," Padres manager Bud Black said. "The between-innings entertainment was not unlike what we have in the States."

Lackey out a month

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels will start the season without ace John Lackey, who is out three to four weeks because of a strained right triceps.

The right-hander has started rehabilitation and will not participate in any baseball activities until he is re-evaluated.

Lackey made his first spring-training appearance last Monday, pitching 1-2/3 innings against Oakland. He said he threw without pain.

Notes

• At Tempe, Ariz., Randy Johnson, who missed most of the 2007 season with a herniated disk in his back that required offseason surgery, worked three innings in his second spring start and allowed only a solo homer to Gary Matthews Jr. in the Los Angeles Angels' 5-4, 10-inning win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

• The Oakland Athletics officially took third baseman Eric Chavez's name off the roster of players going to Japan for two games against the Red Sox to open the season. He had back surgery in the offseason.

• Tampa Bay Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir won't start on opening day after having his first scheduled spring-training start pushed back a few days. Kazmir has been slowed by a left-elbow strain.

• Yankees center fielder Melky Cabrera said he most likely will appeal a three-game suspension for his role in the spring-training fight between New York and the Tampa Bay Rays.

• At Kissimmee, Fla., Roy Oswalt threw six nearly perfect innings, allowing his only base runner on an error during Houston's 15-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves in a split-squad game.

• The Puerto Rican winter baseball league will resume its season in October, more than a year after it announced a shutdown because of financial problems.