Choo stars in Reds 13-4 win over Cardinals

New York Yankees Travis Hafner watches his hit leave the park for a three run home run during the first inning of the Yankees MLB American League baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland, Ohio on Monday. (Reuters)

Agencies/New York

‘’I almost died and my teammates gave me another life,’’ Choo said. ‘’I really appreciate my teammates, coming over to me and saying everybody makes mistakes.

‘’I missed two fly balls and in my mind I had to do something to help the team.’’

A day earlier, the Cardinals scored nine runs in the fourth inning against Giants ace Matt Cain.

‘’I think this is the worst outing of my career,’’ said Boggs, who has one save in two chances along with a bloated 14.54 ERA. ‘’I guess without saying there’s a lot of season left and I expect to be a player with a lot of good ones.’’

The defending NL Central champions Cardinals held a tribute for Stan Musial before the game. They’ve lost three straight home openers and six of the last seven.

Brandon Phillips blooped a go-ahead double in the ninth. He earlier hit his 150th career homer for the Reds, who have won six of seven since losing in extra innings to the Angels on opening day and totaled 11 or more hits the last four games.

Cardinals lefty Jaime Garcia matched his career best with 10 strikeouts in 6 2-3 innings and left with a 4-3 lead. Yadier Molina hit both of the fly balls dropped by Choo in the first and sixth, and added an RBI single.

Pinch-hitter Xavier Paul tied it in the Reds’ eighth with an RBI single off Trevor Rosenthal before the Reds took off in the ninth with six hits, five walks and an error. The Cardinals last surrendered nine runs in the ninth in a 12-9 loss at Colorado on July 6, 2010.

Elsewhere, Robinson Cano broke out of his slump with a pair of home runs and Travis Hafner drove in four against his former team as visiting New York spoiled Cleveland’s home opener.

Hafner, who spent the previous 10 seasons with the Indians before signing with New York as a free agent in the off-season, sent a three-run homer out to center in the first inning and put the Yankees on top for good with an RBI single in the third.

That damage all came off Cleveland starter Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1), who was knocked around for seven runs in 4 1/3 frames.

Daniel Nava broke a scoreless tie with a three-run homer in the seventh inning as Boston won its ninth consecutive home opener.

Clay Buchholz (2-0) worked seven scoreless innings, limiting Baltimore to three hits while improving to 6-1 against the Orioles since the start of the 2009 season.

Closer Joel Hanrahan earned his third save despite giving up a leadoff homer to Adam Jones and a two-out double to J J Hardy in the ninth.

Marco Estrada worked seven solid innings and Martin Maldonado drove in three as visiting Milwaukee snapped a five-game losing streak in the opener of a three-game series from Chicago.

Estrada (1-0) allowed a pair of runs and helped himself with an RBI double in the seventh. Ryan Braun (neck spasms) returned after a three-game absence and went 3-for-4 with an RBI for the Brewers.

Welington Castillo hit a two-run homer and Nate Schierholtz had two hits and an RBI for Chicago, which pushed across two runs in the ninth and had the bases loaded with one out before Jim Henderson escaped the jam to earn the save and send the Cubs to their fourth straight defeat.

John Buck stayed hot with a three-run homer and Matt Harvey allowed one run in seven innings to lift visiting New York in the opener of a three-game series.

Buck went deep for the third time this season to make it 3-0 in the second and lift his National League-leading RBI total to 12. Lucas Duda had an RBI single in the third and the Mets collected three more runs in the fifth to chase struggling Roy Halladay (0-2).

Brandon Phillips homered and doubled and visiting Cincinnati broke a 4-4 tie with nine runs in the ninth inning to win the opener of the three-game series against its Central Division rival.