Touch 'Em All: Yanks, Red Sox both swept away

Jubilant fans were flourishing brooms in Tampa on Sunday as the Rays completed a three-game, season-opening sweep of The Evil Empire, also known as the Yankees.

Carlos Pena, back in the Bay after a one-season exile to Chicago, feasted on Yankees' pitching, going 6 for 10 with a pair of homers - including a grand slam - and seven RBIs in the sweep.

But the folks in the stands - more than 30,000 showed up in a city fabled for ignoring its baseball team - need to remember this: the last time the Yankees started 0-3 was 1998, when they went on to win a major-

league record 114 games.

Season-opening streaks were news elsewhere, too.

The Evil Empire's main foil, the Red Sox, also have opened 0-3.

The only other time in big-league history that both teams were 0-3 together was 1966.

Worse, the Sox are 0-3 for the second straight season. And in the only other city with a greater "the sky is falling" complex than Philadelphia, panicky second-guessing already is underway.

Think Sawks fans are a tad bitter the management let Jonathan Papelbon get away?

The perennial also ran Orioles swept the Twins in Baltimore, the second straight season the O's have opened 3-0. The last time that happened was 1996 and 1997 - the only seasons Baltimore has made the playoffs since beating the Phillies in the World Series in 1983.

On the other side of that coin, Minnesota only has started 0-3 twice since moving from Washington in 1961 - 1969 and 1981.

The Mets are 3-0 for the first time since opening with four wins in 2007.

For the first time in 27 years, and only the third time ever, the Mets are 3-0 while the Yankees are 0-3.

Atlanta, the Mets' victim, is 0-3 for the first time since 2003 and only the second time since losing its first 10 games in 1988.

Lefthander Jonathon Neise signed a glossy new contract last week, then took a no-hitter into the seventh for the Mets on Sunday.

Strangely, New York has played 7,971 games in its 51-season history without having a pitcher throw no-hitter.

San Diego (6,846) is the only other big-league team without one.