Jeff Niemann will have shoulder surgery in Texas on Wednesday and is likely out for the season.

Marty Foster blew the call and he knows it now, not that that’s much consolation to the Rays. Instead of ball four, which replays showed it clearly was, Foster called Ben Zobrist out on Joe Nathan’s two-out, 3-2 curveball and the Rangers slipped away with a 5-4 victory Monday night at The Ballpark in Arlington.

The Giants relied on Hunter Pence’s three-run homer and clutch pitching Monday to post their seventh win in a row over Colorado, a 4-2 victory.

Joe Nathan’s 300th save allowed the Rangers to escape with a 5-4 victory over the Rays in the opener of a three-game series Monday night at The Ballpark in Arlington.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media and publisher HarperCollins are introducing “MLB.com Play Ball Books,” a series of enhanced e-books, and the Giants and Dodgers provide the breeding ground for the first two titles.

Roy Halladay, a New York nemesis for more than a decade, labored through four-plus ineffective innings, losing to the Mets for the first time since 2001. Meanwhile, Matt Harvey, a rising star, continued his assault on the National League with a brilliant outing in the Mets’ 7-2 win Monday.

Pirates left-hander Wandy Rodriguez had to abruptly leave his start Monday night with hamstring tightness in his left leg.

Justin Upton continued to add to the splendor of his early-season success as he highlighted a four-hit performance with his sixth home run of the season and provided a masterful Paul Maholm all the support he needed in Monday night’s 2-0 win over the Marlins at Marlins Park.

The Indians received good news a few hours after a left thumb injury forced catcher Carlos Santana from Monday’s 11-6 loss to the Yankees: X-rays taken after the game were negative, revealing that he sustained nothing more than a bruise in the ninth inning of Cleveland’s home opener. The slugging catcher is day to day.

Justin Upton is enjoying a major power surge and the A’s are picking up where they left off a year ago, while things aren’t looking as good for Matt Cain and the Pirates early on in 2013.

Ervin Santana pitched marvelously for eight innings and the Royals struck for three runs in the bottom of the eighth for a 3-1 victory over the Twins on Monday afternoon. The first game of Kauffman Stadium’s 40th-anniversary season drew a sellout crowd of 40,073.

Robinson Cano homered twice and Travis Hafner celebrated his return to Progressive Field by homering and driving in four runs as the Yankees spoiled the Indians’ home opener with an 11-6 victory on Monday.

Despite a pair of costly errors by center fielder Shin-Soo Choo, the Reds bounced back for a 13-4 win over the Cardinals during Monday’s opener to a three-game series. Brandon Phillips, who homered earlier, delivered a tiebreaking RBI double in Cincinnati’s nine-run ninth inning.

In Terry Francona’s eight seasons as skipper of the Red Sox, his father, Tito, didn’t attend a single game at Fenway Park. It’s an entirely different vibe in Cleveland, where the father once played and the son now oversees an intriguing Indians team.

The blister that prompted Rangers manager Ron Washington to lift starter Yu Darvish after just five innings on Sunday didn’t affect him early in the game and is not expected to be a long-term problem.

Martin Maldonado hit a three-run double during a four-run first inning and Marco Estrada pitched seven strong innings to help the Brewers end a five-game losing streak with a 7-4 win over the Cubs in the Wrigley Field opener. Ryan Braun went 3-for-4 with an RBI after missing the previous three games.

With the shadows hovering over home plate for hours, the big hit seemed all too elusive for both teams in Monday’s Fenway Park opener.