CLEVELAND—From optimism to emptiness in one day.The Cleveland Indians are off to the start they couldn’t afford.Playing before the smallest home crowd in 18 seasons, they dropped to 0-2 on Saturday following an 8-3 loss to the White Sox, who battered Cleveland’s starting pitcher for the second straight day and knocked whatever hope Indians fans carried into 2011.Only 9,853 fans — the fewest since Progressive Field opened in 1994 — witnessed the Indians losing to the White Sox for the eighth time in nine games. One of baseball’s youngest teams, the Indians were counting on some early-season wins to help win back disheartened fans, who have seen the club trade away stars in recent years. Cleveland finished last in the majors in attendance last season, and unless something changes quickly, the club will have that distinction again.Travis Hafner homered for the Tribe.Edwin Jackson extended his mastery of the Indians and Gordon Beckham and Carlos Quentin had two RBI apiece as the White Sox improved to 2-0 — their best start since 2005, when they won the World Series.

Paul Maholm pitched well enough to win. He just didn’t go deep enough into the game to lock it down.Maholm was OK with it, though. He still has plenty of confidence in relievers Evan Meek and Chris Resop. The Cubs trailed by three before scoring five time in the bottom of the eighth to pull out the 5-3 victory Saturday at Wrigley Field.They broke through as Meek (0-1) walked pinch-hitter Kosuke Fukudome and threw a wild pitch before Starlin Castro hit an RBI double to make it 3-1. Lyle Overbay then misplayed Marlon Byrd’s grounder for an error as Castro scored to make it 3-2. Alfonso Soriano tied it with an RBI single and then Blake DeWitt hit a go-ahead two-run double off Resop.Meek said a mix of poor pitch selection and a lack of command contributed to the meltdown. Of the five runs he was charged with, three were unearned.Pirates manager Clint Hurdle saw the loss as a learning experience for his young club, adding now the important thing is to win the series. Pittsburgh captured the season opener 6-3 Friday.Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano left in the seventh with cramping in his right hand, one batter after he’d given up a leadoff homer to Garrett Jones that gave the Pirates a 3-0 lead.Sean Marshall (1-0) got the victory with a scoreless eighth and Carlos Marmol pitched the ninth for his first save.Zambrano walked two in the top of the first before Pedro Alvarez pulled a two-out RBI single to right to give the Pirates an early 1-0 lead.Neil Walker, who’d hit a grand slam in Pittsburgh’s win Friday, had an RBI double in the third after Jose Tabata reached on an infield single. After Andrew McCutchen walked to put runners at first and second with no outs, Zambrano averted a big inning. He struck out Overbay and then raced to cover first and complete a double play that was started by first baseman Carlos Pena on Alvarez’s broken-bat grounder.And Maholm kept the Cubs off balance. He retired the first eight batters.

NOTES—It was five degrees warmer than Friday, and was accompanied by a 12-mph wind blowing left to right. The crowd was much smaller, announced at 35,782 compared to 41,358 a day earlier…..Matt Garza, who will make his Cubs debut Sunday, spent most of Saturday leading cheers on the dugout steps while wearing sunglasses and a sweat shirt…..Jones had a quick start last season when he hit two homers in the opener against the Dodgers. He had four homers against the Cubs last season when Pittsburgh won 10 of 15 games.

　

NOTES—After the Pistons retired his No. 10 jersey, Dennis Rodman said he has been informed he will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame….Noah said his ankle is feeling better, but he didn’t know when he would be healthy enough to play.

COLUMBUS—There were dumb penalties, a blown two-goal lead and missed opportunities.Ended up just fine, though, for the Blackhawks.Viktor Stalberg had the only goal in the shootout and Corey Crawford made 31 saves in the defending Stanley Cup champs’ 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.The two points were precious for the Blackhawks, holding eighth in the Western Conference, the last position for a playoff spot. The win allowed them to maintain their three-point lead over ninth-place Calgary, which also won Friday night.For a team trailing by a goal with just over five minutes left in regulation, the win could end up being particularly memorable in the tight playoff race.The sixth shooter overall, Stalberg improved to 2 for 2 in shootouts this season. He swooped in on Mathieu Garon, faked and stuck a backhand into the net.Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist and Brent Seabrook and Bryan Bickell also scored.Bickell’s goal came with 5:03 remaining in the third period and Columbus leading 3-2. His shot from just in the offensive zone ricocheted off a defenseman’s stick and surprised goalie Mathieu Garon.Derick Brassard, Maksim Mayorov (his first NHL goal) and Samuel Pahlsson scored for the Blue Jackets, Anton Stralman had career highs with three assists and points and Antoine Vermette added two assists.Both teams were missing their leading goal scorers.The Blackhawks were without Patrick Sharp, who has 34 goals. He missed his fifth game with a knee injury, but will be re-evaluated Sunday and is expected to play next week.The Blue Jackets were without captain Rick Nash, who has 32, for the second straight night. He’s day to day with an undisclosed lower-body injury. They also did not have top goalie Steve Mason, who sustained a minor injury in a 4-3 overtime loss at Washington on Thursday night. Garon had 23 saves.Columbus, all but out of the playoff race for several weeks, dropped to 5-8 in shootouts.

NOTES—Kane has 10 goals and 18 assists in 24 games vs. Columbus……The Blackhawks are 17-1-2 when Kane has multiple points this season, and are 59-8-10 in his four-year NHL career…..Stralman was playing his second game in as many nights after missing 15 games with a knee injury.

CLEVELAND—Carlos Quentin homered and drove in five runs, Adam Dunn homered and had four RBIs in his debut for the White Sox and they built a huge lead and held off Cleveland’s scrappy comeback, beating the Indians 15-10 in their season opener Friday.The White Sox splurged during the offseason in an attempt to win the AL Central after finishing second to Minnesota in 2010, and the club’s $125 million payroll looks like money well spent – so far.The Sox built a 14-0 lead after four innings for starter Mark Buehrle (1-0) and roughed up Cleveland ace Fausto Carmona (0-1) for 10 runs and 11 hits in three innings.Quentin and Dunn each hit two-run homers in the third, and the White Sox added eight runs in the fourth.Cleveland got to Buehrle,Wil Ohman and others to make the final respectable.

Neil Walker hit a grand slam, Andrew McCutchen also homered and Kevin Correia pitched into the seventh inning Friday as the Pittsburgh Pirates started the season under new manager Clint Hurdle with a 6-3 victory over a team they killed last year,the Cubs.The Pirates, who lost a majors-worst 105 times last year, won their fifth straight season opener.Walker’s grand slam came off Ryan Dempster (0-1) on a 3-2 pitch, a long drive to right that ended up on Sheffield Avenue and gave the Pirates a 4-2 lead in the fifth.Correia (1-0) allowed seven hits and two earned runs. He gave up an unearned run in the first and another run on Carlos Pena’s bases-loaded grounder in the third. He left after an infield popup by Darwin Barney dropped for a single starting the bottom of the seventh. The loss, before a Wrigley Field crowd of 41,358 on a rainy day, spoiled Mike Quade’s first game as the Cubs’ full-time manager. He held the post on an interim basis for the final 37 games a year ago.With the Pirates trailing 2-0, Ryan Doumit began the fifth with a single and Dempster walked two around Correia’s sacrifice, bringing up Walker.In the seventh, Walker doubled to right-center and McCutchen – who was 23 for 52 against the Cubs last season when the Pirates won 10 of 15 meetings with the Northsiders – followed with a homer just over the wall in left-center.The Cubs cut it to 6-3 when Kosuke Fukudome hit an RBI single to score Barney, who’d reached when his pop fell between the plate and the mound. Aramis Ramirez flied out with two runners on.Joel Hanrahan pitched the ninth for the Pirates, working around a walk and infield hit for the save.Quade went incognito en route to Wrigley Field on Friday, wearing a hat and jacket while riding the elevated train from downtown that he caught around 8 a.m. He said he sat quietly in the back of the car with his head down so there was no chance of being recognized.During the season, he’ll live within walking distance of the park. And after games like Friday when the Cubs lost despite getting 11 hits, he’ll need the jaunt to clear his thoughts.With the game starting in a light rain on a 41-degree day, the Cubs got an unearned run in the first, thanks to some shaky fielding from Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez. He couldn’t come up with a hard grounder from Starlin Castro that was ruled an infield single. He then caught Marlon Byrd’s bouncer and threw the ball over first baseman Lyle Overbay’s head as Castro raced home, sliding headfirst.Pena got his first RBI with the Cubs in the third. After three singles, he hit a grounder that made it 2-0. Pena, signed as a free agent after spending the last four years in Tampa, also flashed his glove, making a couple of nice scoops of low throws on a wet infield.

NOTES— Both teams sported a remembrance of a well-known member of the organization who passed away since last season. The Cubs wore a No. 10 for former third baseman and popular broadcaster Ron Santo. The Pirates had a patch for Chuck Tanner, who managed the Bucs for nine years and led them to a World Series title in 1979. … The Cubs held a moment of silence for Santo and for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. … Santo’s son and daughter led the singing during the seventh inning stretch. … Actor/Director Robert Redford threw out the first pitch and Kerry Wood, returning to the Cubs after playing in the AL for two years, caught it. A movie Redford directed, “The Conspirator,” was produced by the American Film Co., which was founded by Joe Ricketts. Ricketts is the father of Cubs’ chairman Tom Ricketts. … The last time Pittsburgh won five straight season openers was from 1935-40 when the Pirates captured six in a row. … The fans cheered when the sun made an appearance in the bottom of the ninth.