Barry Bonds got a quick hit on opening day — on his very first pitch. Jimmy Rollins waited for his last at-bat to keep his hitting streak alive.

Rollins was 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly before doubling in the eighth inning of the Philadelphia Phillies' 13-5 loss to St. Louis on Monday. He extended his hitting streak to 37 games, 19 shy of Joe DiMaggio's record.

"I've been waiting five or six months, so I didn't mind waiting," Rollins said. "It was good to get the first game out of the way."

DiMaggio holds the record streak for both a single season and over two seasons. Rollins can only go after the latter mark.

"Records are meant to be broken and it's good to have an opportunity to chase them," Rollins said. "But I'm more focused on how we do as a team."

Bonds, who's chasing a certain record himself, jumped on the first pitch he saw, doubling to deep center field against Jake Peavy in San Diego.

The San Francisco Giants star's drive fell about 20 feet short of home run No. 709 and bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double. He needs seven homers to pass Babe Ruth for second place, and 48 to break Hank Aaron's record.

Bonds went 1-for-4 in the Giants' 6-1 loss to San Diego. A fan tossed a syringe near Bonds as he came off the field after the bottom of the eighth inning. The syringe apparently did not have a needle.

"I just put it off the field so no one would get hurt," said Bonds, who is under investigation by baseball for alleged steroid use.

Kenny Rogers combined with two relievers on a four-hitter, Chris Shelton homered twice and Jim Leyland won his first game as the Tigers' manager, 3-1 at the Kansas City Royals.

Curt Schilling looked a lot like his old self in his first opening-day start in seven years, helping the Boston Red Sox win 7-3 at the Texas Rangers. And Billy Wagner got a save in his New York Mets' debut, a 3-2 win over the visiting Washington Nationals.

Wagner ran from the bullpen to the mound at Shea Stadium as Metallica's "Enter Sandman" played, the same theme song Mariano Rivera uses across town at Yankee Stadium.

"I was so nervous they could have shot fire rockets behind me, I wouldn't have known," Wagner said.

At the Reds' home opener, George W. Bush became the first sitting president to throw a ceremonial pitch in Cincinnati. The ball to catcher Jason LaRue was high and to the third-base side of the plate, but Bush called it "my best pitch, which was kind of a slow ball."

A little later, Matt Murton homered in a five-run first and Todd Walker singled home a pair of runs in a seven-run sixth as the Cubs romped 16-7. Chicago scored a club-record 16 runs in its opener for the second year in a row and the Cubs stretched their opening-game winning streak to four. The Reds hadn't given so many opening-day runs since a 24-6 loss to Louisville in 1877.

Leyland, who replaced Alan Trammell after last season, acknowledged more than a few jitters as he managed in the major leagues for the first time since he quit the Colorado Rockies in 1999.

"It's your heart, blowing out of your shirt, that's what it is," the 61-year-old said, putting his hand inside his jersey and flapping it for emphasis. "Nobody's calm in that situation."

At Arlington, Schilling said he was still strong after a 117-pitch outing in which he walked one and allowed only one extra-base hit in seven innings, a two-run homer by Hank Blalock in the sixth inning. His velocity was in the mid-90s at times.

Schilling started last season on the disabled list after surgery to repair the tendon in his right ankle that hampered him during the 2004 playoffs and World Series. Schilling bruised that ankle after coming back and went on the DL another 2Qw months before returning as a closer. He went 8-8 with nine saves and a 5.69 ERA — more than two runs above his career mark.

"All of 2004, I was getting shot in the ankle after April. So this has been almost two years since I felt anything remotely close to this," the 39-year-old said. "This is what I was like in 2002."