NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) - The jury is still out on which is the strongest league in Major League Baseball after the opening weekend of Interleague produced a deadheat.
There were 42 games played between American League and National League teams over the weekend but when the last pitch was tossed, they could not be separated, finishing 21-21.
Although there was no clear winner, and there are still more than 200 Interleague games left in the season, it was an encouraging start for the NL, who have been beaten by their AL opponents in each of the past seven seasons.
The NL, which includes World Series champions San Francisco Giants, would have won the opening skirmishes had the AL's Boston Red Sox not taken the final game against the Chicago Cubs to ensure the tie.
Four sweeps highlighted the 14 three-game series that formed the first round of interleague play with the next batch starting up in mid-June.
The Giants capped a sweep against cross-bay rivals Oakland Athletics with a walk-off, 5-4 win in the 11th on Sunday.
San Francisco, who lead the NL West at 27-19, showed more of the magic of their 2010 title run by claiming an 11th home win by a single run, including seven on a game's last at-bat.
The surprising Cleveland Indians socked it to cross-Ohio rivals Cincinnati Reds, who last year won the NL Central crown, by finishing a sweep with a 12-4 rout powered by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who pounded five hits.
Cleveland raised their MLB best record to 29-15 and boosted their home record to a sensational 18-4.
The Arizona Diamondbacks reached the .500 mark at 23-23 and ran their winning streak to six by taking three games from the struggling Minnesota Twins (15-30), 2010 AL Central winners.
Young right-hander Daniel Hudson improved to 5-5 as he won his fifth game from his last six starts.
The other interleague sweep came from the Seattle Mariners, who continued to show the power of pitching as Erik Bedard, Rookie of the Year front-runner Michael Pineda and AL Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez shut down the San Diego Padres.
Mariners starters have gone at least seven innings and limited the opposition to two runs or less for nine games in a row, the first rotation to accomplish that feat in 23 years.
There were 42 games played between American League and National League teams over the weekend but when the last pitch was tossed, they could not be separated, finishing 21-21.
Although there was no clear winner, and there are still more than 200 Interleague games left in the season, it was an encouraging start for the NL, who have been beaten by their AL opponents in each of the past seven seasons.
The NL, which includes World Series champions San Francisco Giants, would have won the opening skirmishes had the AL's Boston Red Sox not taken the final game against the Chicago Cubs to ensure the tie.
Four sweeps highlighted the 14 three-game series that formed the first round of interleague play with the next batch starting up in mid-June.
The Giants capped a sweep against cross-bay rivals Oakland Athletics with a walk-off, 5-4 win in the 11th on Sunday.
San Francisco, who lead the NL West at 27-19, showed more of the magic of their 2010 title run by claiming an 11th home win by a single run, including seven on a game's last at-bat.
The surprising Cleveland Indians socked it to cross-Ohio rivals Cincinnati Reds, who last year won the NL Central crown, by finishing a sweep with a 12-4 rout powered by shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who pounded five hits.
Cleveland raised their MLB best record to 29-15 and boosted their home record to a sensational 18-4.
The Arizona Diamondbacks reached the .500 mark at 23-23 and ran their winning streak to six by taking three games from the struggling Minnesota Twins (15-30), 2010 AL Central winners.
Young right-hander Daniel Hudson improved to 5-5 as he won his fifth game from his last six starts.
The other interleague sweep came from the Seattle Mariners, who continued to show the power of pitching as Erik Bedard, Rookie of the Year front-runner Michael Pineda and AL Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez shut down the San Diego Padres.
Mariners starters have gone at least seven innings and limited the opposition to two runs or less for nine games in a row, the first rotation to accomplish that feat in 23 years.
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