Opening Day did not disappoint. Action-packed games galore with some great performances and wild endings. How can you not be romantic about baseball?
Burnes Domination: The Orioles have been looking for pitching for some time now. Now they have it. They acquired Corbin Burnes in the offseason, and he didn’t disappoint on Opening Day. He struck out 11 batters in 6 innings and only allowed one hit which was a Mike Trout home run. Baltimore destroyed the Angels 11-3.
Soto Shines: Who doesn’t love a good Yankees-Astros matchup. It was all Astros early as they got out to a 4-0 lead. Then, newly acquired Juan Soto started the scoring for the Yanks with an RBI single, his first hit with the team. New York came all the way back and took the lead. In the bottom of the 9th, with two runners on, Kyle Tucker lined a base hit into right field and looked like it was going to score Mauricio Dubon. Juan Soto had other plans as he threw Dubon out, which eventually gave the Yankees the win. What a start to the season.
Great Starting Pitching from AL Central: The AL Central might be the most open division in Major League Baseball. I think it will be very close throughout the season. On Opening Day, the pitching stood out as a strength for each team. In Tigers-White Sox, Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet stole the show. Both went 6 innings, as Skubal struck out 6 and Crochet struck out 8. Unfortunately, Crochet got the loss as he allowed the only run of the game. In Twins-Royals, Pablo Lopez went 7, struck out 7, and only gave up one run. On the other side, lefty Cole Ragans went 6, struck out 9, and gave up 2 runs. Lopez and the Twins won 4-1. And how about Shane Bieber? He pitched a wonderful game against the Oakland A’s. He went 6 innings, K’d 11 batters, and didn’t give up a run in an 8-0 win. This division is gonna be so fun to watch.
Marvelous Martini: There is some hype around the Reds and their young talent. The first name you look at is Elly De La Cruz. Guess who stole the show on Opening Day? Nick Martini! The 33 year old has been on 4 teams in 6 seasons, and this is his second year with Cincy. Before yesterday, he had 8 career home runs. Now, make that 10. He hit two home runs, a two-run and three-run, in back to back innings. This is what baseball is all about, folks.
Craziness in Cubs-Rangers: At around 7:35 EST, I sat down and realized that Cubs-Rangers was the only game on. I am also a basketball fan, so of course I had to go back and forth with the March Madness games. Well, starting at around the 7th inning, I could not switch off Cubs-Rangers. The game was incredible and straight up crazy. Texas had many chances to put the game away with a few hits, but they couldn’t. Then in the 9th, there was a foul tip off the bat of Miles Mastrobuoni, but wasn’t called and non reviewable. Catcher Jonah Heim pleaded his case instead of going for the ball, and a run scored all the way from second base to give Chicago the lead. In the bottom of the 9th, who was going to tie it up? If you answered Travis Jankowski, you would be correct. His pinch-hit solo home run tied the game up at 3. After some clutch pitching from David Robertson, the Rangers had a chance to win it in the bottom of the 10th. Jonah Heim walked it off with a base hit, and as the ESPN commentators put it, he redeemed himself.
Diamondbacks Rout Rockies: After a World Series loss last season, how were the D-Backs going to respond to start the 2024 season? Oh, just score 16 runs, including 14 in the same inning. Total domination from start (1st inning) to finish (3rd inning). Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove in 5 runs to lead the team. Also, 8 players had multi-hit games. EIGHT.
