Baseball is officially back, and Opening Day never fails to disappoint, today we watched newcomers settle into their new roles with new teams, established impact players dominate their opposition as usual and while it’s only the first game, we saw a lot of action that either excited us or worried us. While it’s premature to judge a player or team’s trajectory of their season based off of one performance we’re going to take a look at how certain teams and players performed based solely on the eye test. Without further ado, let’s take a look at who had a day to remember, and who needs to go back to the drawing board in preparation for their next game.
Winners of Opening Day
Los Angeles Dodgers
Do you remember a heartbreaking 4-1 losing series to the Boston Red Sox in the 2018 World Series? Because the Dodgers sure don’t seem like they do. The 2018 World Series runner up finalists came out yesterday and made a statement with a commanding 12-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Joc Pederson and Enrique Hernandez both scored two home runs among the Dodgers total of eight (an Opening Day record), to seal the first victory for the Dodgers. The Diamondbacks rotation had absolutely no answer for the Dodgers rotation, but we’ll get into that atrocity in a little bit. The Dodgers also had a solid day on the mound as Hyun-Jin Ryu started off his season on the right foot fanning eight batters and only giving up one run. Like I mentioned before, it’s premature to judge teams off of one game, but for a first game, this is exactly the type of explosive start they needed as they begin the race for their sixth consecutive NL west title.
New York Yankees
The Yankees got off to a strong start yesterday beating the Baltimore Orioles 7-2 in their home opener. Luke Voit got things rolling with a three-run home run to put the Yankees up 3-0 and Greg Bird capped the game off with a solo home run, every batter ended up on base at least once. Masahiro Tanaka also got off to a strong start striking out five batters, and only giving up two runs with no walks. After starting last season in Triple-A, Voit was traded to the Yankees last summer and knocked in 14 home runs and 33 runs batted in during 39 games for the Yankees, and he seems like he’s ready to take the next step forward after last season’s success. After setting the record for most home runs by a team last season with 267, the Yankees are looking to reclaim that same type of dominance at the plate this season, and after yesterday’s performance that doesn’t look like it’ll be a problem.
Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer
The Mets may have escaped with the win, but this game was a defensive battle across the board as Max Scherzer struck out 10 batters while only giving up a home run and a single RBI to Robinson Cano, and Jacob deGrom struck out 12 batters and only walked one. Cano was easily a winner of Opening Day, but the real excitement stemmed from the intense competition between the 2018 NL Cy Young winner (deGrom) and the runner up (Scherzer) who both displayed why they’re two of the most highly regarded names in the MLB. They are only the second duo in MLB history to reach double-figure strikeouts in an Opening Day matchup. The other duo was Dave McNally of the Orioles and Sam McDowell of the Indians in 1970. DeGrom set a major league record with his 30th consecutive start allowing only three runs or fewer, and this was Scherzer’s 83rd game with at least 10 strikeouts. Between deGrom and Scherzer’s performances, the bar has been set high for Noah Syndergaard and Stephen Strasburg in tomorrow’s matchup.
Losers of Opening Day
The Blue Jays bats
The Toronto Blue Jays were tough and resilient through 10 innings of play before the Detroit Tigers ended the game via a Christin Stewart two run home run, which sent the Blue Jays home with their first loss and their eighth consecutive home opening loss. Jordan Zimmerman did everything he could to give the Blue Jays a chance pitching a perfect game through the seventh inning, but the Blue Jays batting rotation couldn’t buy a hit yesterday as the entire batting rotation went 2-32 from the plate. After a disappointing 2018 season that saw them finish 73-89, the Blue Jays will have to figure out how to improve their fortune at the plate if they want to see an improvement in their record this season.
The new stars in town
Bryce Harper and Manny Machado both stepped up to the plate yesterday with shiny new contracts and a lot to prove. Both of the stars went hitless and other than Harper grabbing a walk and a run, and two defensive plays by Machado, neither player made any significant contributions to their team on the plate yesterday. The hype around both of their debuts weren’t really overshadowed by their performances, but both of them will have to get their heads out of Cloud 9 and focus on showing why they deserve all of the money that has been invested in them.
Zack Greinke
I told you we’d get to the atrocity that was the Diamondbacks rotation yesterday. Where do I start? Four home runs, seven hits, seven runs and two walks with only three strikeouts in three innings, I can’t imagine a scarier nightmare for a pitcher and I’m sure Zack Greinke can’t either. With every crack of the bat, the intensity of the situation increased, and it finally reached a head when Greinke was shredded for three home runs in the fourth inning, and we were all really sitting there feeling so bad for Greinke. If there’s any consolation for Greinke, you could remind him that Matt Koch came in and didn’t do any better than him. After a 2018 Gold Glove award season, Greinke is now sitting with a 17.18 ERA and a lot of self reflection to do.
