One of the best days of the year has come and gone. We've spent roughly 5 months waiting for baseball to return and now we get baseball every day for the next 7 months after opening day kicked off the season yesterday.
After an offseason of impact signings, blockbuster trades, alleged player adjustments, and prospect speculation, we finally saw it all in action. Here are some of the highlights from yesterday's action-packed days.
Old Faces New Places
Arguably two of the biggest free agent signings and the two biggest offseason trades are providing early returns to their teams. Shohei Ohtani, despite having to settle for being a one-way player this season, continues to impress in Dodgers blue, going 2-3 with a double, run scored, and a walk, in his home debut. After terrorizing the Padres pitchers in the Seoul Series, Ohtani continues to be a headache for opposing pitchers, and the Dodgers have to be happy with the early returns of their $700m investment
The Astros deployed their new closer yesterday and he looked worth every penny. Josh Hader signed a monster 5-year, $95 million deal this offseason to improve an already strong Astros bullpen. Hader came into the game in the ninth inning and dominated all three Yankee hitters he faced, striking out the side on just 13 pitches.
Speaking of the Yankees, their big move of the offseason was trading for generational talent Juan Soto. Soto stood out at the plate, working a walk and being a pesky at bat for the Astros pitching staff but surprisingly made his mark in this one with his defense. Soto gunned down the would-be tying run to save the game for the Yankees in the ninth inning and also contributed at the plate going 1-3 with an RBI and two walks.
Another blockbuster trade acquisition made himself even more beloved by Oriole faithful, as Corbin Burnes dominated in his O's debut. After allowing a first-inning homer to future HOF Mike Trout, Burnes settled in for a dominant afternoon, allowing no other Angel to reach base while striking out 11 over 6 dominant innings.
Texas Thrillers
The state of Texas was home to two of the most exciting games yesterday. As mentioned above the Yankees defeated the Astros thanks to a great defensive play by Juan Soto and Jose Trevino, who applied the tag at home without blocking the plate. However, the game didn't start very well for the Yankees, as the Astros got to starter Nestor Cortes early, scoring four runs in the first two innings. Astros starter Framber Valdez didn't have his best stuff but limited the damage, making big pitches when he needed to and allowed only 3ER over 4.2IP despite 6BBs and 5H.
The Yankees were able to rally against the Astros bullpen to pull ahead 5-4, in part thanks to a bottom-of-the-order that accounted for 3 RBIs and three runs.
The defending champion Rangers hosted the Cubs and their ace Justin Steele in a game that needed extras to decide. Justin Steele dominated the Rangers early, keeping them off balance with an assortment of fastballs, cutters, sliders, and sweepers before unfortunately leaving due to injury in the 5th after a great defensive play.
In a back-and-forth game, the Rangers were able to take down the Cubs thanks to a monster home run by Adolis Garcia to tie the game in the 6th, and an extremely clutch pinch-hit home run by Travis Jankowski in the 9th after the Cubs retook the lead on a wild pitch in the top half of the frame.
Dodger's Deadly Trio
We touched on Ohtani's success earlier but he's only one part of a three-headed monster that terrorizes opposing pitchers every day. Mookie Betts looks like he found a way to reach another level after narrowly missing out on his second MVP award last season. Despite being 31 years old and playing SS full-time for the first time in his professional career, Mookie Betts's offense looks better than ever. After a Seoul Series where he tormented the Padres, Mookie continued his torrid start to the season going 1-2 with a home run, two walks, and three runs scored.
Freddie Freeman's Seoul Series results aren't anything special, but watching his ABs you could tell the results were more due to bad luck than a bad process. Freddie gets the pleasure of hitting third in the Dodgers lineup (behind Betts and Ohtani), a spot every hitter in the league should be jealous of, and will have plenty of opportunities to drive in runs this season. Freddie finished his 2024 state-side debut going 2-3 with a home run, a walk, 3 RBIs, and two runs scored.
Overall, the Dodgers' top three finished yesterday with a ridiculous combined stat line, finishing 5-8 with 6 runs scored, 4 RBIs, 4 walks, and 2 strikeouts as the Dodgers beat the Cardinals 7-1.
Quick Hitters:
Lots of great pitching performances yesterday! We talked about some of these above but here are the top pitching performers from opening day*:
- Tarik Skubal, DET: 6IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 6K
- Garrett Crochett, CHW: 6IP, 5H, 1ER, 0BB, 8K
- Jesus Luzardo, MIA: 5IP, 2H, 2ER, 2BB 8K
- Cole Ragans, KCR: 6IP, 5H, 2ER, 3BB, 9K
- Pablo Lopez, MIN: 7IP, 4H, 1ER, 0BB, 7K
- Logan Webb, SFG: 6IP 5H, 2ER, 2BB, 5K
- Yu Darvish, SDP: 5IP, 5H, 1ER, 1BB, 7K
- Frankie Montas, CIN: 6IP, 4H, 0R, 0BB, 4K
- Jose Berrios, TOR: 6IP, 6H, 2ER, 1BB, 6K
- Tyler Glasnow, LAD: 6IP, 2H, 1ER, 1BB, 5K
- Corbin Burnes, BAL: 6IP, 1H, 1ER, 0BB, 11K
- Shane Bieber, CLE: 6IP, 4H, 0R, 1BB, 11K
- Nathan Eovaldi, TEX: 6IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 3K
- Justin Steele, CHC: 4.2IP, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 6K
- left injured
* as we get deeper into the season we're going to get stingier with our top performers, but in the spirit of opening day and a bunch of pitchers showing out, we included more than we typically will
Long Seasons Ahead
Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Despite it being literally one game, some teams already look like they will be repeating 2023 or worse. Mike Trout was the only Angels starter to get a hit with his first-inning home run. The Angels have truly failed miserably and hopefully, he gets the opportunity to play postseason baseball at some point in his career.
The Rockies and A's were outscored by a combined 25 runs. Both teams only mustered four hits, yes they were facing both the Guardians and Diamondbacks aces, but that's still no excuse to struggle so much.
ICYM:
Don't forget to check out our other articles!
Don't forget to check out our other recent articles!
No comments:
Post a Comment