After Phillies starter Zack Wheeler throws six shutout innings against the Braves, the Philadelphia bullpen blows a 2-0 lead, giving up nine runs in two innings. Matt Olson, celebrating his 30th birthday, starts the top of the eighth inning with his second double of the game, and finishes the seventh run frame with a bases loaded third double of the game. The Braves now lead 9-2 and Phillies fans are leaving the park in disappointment.
Update: The Braves win 9-3.
Brandon Marsh of the Phillies breaks up a pitching duel with the Braves with a two-run homer to left-center, giving the home town team a 2-0 lead. Atlanta starter Spencer Strider walked one and struck out seven through the first 4 1/3 innings, but Bryson Stott put the bat on the ball to single to start the inning, the Marsh got all of a ball with one out. The Phillies fans are going wild as there is no love lost between these teams.
The Brewers beat the Mets 3-1 at Citi Field on opening day, holding the Mets to one hit, a solo home run by Starling Marte. The Mets struck out ten times, which limited their opportunities for hits, but the Brewers made some nice defensive plays, too.
In the ninth, second baseman Brice Turang, in earlier as a pinch hitter, ranged to the shortstop side of second to stop a Harrison Bader grounder. He threw over his body to first, where Rhys Hoskins made a spectacular stretch and catch for the out. Then Blake Perkins made a nice running catch on a Brandon Nimmo fly to left center. Finally, Francisco Lindor hits the ball up the middle, but Willy Adames is standing right where the ball is hit for the out.
Freddy Peralta, getting the opening day start, shone with one walk and eight strikeouts in six innings. He’s the new ace of the Milwaukee rotation, and certainly performed up to that moniker today.
Starling Marte picks up the first Mets hit of the year as he hit a line drive home run to left, right off the home run line on the fence. Marte’s power fell off over 140 points last season versus 2022, so getting his power back would be a great positive for the Mets. They lead the Brewers 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning.
Update: Christian Yelich of the Brewers homers to tie the game in the top of the fourth inning. Yelich’s power started to return last season, and the Brewers would love to see him return to a .500 slugger.
Jackson Chourio, the 20-year-old Brewers phenom, leads off and walks in his first MLB plate appearance. He posted a .373 OBP in spring training. He also steals his first base. The Brewers and Mets are scoreless in the top of the first inning as baseball opens in New York City.
Update: Chourio does not score as Rhys Hoskins hits into a double play on a less than hard it ball to third base. It’s clear that Hoskins has very little speed after his injury last year. No score going to the bottom of the first inning.
The Rangers beat the Cubs 4-3 in ten innings. Jonah Heim of Texas turned out to be both the cause and resolution of the additional frame:
With the score knotted at 2, the Cubs had Michael Busch on second and Nico Hoerner on first with two outs. Both players had reached base on back-to-back walks by Texas closer Jose Leclerc.
Chicago, piloted by new skipper Craig Counsell, sent pinch hitter Miles Mastrobuoni to the plate. Mastrobuoni swung at an 0-1 Leclerc changeup well below the strike zone. The ball skittered away from Heim, who thought the pitch had made contact with the bat. He lobbied plate umpire Chad Fairchild for a foul ball to no avail.
While Heim was engaged with Fairchild, Busch saw that Heim had not retrieved the ball, which lay about 15 feet away, and scored from second on what was scored as a wild pitch. Heim compounded the mistake with an errant throw to Leclerc, allowing Hoerner to advance to third.
ESPN.com
This play happens every once in a while, even to veteran players. The fielder is so upset at the missed call that he argues rather than continuing the play. Note that the replay appeared to show it was a foul ball. In the tenth, Heim singles home the winning run, so all is forgiven.
Tyler O’Neill of the Red Sox set a record with his fifth straight home run on Opening Day. The shot in the eighth inning gave the Red Sox the lead as they beat the Mariners 6-4.
The Diamondbacks set a record as well as they pounded the Rockies 16-1. They scored 14 runs in the third inning, the most scored in an inning on opening day in the modern era:
Maybe most improbably, Arizona didn’t hit a homer during the inning. Ketel Marte, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Christian Walker, Gabriel Moreno and Geraldo Perdomo all had two hits. Corbin Carroll walked twice. Blaze Alexander had his first big league hit with a single up the middle that scored the 14th run.
The outburst broke franchise records for most hits, runs and batters in an inning. It took 34 minutes for the Rockies to get three outs. The D-backs led 16-1 after three innings.
ESPN.com
Finally, Athletics fans protested outside the stadium during opening night as the team hosted the Guardians. They did not miss anything, as Cleveland took the game 8-0. David Fry had the big night with the bat, going three for four with a double for the Guardians, while Shane Bieber walked one and struck out eleven in six innings of work.
Mitch Keller of the Pirates allows the Marlins five runs in 5 2/3 innings, but the Pittsburgh pen pitches near perfectly for 6 1/3 innings as the Pirates take the game 6-5 in twelve innings.. The relievers allowed one hit and two walks.
Luis Arraez of the Marlins, who flirted with .400 in 2023, went 0 for 6.
Three baseball sons on the Blue Jays post good games as Toronto defeats the Rays 8-2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. picked up just one hit in five at bats, but the one hit left the park. Bo Bichette doubled, singled and walked, driving in two runs and scoring one. Cavan Biggio got his starting job back this year. He homered and walked twice, scoring twice.
These are the three players that were supposed to be at the heart of the Blue Jays resurgence, and today they delivered.
Pablo Lopez of the Twins works efficiently against the Royals and lasts seven innings in a 4-1 Minnesota win. He threw just 84 pitches, and if this were not early in the season he might have gone the distance. Lopez recorded just one complete game in his career.
The Tigers beat the White Sox 1-0, Tarik Skubal of Detroit and Garrett Crochet of Chicago both going six innings. Neither walked a batter, Skubal striking out six, Crochet eight. The only blemish against Crochet came on a sacrifice fly by Andy Ibanez.
The bullpens shone as well, with the Tigers relievers not allowing a hit, while the White Sox pen allowed one hit and one walk.
The Dodgers 1-2-3 of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman lit up the Cardinals for five hits, three extra-base hits, four walks, six runs, and four RBI. After three games, Betts is hitting .636/.733/1.273.
The Dodgers lineup is not as deep as in the recent past, but with those three at the top they may not need to be.
Paul Goldschmidt collected all three of the Cardinals hits, homering for the team’s only run.
The Padres beat the Giants 6-4 to win their San Diego opener. They continue to do damage with singles. Sixteen of their 21 hits in South Korea went for singles, and eight of nine today. They are batting .280 as a team with a .364 slugging percentage. It’s working, however, as they own a 2-1 record.
Juan Soto figures prominently in the Yankees 5-4 win over the Astros. He draws two walks, singled in the Yankees first run, and made a great throw from rightfield in the bottom on the ninth to cut down the tying run at the plate. The Yankees collected nine walks to go with eight hits, and might have scored even more if they didn’t ground into three double plays. Oswaldo Cabrera, starting for an injured DJ LeMahieu and batting ninth, singled and homered, his shot tying the game at four.
Nick Martini of the Reds blasts two home runs and drives in five runs from the eighth slot. That helps Cincinnati down Washington 8-3. The bottom of the Reds order, the six through nine hitters reached base eight times and drove in all eight runs.
Corbin Burnes of the Orioles pitched six innings against the Angels, striking out eleven and allowing just one hit, a home run by Mike Trout. Meanwhile, the Orioles hitters generated 10 hits and drew six walks on their way to an 11-3 win at home on opening day. Catcher Adley Rutschman led the offense with two hits and a walk.
Framber Valdez of the Astros keeps getting in and out of trouble against the Yankees. He induced the double play ground balls through four innings. Twice they came with the bases loaded and one out to end big threats. The Houston leads New York 4-0 in the middle of the fourth inning.
Update: Juan Soto breaks the bases loaded double play streak with an RBI single in the top of the fifth inning. That cuts the Astros lead to 4-1.
Logan Webb retired the first nine Padres he faced as the Padres play in San Diego for the first time this season. He struck out four, throwing 44 pitches through three innings. The Giants lead 1-0 as East Longmeadow’s own Nick Ahmed delivered an RBI double.
Update: Xander Bogaerts singles leading off the fourth inning to break up the perfect game.
The Astros load the bases with two out in the bottom of the first, and Chas McCormick delivers a single on a 3-2 pitch to drive in two runs Yainer Diaz follows with a single and Houston leads the Yankees 3-0.
After striking out the first two Angels, Corbin Burnes gets burned by Mike Trout, who takes him out of the park in center for a 1-0 Angels lead over the Orioles after half an inning. Trout didn’t pull the pitch, otherwise it might have been caught in the deeper Orioles leftfield.
The Stateside Season is underway.
Update: The Orioles load the bases with no one out in the bottom of the first, and score two runs on a ground out and a single to lead the Angels 2-1 at the end of one.
Update: Patrick Sandoval of the Angels exits with two out in the second inning, having allowed five runs so far. The Orioles are up 5-1.
The Dodgers beat the Padres 5-2 to take the opening game of the 2024 MLB season. Starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow of the Dodgers managed to last five innings, while Yu Darvish of the Padres only went 3 2/3. Even though the Dodgers trailed 2-1 as both teams went into the bullpen, the Dodgers avoided using their lower ranked relievers. That made the difference as the Padres pen got roughed up for four runs in the eighth inning.
The Dodgers batting eye was in place as they drew nine walks and struck out seven times.
The Dodgers load the bases in the top of the eighth inning, and tie the game on an Enrique Hernandez sacrifice fly. Gavin Lux then hits a ball to the right of first baseman Jake Cronenworth of the Padres. Cronenworth appears to snag the ball, but his webbing breaks and the ball goes through to the outfield to give Los Angeles a 3-2 lead. Two more singles, and suddenly the Dodgers are up 5-2 when the Padres could have been out of the inning with a tie.
The Padres lead the Dodgers 2-1 at the end of six innings. The Padres loaded the bases with none out in the fourth inning. Fernando Tatis Jr. grounded into a double play to push over the go-ahead run, but take San Diego out of a big inning.
There’s only been five hits in the game, but eight walks as the edge calls have tended to go to the hitters.
Tyler Wade leads off the bottom of the third inning for the Padres, and works his way around the bases on a wild pitch, tagging up on a deep fly ball to center, and a single by Xander Bogaerts. That’s the first hit of the game for the Padres and it gives them a 1-0 lead over the Dodgers after three innings.
The Dodgers load the bases with two out in the third inning on a Shohei Ohtani single and two walks. Yu Darvish comes back and strikes out Max Muncy to end the threat and keep the game scoreless. Darvish’s pitch count is up to 64, however.
Max Muncy of the Dodgers picks up the first hit of the 2024 season, leading off the second inning with a single up the middle. He’s slashing 1.000/1.000/1.000 on the season. He moves to second on a ball in the dirt that gets away from the catcher, bouncing into the infield. A very nice base running play by Muncy.
Still no score.
Update: The Dodgers strand Muncy to keep the game scoreless.
The Dodgers and Padres are about to get underway in Korea. I noticed the Padres took a hint from the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) and moved Xander Bogaerts to the leadoff slot.
Play ball!
Update: Mookie Betts starts off the season with a pitch clock violation walk.
Update: An explained play in the first inning. On a 1-1 pitch to Shohei Ohtani, Betts steals second base on a ball. The umpires send him back to first base, however. I have to believe there was a pitch clock violation. That hurts, as Ohtani grounds into a force out.
The Dodgers do not score in the opening frame.
Update: Tyler Glasnow retires the Padres easily in the first, and the season is underway with no score and no hits after one inning.
The Guardians made a decision about how to handle the opening day total eclipse of the sun*.
*It does not involve flying a Lear Jet to Nova Scotia.
Cleveland’s first game at Progressive Field against the Chicago White Sox will begin on April 8 at 5:10 p.m. – two hours following a total solar eclipse, an event that hasn’t happened in Northeast Ohio since 1806 and won’t again until 2444.
The team said Thursday that the ballpark’s gates will open at 2 p.m., giving fans a chance to observe the eclipse, which will begin at 1:59 p.m. and go for several hours with the peak coming at 3:13 p.m. and lasting four minutes.
ESPN.com
That’s cool. Fans get a chance to enjoy the outage in the park, then take in a game. The Guardians likely get to pull in a lot more concession money as well.
The Guardians face a big day in Cleveland for their home opener as the lights go out. The city will be in the totality path of the April 8th solar eclipse. The city will be packed, and it’s not clear when the game should start:
The Guardians have started their home openers in recent years with a 4:10 p.m. first pitch. This year, though, that falls in the partial-eclipse window when fans might still be distracted by the overhead phenomenon and not focused on seeing All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez step into the batter’s box against the Chicago White Sox.
The team has spent months weighing whether to embrace the eclipse and open the ballpark early to allow fans to watch it together — an opening act on Opening Day — or wait until it’s over and play a night game.
The Guardians, who start on an 11-game trip, are expected to announce their decision on the opener in coming days.
ESPN.com
Embrace the darkness! Get the fans in early and sell Blue Moon beer! Sun dried tomato pizza! Blast Dark Side of the Moon over the loud speakers! The game will go down in history.
So far on opening day we’ve had four shutout, and with Toronto scoring two runs in the top of the ninth, we’ve had two games with at least 19 runs.
We’ve also had the first major in-game injury as Max Fried leaves the game with a ham string injury.
Alec Bohm of the Phillies takes Jacob deGrom of the Rangers deep in the top of the second inning, and the Phillies lead the Rangers 2-0. deGrom’s home run rate rose in 2022 despite keeping his strikeout rate very high. He’s struck out four through two innings, but did allow the two hits that led to the runs.
Bohm was 0 for 8 with five Ks against deGrom going into that plate appearance.