The Second Best Two Words in Sports

Opening Day. 

If “Game Seven” are the two best words in sports, “Opening Day” is easily number two.

Baseball, your summertime sports companion is back in near full force, as all MLB member teams were scheduled to open on the same date in 50 or so years.  Unfortunately rain in Detroit and Cincinnati prevented that from occurring but 26 teams that played were welcomed back by fans from Miami to Seattle.

Where should we start our day 1 recap?

How about with Ian Happ, as the Cubs switch-hitting second year player was making his first career Opening Day start, leading off in the season’s first game.  He wasted no time sending a belt high fastball into the right field stands in Marlins Park, giving the Cubs a 1-0 lead.  A helluva way to start but in his final four at-bats the youngster did strikeout three times and popped out weakly to third base.  It was still obviously a heck of a way to enter the season with a bang but some anticipated growing pains were also obvious.

Jon Lester struggled as well, only lasting 3.1 innings.  He struck out just two and caused just 7 swings and misses in the 71 pitches he threw.  Velocity barely broke 90, hopefully its more a case of dead-arm like he had in early 2015 and not a step towards the downfall.  We should give him a few more starts before we begin making ultimate claims but where he’s at in his career and because of concerns I had before today, I’ll be tracking that his next few starts.

Kyle Schwarber continues to be an adventure in left field with a couple more blooper reel plays today.  He may have lost a bunch of weight but his tracking of a ball in the fourth made a double a triple and shortly after he left another base hit go under his glove and roll all the way to the wall.  He did hit a home run over the 392’ sign in right field however, giving us the total Schwarber feel in one game.  He had one particularly awful inning today defensively and I doubt that’ll be his last, however, with an offense as potent as this one will be I’m sure we’ll see him get a lot of starts and be replaced defensively with a lead from the fifth or sixth inning on most of this summer.  His bat has simply looked too good to ignore since being recalled from Iowa last summer.

Anthony Rizzo’s home run in the second inning was perhaps the biggest feel-good story of the day with the game being in Miami, just a short ride from Stoneman Douglas High School.  Rizzo will host families of victims at Friday night’s game, hopefully he can put on another show for them then. 

We also did see a rare misplay from Rizzo in the field, as he seemed to entirely miss seeing a ball off the bat of Miguel Rojas that wound up in the right field corner for a double.  Nothing much more to say besides it was a weird play where he probably lost the ball while starring right at Marlins dugout which was full of white uniforms, it was just strange to see the sure-handed Rizzo not even really make an attempt on the ball.

Steve Cishek was able to pitch around that though and looked good doing so.  Hats off to the Cubs bullpen as a whole allowing no runs in 5.2 IP today, and that strange play (or lackthereof) by Rizzo was the only hit allowed by the bullpen in their extended work all day.  Heck, Justin Wilson (not Turner, I type that out of habit far too often) even went an inning without walking anyone.

I get the Marlins roster resembles that of the Indians in the original “Major League” but it was still a nice win on Opening Day.  Things set up nicely to start the year for the Cubs as, despite it being 10 straight road games, the first 6 come against the Marlins and Reds, who both figure to be among the worst few teams in the NL.

The White Sox kicked off the year and overcame a rough beginning by James Shields to also start 1-0.  A few takeaways from that action on a 44 degree day in Kansas City:

Matt Davidson had his Tuffy Rhodes/Dmitri Young moment, hitting three home runs on the afternoon.  He still isn’t seen as the future third baseman of the White Sox and nor should he be, but that was an awesome afternoon in a game full of power for the Sox.

Davidson (3), Tim Anderson (2) and Jose Abreu all went yard, roughing up a poor Royals outfit.  Yes, the Sox will have plenty of growing pains this year but its matchups like this why I can’t understand why the Sox win/loss total was so low in Vegas, or why so many had them finishing so low in the AL.

Listen, I’m not saying they’ll even challenge .500 once we get to mid-summer but you can’t convince me they don’t have significantly more talent at this level than what the Royals or Tigers offer in their own division.  Because of that alone there will be enough wins to keep them from finishing anywhere near the dead-bottom of the junior circuit.

Other thoughts/observations around the league:
Giancarlo Stanton hits two home runs in his Yankees debut.  I don’t know how good their pitching will ultimately be but that Yankees outfit seems like it’ll challenge to put 6 or so every stinking night they go out there.  I know because of the JD Martinez signing and assumed health of David Price that people got on board late with the Red Sox but I’m buying what the Yankees are selling in the East and assuming health, don’t see this epic divisional race so many seem to believe is coming.

Mets 9 Cardinals 4
Noah Syndergaard was the story here with 10 strikeouts in 6 innings. It wasn’t his finest outing as he did allow all 4 runs and gave up two bombs, but his control seems to be as good as ever as he didn’t walk a soul today.  Put me down for Thor in your NL Cy Young race.

George Springer goes Happ(y 100)
The Astros got an Opening Day win in Texas as the defending champs won 4-1, but also got a quick start when George Springer went yard on the first pitch of the game.  It was Springer’s 100^th career home run, something he’s hit every 18.7 or so at-bats of his career. Easy to forget however that Springer is 28, and that 28 in baseball terms isn’t what 28 was just a few years ago.  He’s obviously a fantastic player but I’m honestly curious when his prime is going to last until based off of what baseball has shown us in recent years.

Mike Trout Might Be Human
The Angels lost in walkoff fashion today, 6-5 in Oakland but that wasn’t the main story here.  Mike Trout went 0-6 in this game, the first time in his career he’s ever gotten 6 at-bats and failed to get a hit.  I guess he is human after-all.  That, or he’s going to go 4-5 with 2 bombs tomorrow to make up for it.

Pitchers Duel in Dodger Stadium
The Giants walked out with a 1-0 win on Opening Day in Dodger Stadium, with the only run coming on a Joe Panik solo home run.  Kershaw was still good but not his level of great, allowing just the single run but 8 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings.  The main takeaway from this one though was the Dodgers 7 and 9 (Grandal and Pitcher spot) hitters going 5 for 7 while the rest of the lineup went just 1 for 24 (.041).

There you go, day 1 is nearly in the books and I’ll fall asleep soon listening to one of my favorites in Dave Sims, as he’s got the Mariners/Indians call.  Glad baseball is back and if you enjoyed this please let me know, it’ll encourage me to do it as often as time allows throughout the summer.