Open, Season

Curtain Up

The first official pitch of 2017 was thrown by Chris Archer at 1:12 pm Sunday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. It marked just the second time that a season's opening pitch was thrown in Florida; when the 1995 season finally began (three weeks late due to the strike), the Marlins had the only game played on "Opening Day", April 25. The Rays "hosted" one other season opener, in 2004, but that was the two-game series with the Yankees at the Tokyo Dome. Tampa's 7-3 win over the Yankees gave the New Yorkers their sixth straight season-opening loss, the longest streak in franchise history (topping 1934-38).

Plate umpire Jerry Layne called the first pitch of 2016 as well, becoming the first to do so in consecutive seasons since Joe West in 2004 and 2005.


Act One

Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies and George Springer of the Astros both went deep as their team's first batter of the season. No player had done it since then-Ranger Ian Kinsler in 2011, and both batters became just the second ever to do it for their respective teams. Heinie Mueller hit the other one for the Phillies at Baker Bowl on April 19, 1938, off Dodgers "great" Van Lingle Mungo.

Springer's homer was the third to open a season in Astros history, but the others were by the same player. Terry Puhl did it against the Reds in 1978 (off Tom Seaver) and again versus the Dodgers in 1980 (off Burt Hooton). Carlos Correa homered later in Monday's game, just as he did last year; he became the fifth Astro to go deep in consecutive openers. Richard Hidalgo did it in 1999 and 2000; the others were Joe Ferguson, Glenn Davis, and Jeff Bagwell.

And as for Kinsler, he went deep in the Tigers' rain-postponed opener on Tuesday, and while not a leadoff homer, it marked the second straight year he's homered in Detroit's first game. No Tiger had pulled that off since catcher Aaron Robinson in 1949-50.


That Boring Middle Part
(or, stuff that didn't fit anywhere else in the analogy)

Though not a walk-off, Adam Lind gave the Nationals the lead for good with a two-run pinch-hit homer in the 7th inning Monday. Lind thus became the first "Washington National" ever to hit a pinch-hit homer in his first game with the team. Former Royals DH Joe Vitiello made a brief return to the majors with the Expos in 2003 and was the last to do it for the franchise.

Jackie Bradley Jr. had an Opening Day triple that sparked a five-run 5th inning for the Red Sox (all with two outs). He was the youngest Bostonian to hit a triple in their opener since 1978, when Jerry Remy and Jim Rice (both younger than Bradley) hit them two batters apart in the same inning against the White Sox.

Khris Davis of the Athletics hit two homers Monday to lead the first victory on the newly-christened "Rickey Henderson Field". He joined Jason Giambi (2000) as the only Athletics in team history (Oakland, KC, or Philadelphia) to go deep twice in an opener.

Yasmani Grandal clobbered two homers as the Dodgers romped over his former team, the Padres, 14-3 in Monday's opener. Only two other players in team history have gone yard twice in the first game: Raul Mondesi did it in both 1995 and 1999; while HOF'er Roy Campanella hit two against the Giants in a loss in 1954. Joc Pederson also hit a grand slam Monday, the second in Dodgers history on Opening Day. Eric Karros did it in Montreal in 2000. Having scored 15 runs against the Padres in last year's opener made the Dodgers just the second team ever to post consecutive 14's, joining the Cubs in 2005-06.


Intermission
You know you want to watch the Van Lingle Mungo song again right now. We'll wait.


Show-Stopping Number

The most notable performance from this year's Opening Day of course goes to Madison Bumgarner. Not only did he take a perfect game into the 6th inning (making us reach for our Bob Feller trivia books), but he homered in his second plate appearance. That made him the first pitcher to homer in an opener since Clayton Kershaw in 2013, and the first Giants hurler since Johnny Antonelli in 1956. He stood to become the first pitcher to homer in his own no-hitter since Rick Wise of the Phillies in 1971.

Jeff Mathis spoiled that with a 6th-inning triple, and two batters later, Bumgarner had actually lost the lead on an A.J. Pollock dinger. No worries, he got it back. In his next at-bat in the 7th, Bumgarner homered again, the first pitcher in major-league history to go yard twice on Opening Day. No Giants pitcher had homered twice in any game since Jim Gott against the Cardinals on May 12, 1985, and no pitcher for any team had homered twice and struck out 10 opponents since (here he is again!) Rick Wise in August 1971 (not the no-hitter).

For his part, Mathis would end up going single-double-triple (in four innings, no less), the first player to do so in an opener since Aaron Miles of the Cardinals in 2006, and only the second catcher in the live-ball era. Bob Montgomery of the Red Sox pulled off that line in 1979.

Chris Owings ultimately won the game for the Diamondbacks with the year's first walk-off, the first time the Giants have lost an opener via walk-off since Dusty Baker's single (he was then a Dodger) scored Bill Russell on April 6, 1982.


The Big Finale

Owings wasn't the only one to end the show on a dramatic twist. Randal Grichuk of the Cardinals laced a bases-loaded single to left for a 4-3 walk-off against the Cubs on Sunday night. Grichuk has both of the Cards' walk-off hits to defeat the Cubs in the past four seasons, beating them with a home run last May. It was the Cardinals' first opening-day walk-off since Scott Cooper's two-run single (scoring Ozzie Smith and Bernard Gilkey) beat the Phillies in 1995; and also the first time St. Louis had walked off against Chicago in an opener since 1924.


Encore

After both teams grounded into inning-ending double plays in the 9th on Monday, the Orioles finally walked off against the Blue Jays thanks to Mark Trumbo's 11th-inning solo shot. Baltimore had only one extra-inning walk-off homer last season; it was also by Trumbo (to beat Arizona on September 23), and more notably, it was the first time in team history (Orioles, Browns, or the 1901 Brewers) that they had won their opener via walk-off homer.

It also marked five straight victories for the Orioles in openers that went to extra innings; their last loss came against Texas in 1977, a game in which Jim Palmer pitched a 10-inning CG but gave up an RBI single to Bump Wills (son of Maury) who was making his major-league debut.


Reprise

After their 14-run outburst in the opener on Monday, the Dodgers promptly got shut out by Clayton Richard and the Padres in Game 2 on Tuesday. Only one other team in major-league history dropped 14+ and 0 in their first two contests: The 1945 Senators against the Athletics; they lost the second game 1-0 in the 12th inning when George Kell beat out an attempted double play that would have ended the inning and Irv Hall scored from third.

Speaking of 14's, the Brewers' offense struck out 14 times in the opener Monday and then did it again on Tuesday. That earned them the dubious honor of being the first team in the live-ball era to fan 14+ times in each of their first two games.

After a six-run 7th inning on Monday that included three bases-loaded walks (the first time the Royals had issued three since 2009), the Twins won their second game on Wednesday with another six-run 7th inning. Although they actually had back-to-back six-run 2nd innings as recently as 2014 (yes, we looked), it also made the Twins 2-0 for the first time since 2007. (They were also 2-0 in 1997 and 1987 if you believe in patterns.) Minnesota had lost its last eight season openers before Monday; the longest active streak, as noted at the very top of our show, now passes to the Yankees.


The Cast Would Like To Thank

Birthday shoutout to Jay Bruce, whose bases-loaded walk was one of five drawn by the Mets in their six-run 7th inning Monday. The Braves had not issued five walks in an inning since April 8, 2009, against the Phillies; but more notably, Bruce became just the second Met ever to draw a bases-loaded pass on his birthday. Jim Hickman did it against the Reds on May 10, 1963.


The Reviews Are In

After the Orioles gave us our third Opening Day walk-off, none of the remaining cast members could come through with a fourth. Which means, alas, there has still never been a season where four teams won their openers via walk-off. (Obviously, prior to 1961, there were only eight games in most years, so odds were considerably lower.) To prove this, however, we had to scour some old newspapers for boxscores to rule out enough potential walk-off scores. (To say nothing of, the home team didn't always bat last in the early days.) Either way, that search yielded this fun story from The Providence Morning Star about the 1884 Boston Beaneaters (that's the NL team, now the Braves, write your own #Barves joke) raising the previous year's championship banner upside down. Sure enough, in the following four seasons (1885-88), they finished a combined 103 games back and didn't win another title until eight years and one new ballpark later.