Remember the wackiness that was the 2017 World Series? The one with the five extra-inning homers in Game 2 and a back-and-forth 13-12 score in Game 5 and everything else? Yeah, that one. Well, baseball didn't forget, and with a full slate of (scheduled) games for the first time in 50 years, Opening Day picked up right where we left off.
Ceremonial Second Pitch?
One of those "attention to detail" things that we've always enjoyed is the tradition of the umpire requesting the first pitch from the catcher and rolling it away to be authenticated by MLB and then sent to Cooperstown. Except Ian Happ interrupted their collection. We don't know what the protocol is for requesting it from a fan. Especially one in fair territory in the outfield, but that's where it ended up as Happ hit not only a leadoff homer, and not only a first-pitch-of-game homer, but a first-pitch-of-entire-season homer, the first one in 32 years. Dwight Evans of the Red Sox is the only other one known to occur (April 7, 1986), and Kaz Matsui of the Mets was the last player to homer on his team's first pitch of a season (April 6, 2004).
It soon became apparent that MLB's new limit on mound visits was in play, because an unsteady Jose Ureña was left out there by himself and-- obviously not heeding his mother's advice-- couldn't stop hitting people. (This is one of our favorite heckles when we're at a game in person.) As a result, the Cubs scored three times and had the bases loaded when pitcher Jon Lester grounded out to end the frame. In doing so, he became the first Opening Day starter to bat before throwing a pitch since Steve Carlton did it for the Phillies, also in 1986.
The Cubs weren't quite done; in the top of the 2nd Anthony Rizzo-- a graduate of nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School-- also homered for a 4-1 lead and a dubious Marlins record for Ureña. No Marlins pitcher before him had ever allowed two homers and hit three batters in a game. (Any game, not Opening Day.) The combination of Happ and Rizzo marked the third time in Cubs history (to 1876; MLB does not recognize the earlier National Association) that they've homered in their first two innings of a season. Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez did it in Houston in 2009, and Keith Moreland followed Bump Wills in the traditional 1982 opener in Cincinnati.
Very Superstitious
You probably remember who won that bizarre World Series last year. Do you remember how the Astros started the 2017 season? George Springer does. And it worked so well that he decided to do it again in 2018. Although not the first game of the entire MLB season, and not on the first pitch, Springer cranked the third offering from Cole Hamels down the right-field line for his second consecutive season-opening homer. Only one other player in MLB history has hit a pair of leadoff homers on Opening Day, and it was another Astro-- Terry Puhl in 1978 and 1980. But that also means Springer is the first ever to do it in consecutive years.
Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies was the other player to hit a leadoff homer to open 2017. (The Phillies, you might have heard, did not win the World Series. Or 70 games total.) And while Hernandez mustered only a leadoff single on Thursday, he did homer later in the game, the second straight year that a Phillie has had back-to-back Opening Day homers. Freddy Galvis did it in both 2016 and 2017 (he did not homer in 2018, though he did drive in San Diego's lone run Thursday).
And since leadoff homers get all the attention, we'll throw a little love to D.J. LeMahieu, who homered as the Rockies' second batter of the season after Charlie Blackmon struck out. The last second-batter homer in the majors was by Mike Trout in 2015, and the only other one in Colorado history was by Todd Walker against the Cardinals in 2001.
For those who were wondering (including the ESPN crew after Springer hit his), three leadoff homers has been done once. One of them's already been mentioned, Dwight Evans' first-pitch-of-season dinger in 1986. The others that year were by Bobby Grich of the Angels and R.J. Reynolds of the Pirates.
Tonight's Pick-4 Number Is
(Shutterstock)
Statheads will recognize that as the record number of home runs hit in the 2017 regular season. Based on the 30 season openers (small sample size!), we're "only" on pace for 5,508. But there was no shortage of taters in all those other innings Thursday either. Two of the loudest were hit by Giancarlo Stanton in his Yankees debut, linking him with Roger Maris as the only players ever to do that. Maris's debut also happened to be on Opening Day (after a trade with Kansas City that included Don Larsen and future Mets legend Marv Throneberry); they are two of the seven Yankees ever to go yard twice in an opener. Before Thursday, the title of "most recent" belonged to Joe Pepitone way back in 1963; the rest of the list is Mickey Mantle (1956), Russ Derry (1945), Sam Byrd (1932), and some guy named Babe Ruth (also 1932).
And then, of course, there are the White Sox, who were temporarily on pace to hit 972 homers just by themselves. After Jose Abreu started the scoring with a 4th-inning dinger, Matt Davidson and Tim Anderson both went deep later in the inning, marking just the second time the Sox have had a three-homer inning at Kauffman Stadium. The other was by Danny Richar, Jermaine Dye, and Josh Fields (!) on September 17, 2007.
As you probably know, they weren't done. Davidson and Anderson both homered again in the 5th, the first teammates with multiple homers on Opening Day since Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez of Boston in 2015. They also became just the second pair of Sox (heh) to homer twice in the same game in Kansas City. Bob Neiman and Sherm Lollar pulled it off against the Athletics at Municipal Stadium on April 23, 1955.
When Davidson went deep for a third time in the 8th, the rout was on and so were the #Kernels. It was the first three-homer game for the White Sox since Dan Johnson did it in the season finale in 2012, and their first ever in an opener. In fact, only three other players in MLB history had cranked three homers on Opening Day. Davidson joins Dmitri Young (2005 Tigers), Tuffy Rhodes (1994 Cubs), and George Bell (1988) in our early clubhouse leader for "eclectic list of the year". And three of the four (sans Tuffy) did it against the Royals. Davidson's final line of three homers, four runs scored, and five driven in has been matched only twice in White Sox history, by Pat Seerey against the Philadelphia Athletics in 1948 and Carl Reynolds at Yankee Stadium in 1930.
For his part, Anderson is the first player in White Sox history to hit two homers and get "upstaged" by a teammate hitting three. It's only happened twice before in the long history of Chicago baseball (which includes the Whales, mind you), by Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou at Coors Field in 2002, and by Adolfo Phillips and Randy Hundley against the Mets in 1967.
Panik! At The Ravine
Sometimes you don't need six home runs to win (though it doesn't hurt). Joe Panik of the Giants proved that in Thursday's opener with his 5th-inning solo shot. In a game that was humorously described online as "Ty Blach outpitches Clayton Kershaw" (though both were gone by the 6th inning), that lone round-tripper amazingly held up for a 1-0 win over the Dodgers. In their previous 135 seasons of existence, the Giants had never before won an opener by a 1-0 score (the Dodgers have lost five, though the previous one was in 1930), and they hadn't won any 1-0 game on a solo homer since Brandon Crawford topped the Marlins on August 10, 2016. More notably, it's been over 57 years since the Giants beat their old New York rivals with a solo homer as the only score. That happened September 3, 1960, at the newly-opened (!) Candlestick Park, and the home run in question was by Felipe Alou off Sandy Koufax.
Intermission
Disco break!
Fashionably Late
If you prefer your drama at the end of games, Opening Day had plenty of that for you as well. Brad Brach of the Orioles surrendered a two-run, game-tying bloop single to Minnesota's Robbie Grossman with two outs in the top of the 9th, but that was just all part of the plan. You see, Baltimore also played an extra-inning opener last year (with Toronto) and are the first team to do it in consecutive years in a decade (when Pittsburgh and Detroit both did). When Adam Jones launched a solo homer in the 11th, it gave the Orioles their third straight Opening Day walkoff-- and all of them were by scores of 3-2 (the Twins were also the victim in 2016). Regardless of the score, the O's are the first team in MLB history to win three consecutive season openers in walkoff fashion.
Gone Fishing
The Angels and Athletics also needed a couple extra frames (and mysteriously, no "free runners" at second base) before Marcus Semien deposited a game-winning single over a five-man infield for a 6-5 walkoff. Oakland hadn't won its season opener on a walkoff since 1984, and that was a Carney Lansford RBI groundout (vs Brewers). The last time the Athletics had a walkoff hit (any value) on Opening Day, they weren't in Oakland. They weren't even in Kansas City. The date was April 17, 1934, and pinch hitter Edmund "Bing" Miller hit a pinch-hit single for another 6-5 win, over the Yankees at Shibe Park.
Mike Trout drew the first 0-for-6+ of his career in Thursday's extra-inning affair, and combined with Justin Upton's line just below, they became the first pair of Angels' 2- and 3-hitters to go 0-for-5 with neither having an RBI since Howie Kendrick and Bobby Abreu did it against the White Sox on April 15, 2011... in a win.
Brave New Season
The Phillies took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the 8th in Atlanta on Thursday, but thanks to the stylings of Adam Morgan and Edubray Ramos (and some help from a throwing error), they did not take that lead into the top of the 9th. When Nick Markakis strode to the plate with two runners on in the bottom of the 9th, not one but both teams had a "first time in two decades" note. Markakis's homer marked the first time Atlanta had won its opener in walkoff fashion since Javy Lopez stole second against Milwaukee in 1998. Yes, we know a steal of second does not itself result in a walkoff, but when catcher Mike Matheny airmails the ball into center field and Gerald Williams scores from third, it does. Markakis is also the first Braves batter in their history (to 1876) to hit a walkoff home run on Opening Day.
And it turns out 1998 was also the last time the Phillies lost their opener on a walkoff. Alberto Castillo of the Mets hit a bases-loaded single to win that year's opener at Shea Stadium.
Motown Mow-Down
Gregory Polanco's three-run shot in the top of the 13th propelled the Pirates to a 13-10 win over Detroit in one of two openers that got postponed to Friday. By inning, it was the latest home run Pittsburgh has ever hit against Detroit, although being in opposite leagues they don't play each other all that often. The runs were the most the Pirates have scored in a season opener since 1911 (14-0 at Cincinnati), and it was the first time the Tigers had ever scored 10 in an opener and lost.
Not only did Polanco homer in the 13th, he got clipped by catcher James McCann with two outs in the 9th to prolong the inning (this is not technically true, you can't assume an out on a CI, but roll with it) and allow two more runs to score. He was the first Pirate to hit a home run and receive a CI award in the same game since Dale Berra did it against the Cardinals on June 25, 1983. (More CI fun in a moment!)
Winless In Seattle
Love it or hate it, #bullpenning seems to be here to stay, at least for a while, and thus if anyone throws more than four or five complete games this season, we'll be impressed. So it seems fitting that of the 30 Opening Day starters, only one of them made it through the entire game-- and he lost. Corey Kluber of the Indians struck out eight Mariners and needed only 91 pitches, but he also allowed two early runs and the offense sputtered against "King Felix" Hernandez. It had been five years since any pitcher threw an Opening Day CG (that was the aforementioned Clayton Kershaw), and the last Clevelander to do it... was also the last Opening Day starter for any team to lose. That was Jake Westbrook against the White Sox in 2005.
Only one other Clevelander has taken a complete-game loss on Opening Day while also recording at least eight strikeouts; that was Herb Score, also against the White Sox, in 1957.
Mariners catcher Mike Zunino was a late scratch due to "minor stiffness", so Mike Marjama got his first Opening Day behind the dish instead. In the 2nd he got called for catcher's interference after making contact with Edwin Encarnacion's backswing. Now remember the Polanco play from above. As part of our bizarre obsession with this call here at #Kernels, we can tell you that the last Opening Day to feature two CI calls was in 1985-- by the Indians' Chris Bando and the Royals' Jim Sundberg.
But guess what. Marjama wasn't even the first one to commit the infraction on Thursday. That happened in the very first game of the day, by the Marlins' Chad Wallach. And while records before 1960 are imprecise because the leagues didn't officially report CI's, we can say that 2018 is the first known season where there were three such calls on Opening Day. As someone pointed out on Twitter, none of them involved Jacoby Ellsbury either.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Noah Syndergaard: Second Mets pitcher with double-digit strikeouts in a season opener. Pedro Martinez had 12 in 2005 at Cincinnati.
⚾ Khris Davis & Matt Olson: First Athletics to hit back-to-back homers in a season opener since Dave Henderson and Terry Steinbach in 1990.
⚾ Yolmer Sanchez: Hit three-run single because runners were going on a 3-2 pitch and the throw was cut off. First such play for White Sox since Chad Kreuter did it against the Tigers on May 28, 1998.
⚾ Zach Duke: First pitcher ever to have a four-strikeout inning on Opening Day. Also just the second in live-ball era to have a line of 1 IP, 4 K, and 2 WP, joining the Rockies' Bruce Ruffin (vs Cubs), July 25, 1996.
⚾ New York Yankees: First time holding Jays to two hits in Toronto since April 9, 2002, by Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera. Both hits were solo homers (because Rogers Centre).
⚾ Eduardo Nuñez: First Opening Day inside-the-park home run in MLB since Stephen Drew in 2010. First for Red Sox since Carl Yastrzemski in 1968.
⚾ Yadier Molina: Fourth career Opening Day home run (first since 2014), tying Albert Pujols for most in Cardinals history. Stan Musial had three.
⚾ Milwaukee Brewers: First opener in their 50-season history to go 12 innings or longer. Only other current teams to never have one are the 1998 additions (Rays and Diamondbacks).
⚾ Max Scherzer: Third pitcher in Nats/Expos history with double-digit strikeouts in opener, joining Stephen Strasburg (2014) and Steve Rogers (1982).
⚾ Jake Lamb: First player in Diamondbacks history to have 4+ RBI in a season opener.
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