Length of 2019-20 "offseason":
— Doug Kern (@dakern74) July 23, 2020
266 days 19 hours 19 minutes.
Length of 1994-95 strike-extended offseason:
256 days 18 hours 54 minutes.
I Don't Want To Wait
Ignoring the 800-pound gorilla that it was thrown on the twenty-third of July, that first pitch of 2020 left Max Scherzer's hand on Thursday night, the first time an MLB season had opened in Washington since 1971. The sixteenth pitch of 2020 left Nationals Park (or at least the playing field) as Giancarlo Stanton unleashed the first home run of the season. (Hey, at least we won't obliterate another record for that this year. Probably.) The injury-plagued Stanton was serving as the Yankees' DH after his latest setback, a calf injury in February which has kept him from doing any outfield work. But, well, wait another minute. We're in Washington. Since 2005 it's been a National League Park, and the last AL team to play here did so before the DH rule was adopted. Or should we say, was adopted the first time. In the weirdness that is 2020, the DH rule will be in effect for all games, which gave us the weird phenomenon of AL teams getting to use their "extra" hitter even in an interleague game. Before Stanton we found only four other instances of an American League DH going yard in a National League ballpark. From 1976 to 1985, the World Series alternated years with and without the DH for all games, regardless of site, and Reggie Jackson went deep twice in the '78 Classic at Dodger Stadium. The others were flukes of nature; in 2007 the Indians moved an entire April series with the Angels to Miller Park in Milwaukee when late-season snows wouldn't let up. Travis Hafner homered in one of those games. And in April 1998 Yankee Stadium was plagued by falling roof supports and Shea was used as a home for one of the affected games. That contest, also involving the Angels, featured a homer by Darryl Strawberry.
So it turns out we're not even done figuring out that list before it was Gerrit Cole's turn to fire some pitches. (Gerrit, we're pretty sure, is no relation to Paula Cole, and if you're new to this, be aware that the headers are sometimes clickbait.) Anyway, it only took twelve of Gerrit's pitches before Adam Eaton went yard as well. He was not the Nationals' designated hitter (in their home park?), but we'll have some of those later. Instead he joined Bryce Harper (in both 2013 and 2016) as the only Nationals to homer in the 1st inning of the team's entire season. Combined with Stanton, it was the first season opener since 2016 where both teams homered in the 1st, and Harper's shot was half of that combo. He traded solo shots with Freddie Freeman of the Braves.
Stanton would end up going yard again on Saturday, becoming the first Yankees batter to homer in back-to-back games in Washington since Bobby Murcer did it against the Senators in April 1969.
Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie
So just as Max Scherzer and Gerrit Cole are starting to settle down after the 1st-inning fireworks, nature remembers that it's July. And that just wouldn't be complete without a massive band of thunderstorms working its way toward Nats Park in the middle innings. This allowed everyone to start getting philosophical about another 2020 MLB adaptation of a minor-league rule, the one where a game that has been started, but isn't 5-innings "official" yet, gets suspended at that point instead of wiped out and restarted. So at least we knew Stanton's and Eaton's homers would count. And when Cole struck out Victor Robles to end the 5th, with the approaching thunder made even more threatening by the lack of crowd noise, we didn't have to worry about restarting the game on Saturday. But just 13 pitches and 8 minutes later, Angel Hernandez was waving the players off the field just as the heavy rain began falling. After waiting 267 days for baseball, we all got to see 103 minutes of it before we paused everything again.
Now, in the meantime, the Giants and Dodgers started their game out west, so we weren't completely devoid. But still the Powerful People in Washington waited an hour-58 to finally call a game that had only featured an hour-43 of actual playing time. It became the first rain-shortened opener since April 3, 2000, when, much like Thursday, the Brewers and Reds played the traditional Cincinnati-based first game in all of MLB (aside from two games in Tokyo earlier). They got rained into a 3-3 tie, also in the top of the 6th, the first Opening Day tie since 1965 (and there have been only five total ties since then).
Thursday's game would not end up tied, given that Stanton had driven in another run in the 5th. But with Cole and Scherzer both still in the game when it was called, both of them technically get credit for a complete game, the first double-CG in a season opener since Mark Langston of the Angels defeated Bill Wegman of the Brewers on April 6, 1993. Cole joined Luis Severino from 2018 as the only Opening Day starters in Yankees history to allow just 1 hit (the Eaton homer) and get a win. Scherzer, meanwhile, struck out 11 in the shortened affair, joining Tony Cloninger of the 1966 Braves as the only Opening Day pitchers ever to throw a complete game, strike out that many opponents, and still lose. And while he didn't throw a complete game in the 2019 opener, Scherzer fanned 12 Mets in that one and also lost. He gets the dubious honor of being the first pitcher in the modern era (1901) to suffer multiple Opening Day losses in which he struck out 11 or more.
I Can't Wait
Max Kepler was not about to wait for another trip around the sun (astronomy reference!), although he did have to wait until the rest of the teams opened their seasons on Friday. And the Twins' "bomba squad" from last year was just as explosive as ever, starting the season by having Kepler launch the first pitch from Lucas Giolito over the right-field wall while the cardboard cutouts were still filing into their seats. Kepler joined Jacque Jones (2002) as the only players in Twins history to go deep as the team's first batter of a season. As for the first pitch, well, recall that Ian Happ of the Cubs took the first pitch of the entire MLB season out of Marlins Park just two years ago. So Kepler had to come up with some other way of distinguishing his Opening Day achievements.
That would happen about a half-hour later, when thanks to a 4-run outburst in the 1st, Kepler came to bat again in the 2nd inning, still against Giolito. He at least took the first pitch this time. But ultimately, same result, another homer for a 5-1 Minnesota lead. Kepler thus became the first player, for any team, to homer in both the 1st and 2nd innings of his team's season opener, since Ted Kluszewski did it on April 11, 1961, in the very first game the Angels ever played. As for two homers in a Twins opener, well, Jacque Jones did that in 2002 also, but only three others in franchise history (1901) had done it before them: Gary Gaetti (1982), Brant Alyea (1970), and Karl Olson (1956).
Although the Twins ultimately got more runs off Giolito and won 10-5, the White Sox did match that 4-spot and create a 5-5 tie by the end of the 2nd inning. It's the first game since at least 1900 that was the season opener for both teams, and in which both teams scored 5+ runs that quickly. Giolito's 7 earned runs put him on a list with Mark Buehrle (2008), Jose Contreras (2007), and Vern Kennedy (1937) as the only White Sox hurlers to do that in an opener.
The Twins promptly blew up for nine more runs in the first two innings on Sunday en route to a 14-2 thumping. It was the first time in franchise history (1901) that they'd reached double digits twice within their first three games of a season, and it's been nearly three years (September 2, 2017) since they had 9 runs by the 2nd inning. Jake Cave started Sunday's game with a 1st-inning grand slam, Minnesota's first in a road game since Danny Valencia hit one in Detroit on September 25, 2010.
However, the big bopper on Sunday was 40-year-old Nelson Cruz, technically still playing his age-39 season since his July 1 birthday is the day after those ages are set. Doesn't really matter, though; Cruz unloaded for 2 homers, 2 doubles, and 7 runs batted in to become the oldest player in history with a 4-XBH, 7-RBI game... by 3½ years! The old mark belonged to Phil Weintraub of the Giants, who was a mere youth of 36 and change when he did it in April 1944. The last 7-RBI game for any Twins batter was by none other than Max Kepler-- not on Friday, but on July 2, 2016, in Arlington. Cruz on Sunday also became the sixth player ever to have 4 XBH, 7 RBI, and 4 runs scored while batting cleanup, a list that also includes Shea Hillenbrand (2003), Harold Baines (1991), Fred Lynn (1975), Pat Seerey (1948), and Lou Gehrig (1934).
Wait, Staff
Across town, in a scheduling move that would almost never happen in a normal season, the Cubs also played a weekend series at home to open their shortened 2020 campaign. The pitching outcome there was just a little better. (The videoboard outcome, however, was not.) Kyle Hendricks drew the Opening Day start for the North Siders against Milwaukee, and he needed no help. Hendricks allowed just three measly singles and no walks in throwing an individual shutout and finishing four pitches shy of a "Maddux". (Named after Greg, who did it at least 16 times, it's an SHO in under 100 pitches.) Hendricks also struck out nine Brewers, becoming just the third pitcher in Cubs history to throw an SHO-3 (or better) with no walks and 9+ strikeouts at Wrigley Field in its 107-year history. Bob Rush did it against the Reds in 1952, and the other was Kerry Wood's famous 20-strikeout game against the Astros in 1998.
The Brewers, for their part, had only had one other season opener where they were shut out on three or fewer hits. That was in 1973 by Baltimore's Dave McNally. And did we mention who had those three hits for Milwaukee on Friday? Well, number-9 batter Orlando Arcia broke up the no-hitter in the 3rd. Number-9 batter Orlando Arcia singled with 1 out in the 6th. And the top of the 9th began with the final single by, mm-hmm, number-9 batter Orlando Arcia. He had all three hits himself; the Brewers' 1- through 8-hitters got completely shut out. Excluding the times when the the entire team has been no-hit, the Brewers hadn't had that happen since July 30, 1979, against Orioles pitcher turned Cubs broadcaster Steve Stone. Friday was also Arcia's third 3-hit game out of the Brewers' number-9 spot; since jumping to the National League where the pitchers would normally hit there, Arcia is the first with three such games.
If you like strikeouts, might we recommend the Kleveland Indians as your team to follow. (They could just replace the Chief Wahoo logo with a giant K. No big design competition or multi-color printing required. Very cost-efficient. But we digress.) The Indians got seven 12-K games from their pitchers last year, trailing only the Astros, and Shane Bieber wasted no time collecting all those strikeouts that he missed during the 4-month layoff. Bieber needed 97 pitches to get through 6 innings in Friday's opener, but that's largely because he struck out 14 Royals batters among the 18 he retired. Not only was Bieber the first Indians pitcher to fan 14+ in a season opener, he's just the third in the last 60 years to do that for any team... and the others were both Randy Johnson (1993 and 1996). Extending another 40 years to the century that is the live-ball era, only two additional pitchers did it, both of them in 1960 itself-- Camilo Pascual of the Senators and Dodgers legend Don Drysdale.
As mentioned, Bieber only pitched 6 innings, meaning the Royals still weren't done striking out even after he left. They whiffed four more times against Nick Wittgren and Brad Hand, marking just the second 9-inning game in their team's history where they struck out 18+ times on offense. The other was against another pitcher you might have heard of, Roger Clemens on August 25, 1998.
You'd think with all those strikeouts there wouldn't be "control problems". But Friday's game also was marred by five hit-by-pitches, to five different batters by five different pitchers. That ties the modern-era record for such a thing in any game, and is the first season opener in that span to feature five different plunk-ees. Whit Merrifield actually started Kansas City's season by getting hit, the first batter in Royals history to do that.
If Kleveland's not your scene for strikeouts, then the opposite Korner of Ohio might suit you just as well. Over in Kinkinatti (okay, yeah, that one doesn't work), former Clevelander Trevor Bauer unleashed a 13-strikeout performance on Sunday as the Reds battled the Tigers. He was the first Cincinnati pitcher to strike out 13+ and allow no more than 2 hits in an outing (any length) since the great Ron Villone did it against the Cardinals on September 29, 2000. And Bauer's game came on the heels of Luis Castillo having fanned 11 Tigers on Saturday. It had been 54 years since Reds pitchers struck out 11+ in back-to-back games; Joey Jay and Jim Maloney did it in May 1966.
Problem: The Reds lost both of those games. After finally getting the starters out of the game, the Tigers saw JaCoby Jones (Saturday) and C.J. Cron (Sunday) both unleash go-ahead homers in the top of the 9th. They hadn't done that in back-to-back games since Torii Hunter and J.D. Martinez did it in Minnesota in September 2014, and it had been another 10 years since both dingers were of the multi-run variety. Carlos Peña and Dmitri Young had back-to-back walkoffs in June 2004. Saturday's game was Detroit's first 9-inning game where they whiffed 17 times and still won since July 5, 1997, a 6-5 win over the Orioles.
Near the middle of each installment we throw in a little music break to keep your reading soundtrack going. And there are a lot of songs, plenty of good ones, about waiting, hanging around, missing someone or something. But the majority of them are slow ballad-type things and we woudln't do that to you. You'd need to be really mellowed out for that. Almost like you were waiting for the train that goes home, sweet Mary. Intermission! (And Mike Brewer has a baseball-y name, so there.)
Wait Here A Second
So if you thought the universal DH was a radical rules change that got thrust upon your old-school traditionalist game, you might want to skip this part. Because hang on, why is there a guy suddenly on second base? The minor leagues went to the international tiebreaker rule two years ago, and we've been dealing with it in some independent leagues since 2014. But most fans' introduction to it came on Friday night when Shohei Ohtani, who had ended the 9th inning by striking out, was sent out to second base to start the 10th inning with Jared Walsh coming to the plate. The rule is designed to prevent long marathon games by making it more likely that someone will score, and in the minors it can sometimes be a relief because there's an end in sight and you won't be stuck there until 11 or midnight. Those cardboard cutouts have to go to work and school in the morning. Anyway, it's certainly appropriate that a rule designed to increase scoring had its first usage was in the AL West, and also that Ohtani got caught in a rundown on the very first play and never scored. Instead, that would be left to Matt Olson who came to the plate in Oakland's half of the 10th after a hit-by-pitch and a walk loaded up the bases for him. Enter Hoby Milner, of 42 previous innings in the big leagues, most of them with the Phillies in the second half of 2017. Exit baseball.
Olson's walkoff grand slam was the third one ever hit in a team's season opener, after Jim Presley of the Mariners in 1986 and Sixto Lezcano of the Brewers in 1980. Those were both in the 9th inning, not extras, although in the past it was usually hard to load the bases in extras without scoring at least once and ending the game before that. It was the fourth walkoff slam in any game since the A's moved to Oakland in 1968; Olson joined Gene Teance (1973), Tony Armas (1980), and Mark McGwire (1990) in that group. And for Hoby Milner, well, his fortunes can only go up? He became the first pitcher in Angels history to gave up a walkoff homer to the first batter he faced in their uniform.
Wait Tlil The End, It Gets Better
That Oakland game on Friday might have been the first use of the "wacky" free-runner-at-second rule, but it certainly wouldn't be the last. The Braves took a 10-inning decision from the Mets on Saturday, but it was Marcell Ozuna's tying home run in the 9th that was the interesting part. It came with 2 outs and 2 strikes, the Braves potentially down to their final pitch, and was the first such tying or go-ahead homer for the Braves since Andrelton Simmons added to Jonathan Papelbon's "legacy" on September 7, 2013. They hadn't hit such a homer against the Mets since Brian Jordan's walkoff slam on September 29, 2001.
But throw out the "go-ahead" part and it gets more fun. If you look only at game-tying homers, the last one for the Braves when down to their final out was by Matt Adams against the Dodgers on July 23, 2017. But their last such homer against the Mets? Well, that was on July 4, 1985, and gives us a long-awaited chance to link one of our favorite clips-- The Rick Camp Game.
On Sunday it was the Rays who treated us to our first walkoff triple of the young season. We always raise an eyebrow at walkoff triples because the rule requires that in order to get credit for reaching a base, the batter has to actually run out his hit. And realistically, how many of those guys actually keep going? How many of them linger around second base and watch the winning run cross the plate before getting not-mobbed by teammates as the cardboard cutouts go wild? So we're not sure that Kevin Kiermaier's three-bagger on Sunday is going to stand up, but it's there as we write this, and it is the third one in Rays history. Jose Lobaton (who still reminds us of this song) also beat the Jays in 2013, and Ben Zobrist had their first one ever against Seattle in 2012. Thanks to that wacky free-runner rule, the walkoff hit was a two-run version; no player for any team had hit a walkoff triple while trailing in extras since Alejandro De Aza of the White Sox on August 7, 2013.
Wait Of The World
As lovers of anything ballpark-related (and sad that this year probably won't add any to our list of 243 pro venues), we must touch on the opening of Globe Life Field, not to be confused with Globe Life Park because that would be too easy. (True anecdote: The first time we tried to go to Winston-Salem, we looked up "BB&T Field" on the map because it sounded baseball-y. Got there and it's Wake Forest's football stadium. The baseball place was "BB&T Ballpark". Thirty minutes away on the other side of town, during rush hour. Game got rained out anyway. But we digress. This happens a lot.)
Aside from the traditional sending of the first pitch to the Hall of Fame, and the glowing reviews from all those cardboard cutouts about how nice it was to have a climate-controlled stadium where they wouldn't dry out and warp, there wasn't a whole lot of stadium-specific stuff to come from the Rangers' first series in their new home. Although we couldn't help noticing the number of extra-base hits, because, well, everything's bigger in Texas. In the opener on Friday, the Rangers had two doubles and a triple, but no singles, their first time doing that since May 25, 2009.
Friday's score was the Rockies' first-ever 1-0 loss in a season opener, and amazingly, their first-ever 1-0 loss in any interleague game. The Rangers had one other 1-0 Opening Day win, against the Yankees in 1980 when Goose Goosage's wild pitch scored Mickey Rivers (we affectionately refer to this as a bounce-off).
Catcher Jeff Mathis then tripled again on Saturday, the first season in Rangers/Senators history that they'd recorded a three-bagger in each of their first two games. It was also just the second time, in any pair of games, where the Rangers had gotten a triple from their number-9 hitter in consecutive games; Curt Wilkerson and Jerry Browne pulled that off on Memorial Day weekend 1988.
Joey Gallo finally hit the Rangers' first dinger at their new home on Sunday, cementing his name in team lore. The franchise's other first-homer hitters are Billy Klaus (Griffith Stadium 1961), Bob Johnson (RFK 1962), Frank Howard (Arlington Stadium 1972), and Will Clark (The Ballpark 1994).
Waiting For A Star To
With some players opting out of the shortened 60-game season, and no minor leagues in which to stash others, you can expect to see plenty of new faces in new places in 2020.
Didi Gregorius finally got to send out one of his famous postgame victory Tweets on Saturday night for the first time since last October. The confusion, of course, is that the Yankees lost on Saturday night. Instead Sir Didi was congratulating his new team, the Phillies, on topping the Marlins in a game where he started the scoring with a 2nd-inning homer. That followed another dinger in the 5th inning of Friday's opener, marking the eighth time in Phillies history that a player had gone deep in each of their first two games. Maikel Franco (spoiler alert, he's not there anymore either) did it last year, and the only other time it happened in back-to-back years was 1988 and 1989 when Mike Schmidt did it by himself. Gregorius is also the first Phillies batter to homer in each of his first two games with the team since Ricky Jordan in July 1988.
We still think of Mike Moustakas as one of the anchors of the Royals' lineup; he seemed like the type of player who would be there for his entire career, even re-signing with them after becoming a free agent in 2017. Instead they traded him to Milwaukee in exchange for pitcher Jorge Lopez (who went 4-9 with a 6.33 last year) and quadruple-A outfielder Brett Phillips. Anyway, Moose has now landed in Cincinnati, where he dropped 3 hits and 4 RBI, including a 7th-inning homer, in Friday's opener against the Tigers. Given that the northern version of the "I-75 series" doesn't get contested very often, Moustakas and Ken Griffey Jr (July 16, 2001) are the only two Reds batters ever to have 3 hits and 4 RBI in a game against Detroit. George Foster (1980) and Joe Morgan (1978) are the only other Reds hitters to do it in a season opener. And as for 4 RBI in his first game with the team, Moose is just the second in Reds history to do that; Ryan Lavarnway became the first after his release by the Yankees last July.
After five decent seasons with the Red Sox, Rick Porcello was granted free agency last fall and has found his way down to Queens. (He originally got to Boston by being traded for Yoenis Cespedes, so it's fitting that now they're back together.) Porcello was tapped as the Mets' number-3 starter for Sunday night's series finale with the Braves. And "tapped" might be the word. The Braves tapped him for 7 runs, mostly thanks to two doubles and two walks to start the 3rd. He joined an unfortunate club with Brent Hinchcliffe (2001) and Grant Roberts (2000) as the only pitchers to give up 7 earned while getting 6 outs or fewer in their first appearance with the Mets.
The Braves, however, weren't done piling on. Porcello was spelled by Corey Oswalt, which is always our third guess after "Roy" and "Patton". He too left his name in Kernels lore by surrendering five more runs including three homers as the Braves cruised to a 14-1 win. Oswalt was the fourth pitcher in Mets history to give up 7+ hits and 3+ homers in relief, after Darren Oliver (2006), Josias Manzanillo (1994), and Darrell Sutherland (1966). Between Porcello's doubles and Oswalt's homers, the Braves collected 11 extra-base hits, the most ever by any team at Citi Field (including the Mets). Two teams did it at Shea Stadium, and neither of them was the Mets either. Atlanta's on that list from a 16-0 win on July 2, 1999, along with the Padres in May 2001. Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, and Marcell Ozuna-- he of the tying homer in the 9th on Friday-- became the first trio of Braves players to each homer and double in the same game since Chipper Jones, Javy Lopez, and Vinny Castilla did it in Montréal on July 25, 2003.
And this section wouldn't be complete without a mention of Tommy Pham, the longtime Cardinal who has found a new Pham-ily in San Diego this year. (If he ever ends up in Philadelphia we're gonna have a Phield Day with this.) In Friday's opener with Arizona, Pham stole two bases and scored on both trips when Eric Hosmer unleashed a pair of bases-loaded doubles. He joined Damian Jackson (1999) and Miguel Dilone (1985) as the only players to swipe a pair in their first game with San Diego. So on Saturday he did it again. Only five other players in the live-ball era have stolen at least two bases in each of their team's first two games, and it's quite a list: Eric Young (Senior, for the Dodgers), Kenny Lofton, Rickey Henderson, Lonnie Smith, and Maury Wills.
By the way, Hosmer's two bases-loaded doubles gave him 6 RBI on Friday without hitting a home run. He's the first player in Padres history to pull that off, and the second for any team ever to do it in a season opener. Ken Landreaux of the Dodgers had a three-run double, a two-run single, and a sacrifice fly against the Astros in 1983.
Bottom Of The Bag
⚾ Wil Myers, Saturday: Second player in Padres history to hit a lead-flipping homer while serving as the team's designated hitter. Matt Kemp did it in Texas on July 11, 2015.
⚾ Jalen Beeks, Friday: Struck out 5 batters in an Opening Day relief appearance. Did the same thing last season against the Astros. First pitcher since at least 1900 to do it twice.
⚾ Maikel Franco, Saturday: First extra-inning sacrifice fly by a Royals batter in Cleveland since Terry Shumpert on April 24, 1991.
⚾ Eric Lauer, Sunday: First pitcher to make his Brewers debut in relief and strike out 6+ opponents since Darren Holmes at Toronto, April 14, 1991.
⚾ Jackie Bradley, J.D. Martinez, Jose Peraza, Friday: First trio of teammates to each have multiple doubles in a season opener since Tom Herr, Keith Hernandez, and Dane Iorg of the Astros in 1982.
⚾ Miguel Rojas & Magneuris Sierra, Sunday: First set of 8- and 9-hole hitters in Marlins history to triple in the same game.
⚾ Kolten Wong & Tommy Edman, Fri-Sat: First time Cardinals recorded a triple in each of their first two games of a season since Fernando Viña and (really!) Rick Ankiel in 2000.
⚾ Enrique Hernandez, Thursday: Second Dodgers batter ever with 4 hits & 5 RBI in a season opener, joining Raul Mondesi in 1999.
⚾ Leury Garcia, Saturday: First White Sox #9 batter with a multi-homer game since Josh Fields against the Dodgers, June 24, 2009.
⚾ Shohei Ohtani, Sunday: First Angels starter to give up 5+ earned runs and not record an out since Jason Grimsley at Detroit, July 30, 1996.
⚾ J.P. Crawford & Kyle Seager, Saturday: First game in Mariners history where one player had two triples and another had two doubles.
