MLB Opening Day 2023 is in the books. All 15 teams started their seasons on Thursday, providing us with what proved to be an entertaining day of baseball. For those who didn’t get to experience Opening Day in its full glory, or for those who simply want to relive what might be the best day of the baseball season all year: You’re in luck, we’re here to sum it all up for events from across the majors through the use of an easy subtitle format. the use.
Let’s go to her.
Judge leads the Yankees to an Opening Day victory
One way or another, Aaron Judge was going to be at Yankee Stadium on Opening Day. Either he’ll re-sign with the Yankees as a free agent in the offseason last season and receive a hero’s welcome, or he’ll sign with the hometown giants and be in the visiting dugout. Judge, of course, returned to New York, and was named the 16th captain in franchise history.
On Thursday, Judge led the Yankees to victory over the Giants with his first solo home run and hit in the seventh inning. Logan Webb is death right and allowed a home run in his last 10 home runs last season, but Judge took him deep in his first home run of the new season. This was the league’s first home run of the 2023 seasonIn reality.
Webb and Gerrit Cole both set new Opening Day strikeout records on Thursday. Webb fanned 12 batters in six innings pitched, breaking a record previously held by Madison Bumgarner (11 in 2017). Cole struck out 11 in six innings, which broke the record held by Tim Leary (nine in 1991). All told, Thursday’s game featured 32 penalties – 16 by each team. Calling was at a higher price.
Mets improve Opening Day record
The most successful Opening Day team in history added another win to their record this year. Thanks to a seventh-inning double by Brandon Nemo, the Mets improved their all-time Opening Day record to 41-21 (. 661) with Thursday’s victory over the Marlins. Here are the best opening day records:
- Mets: 41-21 (661)
- sailors: 29-18 (.617)
- Orioles: 72-50 (.590)
- Yankees: 68-52 (.567)
- Cubs: 81-65 (.555)
The Mets lost close quarterback Edwin Diaz to a likely season-ending knee injury during the World Baseball Classic, and manager Buck Showalter said he would mix and match in the ninth inning rather than name a closer. On Opening Day, the save opportunity went to veteran late-inning reliever David Robertson, who had a clean 1-2-3 inning with two hits.
The Mets have already dropped two starting pitchers (José Quintana and Justin Verlander) and two closers (Díaz), so they’re facing a bit of adversity here to start the new season. It was Nemo and Robertson who went up on Thursday, and the Mets improved baseball’s best Opening Day record.
Ohtani K’s 10 vs. athletics
Shuhei Ohtani, the Angels’ two-way phenom, made the most of his Opening Day start against the Athletics. In six innings, Oakland held no runs on two hits and three walks. He also struck out 10 batters, including the first three in the A’s combined four times on seven batters. As a hitter, Ohtani went 1-for-3 with two strikeouts to start the night.
Otani left with a 1-0 lead that his teammates could not hold, falling 2-1 to the Athletics.
The White Sox end Astros’ Opening Day winning streak
For the first time since 2012, the Astros are Opening Day losers. Andrew Vaughn fouled the ninth clutch on the green twice against Ryan Pressly in the World Series celebration at Minute Maid Park. Dylan Cease was the star of the game, striking out 11 in 6 1/3 innings on one-run ball. The stop was great.
The Astros have won each of the last 10 Opening Days, tying the 1887-96 Boston Beaneaters for the longest Opening Day winning streak in baseball history. The last time Houston lost Opening Day, they played in the NL Central, JD Martinez started in left field, Carlos Lee started at first base, and Yordan Alvarez was 15 years old. Yes, it’s been a while.
White Sox rookie manager Pedro Grifoll earned his first career win in his first career game. This is always neat. Always elegant to start the season with a win too. The Chicago teams went 2-0 on the first day of the new season.
DeGrom falters but the Rangers rally and win
Jacob deGrom’s first starts with Rangers since signing a five-year deal over the winter did not go smoothly. Instead, he ended up giving up the worst six extra hits of his career and failing to clear four innings.
However, DeGrum’s new teammates were able to overcome his uncharacteristically poor efforts, as the Rangers defeated the defending NBL champions Phillies by an 11-7 margin.
The Rangers did nearly all of their damage as part of a nine-run fourth inning that saw the score swing from 5-0 Phillies to 9-5 Rangers. Jonah Heim, Robby Grossman, Nathaniel Lowe, and Adolis García contributed. Brad Miller would later edge off the Rangers’ scoring with a two-run shot in the fifth inning.
You can read more about deGrom’s outing by clicking here.
Fried and Verlander are injured
Two aces lost to injury on the opening day, one before the match and one during the match. Firstly, The Mets announced that Justin Verlander has been placed on the injured list with a low-grade rotator cuff muscle. The teres major is a small back muscle near the shoulder. The Mets have not announced how long Verlander will be out of action.
Then after a few hours, Braves lefty Max Fried came out of the Opening Day start with a hamstring injury. He suffered an injury covering first base. He will likely be placed on the injured list and it is not clear how much time Fried will lose. Here is the play:
The Mets are down Verlander and Jose Quintana (rib), the Braves are down Fried and Kyle Wright (shoulder), and the Phillies are down Ranger Suarez (forearm) and Andrew Painter (elbow). It’s been a tough few weeks for the NL East tournament. The team that best navigates these early season injuries will put themselves in the best position to win the division.
Rutschman opens the season in style
Orioles catcher Adley Rochman made the most of his first Opening Day, spiking the Red Sox pitching squad on his way to becoming the first catcher in MLB history to record five hits in Game 1.
Rutschman hit a solo home run in the top of the first to put the Orioles up early. He later hit four more singles and three more runs as part of the 10-9 win.
Rutschman, the first pick in the 2019 draft, had a great rookie season last year. In 113 games, he went 0.254/.362/.445 (128 OPS+) with 13 home runs. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year award voting. If he continues to play like he did on Thursday, he’ll have his first career All-Star game later this summer.
Blue Jays outfielder George Springer also had five hits, making this the first opening day with two of five performances since at least 1901.
Volpe, Yoshida, Walker, Colas debut
This wasn’t just Rutschman’s first opening day. Several players made their major league debuts Thursday, including Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida, Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker and White Sox outfielder Oscar Colas.
Volpe wasn’t a hit, but he did walk and stole a base as part of a Yankees win. Conversely, Yoshida grabbed a pair of singles in the Red Sox loss. The Cardinals lost as well, though Walker had a hit and a run.
New laws
As expected, the new rules – the stadium timer; Bigger bases and defensive restrictions – it’s already had an impact on play. Games were shorter and stolen base attempts were way up. You can read more about it by clicking here.
You can also relive all the benefits of the CBS Sports Blog live throughout Opening Day below.