Opening Day
Opening Day, my favorite day in sports! Your Baseball Bench Coach was raised in a baseball town, Cincinnati, where, until most recently, the National League would officially open its season. Opening Day is a holiday there, featuring half-empty schools in the area and the Findlay Market Parade downtown. My strongest memory was actually watching the opener in 1970 on my family’s brand new color television set purchased for the occasion. The Reds beat the Montreal Expos 5-1 in the last home opener at Crosley Field. Yes, I remember the score (only a baseball nut would understand).
The 1970 Reds home opener was also memorable because you came away with the belief that something big was about to happen that season. Indeed, it was the first game of the Big Red Machine era. Maybe that same feeling was in the air on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves 10-4 with the help of its new, powerful top of the lineup, Andrew McCutcheon, Jean Segura, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and J.T. Realmuto. Led by veterans McCutcheon and Harper with 2 home runs apiece during the series Philadelphia completed the only sweep of Opening Weekend last night. Philly is certainly primed to be a contender this year.
This past weekend ESPN and MLB TV allowed me to tune in for some other home openers throughout baseball. It’s your ace against their ace, and interestingly we saw match-ups featuring the best pitchers in each league from last year. Both Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, 1-2 in the 2018 National League Cy Young race, threw gems as the Mets squeaked by the Nationals, 2-0. DeGrom’s 10 Ks and Scherzer’s 12 was the first time since 1970 that the starting pitchers both recorded 10 or more strikeouts in an opener.
In the American League duel between last year’s Cy Young winner, Tampa’s Blake Snell, and runner-up, Justin Verlander of the Astros, the veteran Verlander stole the show in Houston’s 5-1 win. Blake Snell though is a wonderful stylist on the mound. Make a point of catching one or more of his starts this year.
Home runs, all 46 of them on Opening Day throughout the big leagues (most since 1999), was the highlight reel story. The Dodgers actually hit 8 of them on Opening Day. Beyond the arm raising and fireworks of today’s HR celebrations, there is the art of hitting the ball with power where it is pitched. That was so evident in Arlington, Texas, where the Cubs saw two of its right-handed sluggers, Baez and Bryant, launch home runs to right center field. Ask any hitting instructor; hitting the ball with authority to the opposite field power alley is a sign of good things to come.
The series of the Opening Weekend had to be in Milwaukee. You have probably seen by now Lorenzo Cain’s ninth-inning, leaping catch over the center field wall to close out the Brewers’ 5-4 Opening Day win over St. Louis. On Friday night, Lorenzo Cain could not keep Paul Goldschmidt’s three long blasts in the park as the Cardinals rebounded with a win. Speaking of three’s, how about Josh Hader’s 3-pitch, 3-batters, 3-strikeout save in game 3 of the series! Then yesterday, the reigning NL MVP, Christian Yelich, tied the major league record by hitting a home run in each of the first four games and added a walk-off double in the ninth inning to win the series. It was a wild weekend in Milwaukee, and it promises to be an exciting NL Central race this year.
I have to give the Baseball Bench Coach nod to the most interesting managerial move made this weekend. It comes back to the place where this story began, Opening Day in Cincinnati. It’s not something you would notice unless you saw the game or devour box scores each morning. In the seventh inning of the Reds 5-3 win over the Pirates, new Reds manager, David Bell, brought in one of his top relief pitchers, Michael Lorenzen, as a pinch runner. (I guess this blog should give credit as well to Freddie Benavides, Bell’s bench coach!) Lorenzen, who also happens to be a great athlete and good stick, finished the game as the Reds centerfielder. It’s one of those creative ways to make use of today’s pitcher-laden player rosters, a story we are going to follow throughout the season.
I hope you are as excited about this season as I am. What’s your fondest Opening Day memory?
Until next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach.