Written by Matt Snyder at CBSSports.com
Major League Baseball got underway for 2017 on Sunday with a trio of games, but Monday is still technically known as “Opening Day,” as the other 24 teams all played their first game of the season. Well, except two that got rained out (Tigers and White Sox).
With everyone else, let’s give a quick rundown of what we saw. As usual, let’s not go crazy in overreacting here. Madison Bumgarner hit two homers on Sunday while Kris Bryant looked absolutely lost at the plate. Outliers happen in single-game samples. Ervin Santana isn’t going to have a better year than Corey Kluber, for example, even if things looked otherwise on Monday. So keep in mind that we’ve seen each team (other than the two mentioned earlier) play 0.6 percent of the season.
Let’s start with the day’s final scores:
- Marlins 2, Nationals 4 (box score)
- Braves 0, Mets 6 (box score)
- Rockies 7, Brewers 5 (box score)
- Pirates 3, Red Sox 5 (box score)
- Phillies 4, Reds 3 (box score)
- Padres 3, Dodgers 14 (box score)
- Blue Jays 2, Orioles 3 F/11 (box score)
- Royals 1, Twins 7 (box score)
- Indians 8, Rangers 5 (box score)
- Mariners 0, Astros 3 (box score)
- Athletics 4, Angels 2 (box score)
- Tigers, White Sox (postponed)
Orioles get revenge
The Orioles season ended in 2016 on a Blue Jays walk-off home run in the AL Wild Card game. It was extra innings, too. On Opening Day, the Orioles pulled the ol’ switcharoo, with Mark Trumbo hitting a historic walk-off home run in the 11th inning
Now, obviously knocking a team out of the playoffs is a whole different animal from finishing on top in the first game of the season, but it’s a new day and that’s gotta be a nice feeling in that locker room to strike such a blow and start the season 1-0.
Benintendi is supremely talented
The Red Sox beat the Pirates, 5-3, and Rookie of the Year favorite Andrew Benintendi flashed his unreal upside. He had only one hit in the game, but it was the biggest single moment of the game. He crushed a 98-mph fastball from Gerrit Cole over the right-field wall for a game-changing three-run home run.
To turn around 98 almost up by the letters (chest high) shows what kind of ability he has with the bat. He’s slotted second in the order between Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts and is plenty capable of holding down that spot in a very talented lineup, even with David Ortiz now in retirement.
To continue reading this article, click here.
