Opening Day & 12 Wonderful Hours of Baseball

The day before Good Friday, on a Thursday that had become the Friday of the shortened work week, Major League Baseball returned. For baseball fans in the New England area, it largely returned in the afternoon, with the Mets taking the field at one and the Red Sox at four. As I believe many if not most baseball fans will understand, the start of a baseball season is representative of much of the good that life has to offer: the spring is just beginning with all the promise of warmer days, optimism, and hope unsullied by loss, injury, or woe.

​As a Mets fan, I am particularly hopeful on Opening Day, a day when the Mets have the best winning percentage of all teams. Despite allowing four runs, Noah Syndergaard was the ace we all expected him to be. Of course, winning has a way of resulting in write-offs: after all, of those four runs, three came on two homers. That’s basically two bad pitches out of nearly one hundred, right? Indisputable were Thor’s ten strikeouts across six innings of work, just shy of a quality start but enough to earn the eventual win. After that, it was like the script of an inspirational sports film playing out: Robert Gsellman, who struggled despite great promise last year, handled the seventh by striking out the side; Anthony Swarzak, newly signed Met, delivered a hitless, scoreless eighth; and Jeurys Familia closed down the ninth despite a two-out walk. Lest I focus entirely on the pitching, the Mets lineup provided intrigue: Brandon Nimmo leading off? Yoenis Céspedes batting second? Asdrúbal Cabrera the cleanup hitter? The pitcher in the eighth spot? Despite all the talk, the offense delivered hits aplenty and so many at the right times. All in all, they delivered twelve hits and walked nine times. Opening Day starting catcher Kevin Plawecki even had two hits, an RBI, and two runs!


I switched over to the mid-afternoon matchup between the Red Sox and Rays in time to hear the call as Eduardo Núñez dropped a blooper into left center field that resulted in a near collision followed by a round trip as Núñez delivered an inside-the-park home run! With the Sox up 3-0 before the bottom of the second, I walked away and checked in intermittently. I’m not a fan per say, but so many of my friends and colleagues are Red Sox fans, not to mention my late grandfather who was readily identifiable by his Boston hat that he never seemed to be without. As long as they’re not playing the Mets, I’m rooting for them. Thus, I was shocked to see the post-game result: they had collapsed in the bottom of the eighth, giving up six runs to take the loss.


Later that night, I woke up around midnight and found myself unable to return to sleep. I tossed and turned, alternatingly too hot and too cold. At last, I turned to my MLB At Bat app, finding that the Indians were into the final innings of their game against the Mariners. Cleveland ace Corey Kluber had given up a two-run homer in the first inning but had held on to achieve the eventual complete game. However, his team had only scored a single run since then. Going into the ninth, Yonder Alonso struck out. Just when it all seemed bleak, Edwin Encarnacion was hit and took his base. A further hit batsman, a pinch runner, a balk, and a stolen third base later, the Indians were putting together a story book rally. Alas, two more strikeouts bailed Edwin Díaz and the Mariners out, sealing Seattle’s victory.


I still couldn’t sleep, but the west coast continued to deliver with action between the Diamondbacks and the Rockies. Specifically, the Rockies were down 6-2 but challenging in the top of the seventh. Archie Bradley was called in to work out of trouble and did so promptly. He returned for a scoreless eighth, striking out two along his stint. Ever since I read an interview with him following the wild card matchup between these same teams last year, I’ve found Bradley interesting. With him out of the game and the Diamondbacks having tacked on a further two runs — and with baseball for the day all but exhausted — I fell back to a peaceful sleep.


All this is essentially to say: welcome back, baseball. With so many games and so many teams and so many different ways to follow the games and soak in the history of the sport, I’m thankful to be here at the start of a new season. Tomorrow may be wonderful or terrible, but for today, I had twelve hours of Opening Day optimism.