You know what they say, “ The season may be 162 games long, but Opening day can really set the tone for the rest of the year”. So that’s why Thursdays Yankees vs Orioles clash in the Bronx was huge for both teams.
Fortunately for the Yankees, they came out victorious 7-2 in front of a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium on Thursday (3/28). There were some doubts coming into the game for Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka, as he had an 0-3 career Opening day Record coming into this game against the lowly Baltimore Orioles who sent Andrew Cashner to the mound.
Before the game, Mariano Rivera brought the already pumped up crowd to new heights, as he threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Tanaka took the mound to officially throw the first pitch of the Yankees season... for a ball.
Masa settled down, however, and forced Orioles leadoff hitter Chris Mullins into a groundout to the pitcher's mound, for the Yankees first out of the season.
Masa would get through that top half of the first keeping the game scoreless, and handing the inning over to the Yankees powerful offense.
It didn’t take the Yankees long to get to Cashner, as they set the tone early , and got to him early and often, as both Gardner and Judge leadoff by hitting line drive singles, setting the stage for Luke Voit, who cleared the bases with a 3 run blast to center field to give the Yankees an early 3-0 lead, and send the crowd into a frenzy.
The Yankees offense was however far from done, as with the bases loaded in the 3rd, Miguel Andujar brought a run across, despite grounding into a double play.
But as supposedly awful as they were, the Orioles weren’t going to go down without a fight, as they got to Tanaka in the 4th, when Rio Ruiz singled home Trey Mancini for the Orioles first run of the season, as the Yankees lead dwindled to 4-1.
However, the Yankees responded, by pushing across two more runs in the 5th, when Voit took an HBP to force in a run, and Andujar notched his second RBI of the game with a sac fly, to bring home Aaron Judge, and give the Yankees 6-1 lead.
The Orioles would continue to make Masa work, as they pushed another run across in the 6th, on an RBI double by Trey Mancini, before being hooked and leaving the game with a standing ovation after 5.2 gutsy innings of 2 run ball.
With Tanaka gone, it was time for the Yankees ruthless bullpen to live up to their name, and ruthless they were, as Adam Ottavino, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman combined for 3.1 scoreless innings, while Yankees 1B Greg Bird hit one into the Yankees bullpen, to put the icing on the cake in a Yankees 7-2 Opening day victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
MVP:
Luke Voit: 3runHR, 4RBIs.
Stats to know :
Masahiro Tanaka is now 1-3 in Opening day starts in his career.
Leftovers:
Gleyber Torres , and Troy Tulowitszki were born great in the field for the Yankees, especially Tulo who was making his Yankees debut a shortstop.
Fun facts:
Through 2 innings, Adam Ottavino gave up as many runs as the number on his back today. Which is 0!
The last 2 Yankees home wins have come by the final tally of 7-2, dating back to last years WC game vs the Oakland A’s.
Up next :
The Yankees have a day off on Friday before getting back at it against the O’s on Saturday in the Bronx, when James Paxton makes his Yankees debut, against Orioles right-hander Nate Karns.
Game time, 1:05 PM.
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