Major League Baseball’s 2024 season got underway with Opening Day proper on Thursday, offering an (extremely) early glance at some of the things we can come to expect over the next seven months.
Perhaps nothing is particularly discernible after 1/162nd of the campaign, but overreacting to Opening Day is a fun exercise in both confirmation and recency biases!
Here’s a look at some of the things we (think we) learned on Opening Day:
Angels manager Ron Washington removes opening day starter Patrick Sandoval in the second inning.The Angels are pretty bad
The first game of the Los Angeles Angels’ life after Shohei Ohtani began Thursday much the same way that seemingly every other game has gone for the team in the past decade or so: Mike Trout homered and the Angels lost.
The three-time MVP went long in his first at-bat of the season to give Los Angeles an early lead over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. The Angels surrendered their advantage minutes later and wound up giving up 11 unanswered runs en route to an 11-3 loss.
Opening Day starter Patrick Sandoval got five outs and gave up five earned runs. The Angels managed just one hit after Trout’s homer. Should be a fun season!
The Blue Jays can mash
The Blue Jays earned a playoff berth in 2023, but their lineup didn’t live up to expectations in what was a largely frustrating campaign, especially for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer, both of whom had the worst offensive season of their careers.
Against Tampa Bay on Thursday, both sluggers hit home runs (Guerrero’s went 450 feet) in Toronto’s 8-2 win, an early reminder of how potent this offense can be.
Tyler Glasnow may have been LA’s best piece of business
The Dodgers are going to be all right.
The Dodgers’ trade for Tyler Glasnow – and subsequent contract extension – was (understandably) overshadowed in the winter by the Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto signings, but it may have been one of baseball’s best offseason moves.
The 30-year-old Southern California native has given up just four hits and three earned runs through his first two starts for the Dodgers. Glasnow’s talent has never been in question, just his ability to stay healthy with only two career 100-inning seasons.
Yankees bullpen may be better than we thought
After falling behind 4-0 in the second inning against the Astros on Thursday, the Yankees kept Houston off the board for the last seven innings in a nail-biting 5-4 win at Minute Maid Park.
Nestor Cortes settled in to pitch five innings and then three New York relievers – Jonathan Loáisiga, Ian Hamilton and Clay Holmes – tossed four scoreless frames in the Opening Day win. It certainly wasn’t easy as the three gave up eight hits in the four innings, but Hamilton and Holmes both pitched well in the Yankees’ disappointing 2023 season and should play a big role this year.
