Thursday, March 30, 2023

Opening Day: Yanks, Cole Cruise Past Giants, While Mets Bullpen Delivers Win In Miami

 

Gerrit Cole during his dominant outing against the Giants. @Yankees on Twitter.

Opening Day was a big one for the New York baseball teams, as the Yankees shut out the San Francisco Giants, 5-0, at Yankee Stadium, and the Mets pulled out a 5-3 win over the Marlins in Miami.

YANKEES 5, GIANTS 0:

The Yankees season started with a bang as Aaron Judge, in his first game as team Captain, launched a solo home run to center field in the first inning off Giants starter Logan Webb.

This was quite the debut for Judge, who hit an American League and Yankees franchise record 62 home runs last season, and the Bronx Bombers rewarded him with a nine-year, $360 million contract.

Then, in the fourth, Gleyber Torres hit a two-run blast to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

That was more than enough for Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who looked as good as ever in this one.

Cole threw six shutout innings, in which he struck out 11, and scattered three hits and two walks.

The bullpen had a great day, as Wandy Peralta threw 2/3 of an innings, Jonathan Loaisiga came on to get the final out of the seventh, and Rob Marinaccio threw two shutout innings, in which he struck out three, did not allow a hit, and surrendered one walk.


The Mets lined up on the baseline before the first pitch. @Mets.


METS 5, MARLINS 3:

This one featured a battle between two of the best starting pitchers in baseball, Max Scherzer of the Mets and reigning National Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins.

It lived up to the hype for the first five innings, as the Mets were only able to scrape across one run, on a Brandon Nimmo sacrifice fly in the third inning to make it 1-0.

In the sixth, the Mets rallied, as Francisco Lindor got an RBI on a sacrifice fly to bring in Nimmo, and Jeff McNeil got an RBI single to open up a 3-0 lead.

Miami responded in the bottom half of the sixth against Scherzer, as Luis Arraez, who won the American League batting title with Minnesota last season, got an RBI double to make it 3-1 Mets.

Garrett Cooper then crushed one to right-center field for a two-run homer to tie it up at three.

In the seventh, Nimmo was at it again, as he got a two-run double off Miami reliever Tanner Scott to make it 5-3 Mets. That gave the Mets center fielder a three-RBI day.

That enabled Scherzer to earn the win, which he did, and his final line was: 6 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs (all earned, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts.

The Mets bullpen, which will be without closer Edwin Diaz, had a debut that is sure to calm any fears about how they'll be without him.

Drew Smith pitched a scoreless seventh, working around a hit and striking out two. Newly-acquired left-hander Brooks Raley pitched a perfect eighth, while also getting two strikeouts. David Robertson, the former Yankee who spent last season with the Cubs and Phillies, saved it with a perfect ninth inning, and he also notched two strikeouts.

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