MLB Opening Day 2023 is in the books. All 15 teams kicked off their seasons on Thursday, providing us with what proved to be an entertaining day of baseball. For those who didn't get to experience Opening Day in its full glory, or for those who want to simply relive what might be the best day of the baseball season all year: you're in luck, we're here to recap all of the happenings from around the majors through the use of a handy-dandy subhead format.
Let's get to it.
Judge leads Yankees to Opening Day win
One way or another, Aaron Judge was going to be at Yankee Stadium on Opening Day. Either he would re-sign with the Yankees as a free agent this past offseason and get a hero's welcome, or he would sign with his hometown-ish Giants and be in the visitor's dugout. Judge of course returned to New York, and was named the 16th captain in franchise history.
On Thursday, Judge led the Yankees to a win over the Giants with a first inning solo home run and a seventh inning bloop hit. Logan Webb is death on righties and he allowed one home run in his final 10 starts last season, yet Judge took him deep in his first at-bat of the new season. It was the first home run of the 2023 season league-wide, in fact.
Webb and Gerrit Cole both set new franchise Opening Day strikeout records Thursday. Webb fanned 12 batters in six innings, breaking the record previously help by Madison Bumgarner (11 in 2017). Cole struck out 11 in six innings, which broke the record held by Tim Leary (nine in 1991). All told, Thursday's game featured 32 strikeouts -- 16 by each team. Contact was at a premium.
Mets improve Opening Day record
The most successful Opening Day team in history added another win to their record this year. The Mets, thanks to Brandon Nimmo's two-run seventh inning double, improved their all-time Opening Day record to 41-21 (.661) with Thursday's win over the Marlins. Here are the best Opening Day records:
- Mets: 41-21 (.661)
- Mariners: 29-18 (.617)
- Orioles: 72-50 (.590)
- Yankees: 68-52 (.567)
- Cubs: 81-65 (.555)
The Mets lost closer Edwin Díaz to a likely season-ending knee injury during the World Baseball Classic, and manager Buck Showalter said he will mix and match in the ninth inning rather than name a set closer. On Opening Day, the save opportunity went to veteran late-inning reliever David Robertson, who had a clean 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts.
The Mets are already down two starting pitchers (José Quintana and Justin Verlander) and their closer (Díaz), so they are facing a little adversity here to begin the new season. It was Nimmo and Robertson who stepped up Thursday, and Mets improved baseball's best record on Opening Day.
Ohtani K's 10 vs. Athletics
Shohei Ohtani, the Angels' two-way phenom, made the most of his Opening Day start against the Athletics. In six innings, he held Oakland to no runs on two hits and three walks. He also punched out 10 batters, including the top three batters in the A's order a combined four times in seven at-bats. As a hitter, Ohtani went 1 for 3 with two strikeouts to begin the night.
Ohtani left with a 1-0 lead that his teammates couldn't hold, falling 2-1 to the Athletics.
White Sox end Astros' Opening Day winning streak
For the first time since 2012, the Astros are losers on Opening Day. Andrew Vaughn's clutch ninth inning go-ahead two-run double against Ryan Pressly spoiled the World Series celebration at Minute Maid Park. Dylan Cease was the star of the game, striking out 11 in 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Cease was marvelous.
The Astros had won each of their last 10 Opening Days, tied with the 1887-96 Boston Beaneaters for the longest Opening Day winning streak in baseball history. The last time Houston lost Opening Day, they played in the NL Central, J.D. Martinez started in left field, Carlos Lee started at first base, and Yordan Alvarez was 15 years old. Yeah, it's been a while.
White Sox rookie manager Pedro Grifol picked up his first career win in his first career game. That's always neat. Always neat to start the season with a win too. The Chicago teams went 2-0 on the first day of the new season.
deGrom falters but Rangers rally, win
Jacob deGrom's first start with the Rangers since signing a five-year pact over the winter did not go off seamlessly. Instead, he ended up surrendering a career-worst six extra-base hits and failed to get through four innings.
Nevertheless, deGrom's new teammates were able to overcome his uncharacteristically poor efforts, as the Rangers defeated the reigning NL champion Phillies by an 11-7 mark.
The Rangers did almost all of their damage as part of a nine-run fourth inning that saw the score swing from 5-0 Phillies to 9-5 Rangers. Jonah Heim, Robbie Grossman, Nathaniel Lowe, and Adolis García all contributed. Brad Miller would later cap off the Rangers' scoring with a two-run shot in the fifth.
You can read more about deGrom's outing by clicking here.
Fried and Verlander injured
Two aces were lost to injury on Opening Day, one before the game and one during the game. First, the Mets announced Justin Verlander has been placed on the injured list with a low grade teres major muscle. The teres major is a small back muscle near the shoulder. The Mets have not announced how long Verlander will be sidelined.
Then, a few hours later, Braves lefty Max Fried exited his Opening Day start with a hamstring injury. He suffered the injury covering first base. He will likely be placed on the injured list and it's unclear how much time Fried will miss. Here's the play:
The Mets are down Verlander and José Quintana (rib), the Braves are down Fried and Kyle Wright (shoulder), and the Phillies are down Ranger Suárez (forearm) and Andrew Painter (elbow). It's been a tough few weeks for NL East rotations. The team that best navigates these early season injuries will put themselves in the best position to win the division.
Rutschman opens season in style
Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman made the most of his first Opening Day, hectoring the Red Sox's pitching staff en route to becoming the first catcher in MLB history to record five hits in Game 1.
Rutschman hit a solo home run in the top of the first to put the Orioles up early. He'd later deliver four singles and three more runs batted in as part of a 10-9 victory.
Rutschman, the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft, had an outstanding rookie season last year. In 113 games, he batted .254/.362/.445 (128 OPS+) with 13 home runs. He finished second in AL Rookie of the Year Award voting. If he keeps playing like he did on Thursday, he'll be making his first career All-Star Game later this summer.
Blue Jays outfielder George Springer also notched five hits, making this the first Opening Day with two five-hit performances since at least 1901.
Volpe, Yoshida, Walker, Colas debut
This wasn't just Rutschman's first Opening Day. Several players made their big-league debuts on Thursday, including Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida, Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker, and White Sox outfielder Oscar Colas.
Volpe didn't notch a hit, but he did walk and steal a base as part of a Yankees win. Yoshida, conversely, rapped a pair of singles in a Red Sox loss. The Cardinals lost as well, though Walker had a hit and a run batted in. Colas, debuting in pinch-hit fashion, collected his first big-league single.
New rules
Predictably, the new rules -- the pitch timer; bigger bases; and defensive restrictions -- did indeed have an impact on play. Games were shorter and stolen-base attempts were way up. You can read more about that by clicking here.
You can also re-experience all of CBS Sports' live blog goodness from throughout Opening Day below.
