Lots of good baseball is on tap for Thursday and a good number of the games double as home openers for some teams that started the season with a road trip. It's getaway day for others. Combine those and we get lots of day baseball. Let's get right to the roundup. 

Thursday's scores

Mets bludgeon Nats

It's only been six games and we have to keep in mind the Mets were 7-3 through their first 10 games last season before finishing 70-92. 

Now that the caveat is out of the way, the start of this season couldn't have gone much better for the Mets. We've said it a few times, but there were more reasons that this continued on Thursday. First off, they activated Michael Conforto from the DL, as he has apparently recovered from surgery to repair a torn capsule in his shoulder. 

Then Conforto homered as part of a two-run, two-RBI day. Here's the opposite-field shot that was initially ruled a double (you can skip the replay; they ruled it a home run): 

The big blow came later in the game, when Jay Bruce clubbed a grand slam in the top of the seventh to make a formerly close game an 8-2 Mets lead. 

The timing of the slam was particularly a gut punch to the Nationals, who in the previous inning loaded the bases with no out for their 4-5-6 hitters. Ryan Zimmerman would softly fly out to shallow right field before a lineout from Howie Kendrick nestled into the glove of Mets shortstop Jose Reyes and then Trea Turner struck out looking (and got himself ejected). Again, that all happened immediately before the Mets' rally that would culminate with a Bruce grand slam. 

Yoenis Cespedes also homered for the Mets. He's got three home runs and seven RBI through six games. The shot Thursday wasn't even a bad Strasburg pitch. Just an amazing cut from Cespedes: 

Stephen Strasburg was tasked with the home opener for the Nationals. He gave up four runs on five hits -- including two homers -- in six innings. He also balked home a run in the second inning. 

To compound matters in the home dugout, Adam Eaton had the leave the game early with a left ankle injury. More on that: 

As much as it was the Mets' day, it wasn't the Nats'. The Mets are now 5-1 with the Nationals having lost three straight after starting the season 4-0. 

Beltre keeps moving up hits list, makes history

Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre picked up his 3,054th career hit with a line shot double in the first inning Thursday afternoon. It moved him alone into 25th place on the all-time list. Here are the next few in Beltre's upward move: 

20. Alex Rodriguez; 3,115
21. Dave Winfield; 3,110 
22. Ichiro Suzuki; 3,082 (and counting, as he's still active)
23. Craig Biggio; 3,060
24. Rickey Henderson; 3,055
25. Beltre; 3,054 and counting

So Rickey's going down very soon and Biggio won't take much longer, either. 

On this hit, however, there's a bit of history to go with it. Beltre broke a tie for 25th with Rod Carew, making him the all-time hit leader among Latin-born players. Carew was born in Panama while Beltre was born in the Dominican Republic. 

Boston's extra innings magic continues

Coming off an injury-plagued season, Red Sox lefty David Price needed to answer some questions early this season. He's done that and then some.

After throwing seven scoreless innings in his 2018 debut, Price did so again Thursday. Through his 14 innings this season, he's allowed just seven hits and three walks (0.71 WHIP) with 10 strikeouts.

Price has looked great. Boston's offense? No so much. They scored only 21 runs in their first six games -- seven of those 21 came in one game -- and it wasn't until the ninth inning that they got on the board Thursday afternoon. Xander Bogaerts doubled to left to cap off a game-tying two-run rally against Rays closer Alex Colome. Three innings later, Hanley Ramirez won it with a long walk-off single.

The BoSox are now 6-1 on the young season and they're 2-0 in extra innings. It's early, yes, but extra-inning success is something that dates back to last season for the Red Sox. Check it out:

Extra-inning success doesn't necessarily carry over from one season to the next -- it's like success in one-run games, those games are close and it doesn't take much for them to sway one way or the other -- but in the early going this year, the Red Sox are again taking care of business when forced to play more than nine innings. They did it again Thursday.

Judge continues to dominate O's

What Aaron Judge did to the Orioles last season is NSFW: .426/.588/1.049 with 11 homers, 24 RBI, and 24 walks in 18 games. He scored 31 runs, which is ridiculous.

So, naturally, in his first game against the Orioles this season, Judge went deep. To the action footage:

That is career home run No. 58 for Judge in career game No. 189. No player in baseball history has gotten to 58 home runs faster than the reigning AL Rookie of the Year.

Since I know you're wondering, it took Judge's teammate Giancarlo Stanton 273 games to hit 58 homers.

Baez scores from first on an infield single

Well, technically it rolled to the outfield, but it was the very shallow outfield. Either way, Javier Baez caught the Brewers napping a bit Thursday night and raced all the way around from first to score on a ball that traveled maybe 150 feet. Check it out:

Heck of a slide there too. Baez always ranks high on the leaderboard for FARP: Fun Above Replacement Player.

Tebow goes deep in Double-A

The 2018 minor league regular season opened across the country Thursday. And in Binghamton, everyone's favorite quarterback turned outfielder Tim Tebow walloped a mighty homer on the very first pitch he saw at the Double-A level. Here's the video:

Last year Tebow went deep in first at-bat of the season as well. Can't wait to see what he does in his first MLB at-bat!

Quick hits

  • Miguel Cabrera left the Tigers' game on Thursday afternoon with left hip flexor tightness.
  • Twins starting pitcher Ervin Santana still hasn't been cleared to start throwing and might need another examination of his surgically-repaired right middle finger. Estimates that Santana would only miss a few weeks of this season aren't coming to fruition and instead it looks like he could be out until June, at this rate. 
  • The Nationals have extended the contract of general manager Mike Rizzo through 2020. Given the success Rizzo has had with Washington, this isn't a surprise. 
  • The Athletics have claimed outfielder Trayce Thompson off waivers from the Yankees. This is extra notable due to the fact that Trayce's brother, Klay Thompson, plays right next to the A's with the Golden State Warriors. 

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