Our first Saturday of the 2019 Major League Baseball season still has a new car smell to it and we've got a full slate (except for the season's first rain out in Cincinnati), chock full of action day and night. It's a great time to be going hog wild with consumption of our beloved sport.
The weather in Cincy made the Pirates and Reds our first rainout of 2019, and in Philly, a certain recent addition did a certain something for the first time. The Indians evened their series in Minnesota, but along the way the Twins made a little strikeout history. Elsewhere, 2019 isn't starting off so swimmingly for one of 2018's most disappointing teams, but it's going quite well for the reigning NL MVP. The Yankees lost to the lowly Orioles, but their starting pitcher gave them some positives to take away. Is that all? People, that's not all.
Select games can be streamed regionally via fuboTV (Try for free). For more on what channel each game is on, click here.
Baseball schedule/scores for Saturday, March 30
Mets 11, Nationals 4 (box score)Orioles 5, Yankees 3 (box score)Pirates at Reds, POSTPONEDIndians 2, Twins 1 (box score)Royals 8, White Sox 6 (box score)Blue Jays 3, Tigers 0 (box score)Phillies 8, Braves 6 (box score)Marlins 7, Rockies 3 (box score)Rays 3, Astros 1 (box score)Brewers 4, Cardinals 2 (box score)Rangers 8, Cubs 6 (box score)Giants 3, Padres 2 (box score)Athletics 4, Angels 2 (box score)Mariners 6, Red Sox 5 (box score)Dodgers 18, Diamondbacks 5 (box score)
Harper harms a baseball
Bryce Harper, in keeping with civic tradition, heard some scattered boos during his hitless debut with the Phillies. In his second game, though, he gave onlookers a taste of why he's worth $330 million:
Nothing cheap about that one, to say the least. That one left the bat at 114 mph and traveled a whopping 465 feet. Let's put that latter figure in perspective:
Bryce Harper's 465-foot HR is...
His 2nd-longest tracked by Statcast
Tied for 2nd-longest by the Phillies
The 2nd-longest at Citizens Bank pic.twitter.com/RN9YYifHZ1
— David Adler (@_dadler) March 30, 2019
As Sarah Langs points out, the only homer that Harper has clouted further was a 473-foot job off Nick Pivetta, who, coincidentally, started for the Phillies on Saturday. Harper also drew a walk, and even though he's batting just .167 his OPS is now up to a robust 1.042 on the young season. Also, Maikel Franco went yard, and J.T. Realmuto also hit his first home run with the Phillies:
The Braves made some noise in the top of the ninth. However, manager Brian Snitker double-switched Josh Donaldson out of the game in the seventh, and when his spot came up with one out in the ninth, pinch-hitter Matt Joyce struck out in front of a Freddie Freeman double. Ronald Acuna flew out to end it.
And with that the Phillies are now 2-0 with both wins coming against the reigning NL East champs.
Yelich keeps powering, makes history
Another night, another dinger from NL MVP Christian Yelich of the Brewers:
That's Yelich's third home run in as many games this season, and that's a franchise record:
Yelich is coming off a 2018 season in which he mashed 36 homers despite having a previous career high of 21. Sure, going from Marlins Park to Miller Park had something to do with that spike, but the big driver was the fact that Yelich hit a home run on 35 percent of his fly balls.
That's an exceptionally high figure, and it's also far out of step with the remainder of Yelich's career. HR/FB is also a stat that's prone to random variation, even over the course of a full season. All of that is why many observers -- presently company included -- expected Yelich's power numbers to regress in 2019. Obviously there's plenty of time for that to happen, but thus far he's shown no signs of it. Much the opposite, in fact.
Oh, and Josh Hader notched an immaculate inning:
As you saw above, the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth managed to put a bat on only one pitch from Hader.
As for the Cardinals, who've now dropped two of the first three in Milwaukee, the consolation is that at least they looked good in defeat on Saturday night:
Mets are 2-0 after offensive explosion
On Opening Day, the Mets won a pitcher's duel behind 2018 NL Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom. Saturday had the capability of being another duel, with Strasburg and Syndergaard taking the ball.
Instead, the Mets jumped on Strasburg for three runs in the first and the Nationals got three of Syndergaard through three. In the end, the pair had pretty similar numbers:
Strasburg: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
Syndergaard: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
The story here was the Mets offense and Nationals bullpen implosion. The Mets ended up with 11 runs on 14 hits, including four doubles and a triple. They got some pretty amazing individual days where it's encouraging to see. Rookie sensation Pete Alonso went 3 for 4 with two doubles and two RBI, displaying his easy gap power. Second year infielder Jeff McNeil had a four-hit game and -- believe it or not -- it was the fourth four-hit outing of his career in only 65 games.
The big knock was a bases-loaded hit from newcomer J.D. Davis:
Quite a moment for a first hit with a new club.
On the other side, new Nationals bullpen members Trevor Rosenthal and Kyle Barraclough did not cover themselves in glory. Rosenthal ended up stuck with four earned runs without recording an out. Barraclough balked home a run before he even threw his first pitch as a National and then allowed Alonso to double home one of Rosenthal's runners. Both additions were cheap grabs on an attempt to draw from past success. Neither looked the part on Saturday, but all "it's early" caveats still apply.
Gallo stuns Cubs as Darvish struggles
On Saturday night in Arlington, the Cubs led 3-0 and then 4-1 and then 6-3, and at one point in the seventh they had almost a 90 percent chance of winning the game, per basic win expectancy. In the eighth, though, Joey Gallo put the Rangers in front for good:
That was good for 433 feet off Carl Edwards, and it gave the Rangers an 8-6 lead that would hold up. As a result, Chris Woodward picked up his first win as Texas manager. For the Cubs, Yu Darvish, coming off a disappointing and injury-riddled 2018, turned in the shortest regular-season start of his career:
Specifically, a lack of fastball command hurt Darvish on Saturday night in his first start against his old team. Those seven walks are also a career high for Darvish. Relevant oddity:
Yu Darvish threw 57 pitches to start the game before a ball was put in play. @jaysonst
— Gus Ramsey (@GusRamsey) March 31, 2019
In all, Cubs pitchers issued 12 free passes on the night (while striking out 14). That late loss by the Cubs yielded this bottom line:
Remaining undefeated teams:
2-0 Royals
2-0 Mets
2-0 Phillies
1-0 Reds
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) March 31, 2019
Indians even things up in Minnesota
Sure, there could be a surprise, but most believe the AL Central race is going to come down to the Indians and Twins. Without Francisco Lindor in the lineup -- one that was already weakened in the offseason -- the Indians were dominated by Jose Berrios and Taylor Rogers in an opening day loss. Through eight innings, the only run they scored was a prodigious blast from Hanley Ramirez.
Still, Trevor Bauer kept his team in the game with a nice outing and a Greg Allen sac fly helped them even the series at a game apiece. Bauer struck out nine in seven innings and allowed just one run on one hit.
Brad Hand had a pretty tough task in the ninth. Byron Buxton led off for the Twins with a double, but it was due to bad defense on a ball that should've been caught by the second baseman. Buxton was fast enough to get all the way to second and that's a problem with no out. He'd be on third with one out when the Tribe intentionally walked Nelson Cruz. Eddie Rosario drew a walk and it was bases loaded with two out and a one-run game for C.J. Cron. Hand would induce an easy pop out to shallow right to close it down.
For the losing Twins, Jake Odorizzi struck out 11, and that put Minnesota in elite company through the first two games of the season:
The @Twins with back-to-back 10+ strikeouts by their starters (Berrios 10 / Odorizzi 11).
Since 1893, the only other team to have a pitcher strike out 10+ in each of its first 2 games of a season is the 2001 @Dbacks (Johnson & Schilling).@EliasSports confirmed
h/t @Krafty_3
— Dustin Morse (@morsecode) March 30, 2019
Quick hits
James Paxton worked 5 2/3 innings in his Yankees debut. He struck out five and allowed only four hits, one walk and one run, but the Yankees lost to the Orioles thanks to lackluster offense and a ninth-inning gasp that came up short. Our own Mike Axisa has more on Paxton's start. In the Royals' win over the White Sox, Billy Hamilton and Jorge Soler each gathered three hits, and Ian Kennedy picked up his first career save. Across the way, Chicago's Eloy Jimenez picked up the first two hits of his major-league career.With their shutout loss at the hands of Aaron Sanchez and Blue Jays on Saturday, the Tigers tied an unfortunate franchise mark:With a shutout loss vs TOR today, the #Tigers match their fewest runs scored in the opening 3 games of a season with 2 (also done in 2003, a campaign with a franchise record 119 losses)
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) March 30, 2019
As for the Blue Jays, their starters have combined for 19 shutout innings this season.Alex Bregman homered for the Astros, but the Tampa Bay bullpen worked four scoreless behind a solid Tyler Glasnow en route to the win. In matters related ... The Marlins pounded out 16 hits -- including three apiece from Miguel Rojas and Martin Prado -- and picked up their first win of the season.The Padres had a shot at their first 3-0 start since 1984, but the Giants' bullpen blanked them over the final four innings on Saturday night.In Oakland's win over the Angels, lefty Brett Anderson twirled six shutout innings.The Mariners yielded three runs in the ninth to Boston but held on for a 6-5 win. Jay Bruce homered for the first time as a Mariner.John Ryan Murphy of the Diamondbacks became the first position player to pitch in 2019. Against the Dodgers, he allowed seven runs on eight hits in two innings of work. Cody Bellinger homered twice, once off an actual pitcher.The Mariners have placed RHP Hunter Strickland on the IL with a right lat strain.Indians SS Francisco Lindor on Monday will get a second opinion on his injured ankle.Rockies 1B Daniel Murphy will go on the IL with a fractured finger on his left hand.
