Top highlights & moments from MLB Opening Day | SportsCenter

Well, down in Houston, the defending champion, Houston Astros, taking on the White Sox for their opening day festivities. You saw that right here on ESPN. They won 10 straight opening days, tying the Boston Bean Eaters, who won 10 straight in the late 1800s. Those games really count, though. Yes. Come on. They don't count. Let's go back to 2017, when they won and they tried to unveil the banner and it didn't really work. Like, a dude had to climb up there. It took, like, 15, 20 minutes. I feel like that's karma. Well, see how they did it this time, though? Like, oh, no. We're putting the whole thing up there. We're going to be a little better this time. Jose Altuve broke a thumb, but, you know, Alex Bregman was there. It is. It moves even faster being mic'd up, too, because it's like, answer a question and then it's right back to it. See? Everyone is still adjusting to the faster pace, but we are fans here on SportsCenter. I'll tell you that right now. Then Bregman, how about that throw? That's why he's an all-star over there. Keeps the game tied at zero. Bottom of the seventh, Dylan Cease on the mound. He struck out 10. Former White Sox, Jose Abreu at the plate. Get that one in the left, and that would send Cease to the dugout. So, Aaron Bummer comes on for Chicago. Bases loaded, two out. Jake Myers at the plate. Wild pitch. Jordan Alvarez comes in to score, and Houston takes a 1-0 lead. We go to the top of the eighth. Yasmany Grandal at the plate, and he was the one who couldn't come up with that wild pitch. Wasn't his fault, but he made up for it with his bat, though. Solo home run ties the game at one all. We go to the ninth. We're still tied at one. Runners on first and second. One out. Andrew Vaughn up, and coming through with a clutch hit there into the gap in left center. Two runs coming to score, and Chicago takes a 3-1 lead. Bottom of the ninth. Alvarez now at the plate. It ain't over. The party's not over. 442 feet worth of home run off the bat of Alvarez makes it a 3-2 game. Now, two outs. Renaldo Lopez trying to close it out, and he gets Yair Diaz to strike out. White Sox win it. 3-2. Pedro, congrats. Your first win. Now, to the other Chicago team. My Cubs taking on Cousin Dana's Brewers. Bottom of the third. No score. There's one out. Runners on the corners. Corbin Burns facing the new guy in Dansby Swanson. Swanson, ground ball to right. Miles Mastroboni scores from third. Willie Adamas throws to first to try to get out. Swanson there, but the ball goes away. So, Nico Horner scores off the air. That was a lot. The Cubs, they took a 2-0 lead. Now, the other new guy. Trey Mancini up. Line drive to left field. Swanson comes in. The Cubs are up 3-0. Burns then allowed one more run in the third inning. So, it's now Cubs up 4-0. Top of the sixth. Marcus Stroman. More on other parts of his game later, but striking out Roddy Tellez. Face is empty. Next batter, William Contreras. Oh, the other Contreras. I remember him. Cubs win 4-0. Love you, Dana. When you think of the most popular, long-standing companies in America, whether it's Ford, Coca-Cola, or Jim Beam, the most successful brands constantly find innovative ways to evolve while staying true to their core values. And the same is true for Major League Baseball. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're done. Improper feet. You weren't looking at the camera correctly. We're done. Clock is at zero. Let's go. Come on. Moving on. We got new rules around here, buddy. I was talking about the rules. Pay attention, Cubs and Brewers. I told you we would have more on Marcus Stroman. On the mound, he doesn't see the pitch clock just taken down to zero. And we're like, no, no, no. We're done. First pitch clock violation of the regular season belongs to Stroman. You got to be looking at the clock. You're trying to worry about the pitch. You're trying to worry about the guys on base. You're trying to worry about your grip. There's so many things going on now. So it definitely adds another layer to the game that's tough. So we got the win. And he also earned himself a spot on Trivial Pursuit. All right. So about the Orioles and the Red Sox. Rafael Devers fouls it back. All right. So the count's one and two. Now he takes his time and eventually gets back in the box. But he does not get set in time. There it is. That's a violation. And he goes from one-two to strike three. Got to be set before eight. See? One more time. Use the alert. Nope. That's it. Devers was not ready. First batter in MLB history to strike out on a violation. Now we got the shift. There's no more of it. Right. But it's going to be a little tricky for us to figure out for a while. Joey Gallo's at the plate. He hits the ground ball, which looks like he's hitting it into the shift. MJ Melendez fumbles the ball and Gallo reaches safely. But look. All four infielders are actually legally positioned. And it's actually the right fielder. This is really shallow. The other two outfielders are positioned in the gap. So there's no more shifting. But we're going to get creative in other ways. He would have had him too good in Baltimore, I think. All right. Ronald Acuna, Jr., Braves Nationals. Patrick Corbin throws over to first. Acuna gets back. Then Corbin throws over to first again for the second time in the at-bat. If you throw over a third time and don't get the out, it's rule to fall. So watch Acuna. It's confirmed. That's two. He threw over twice. That's two, right? All right. So the very next pitch, Acuna takes off, but he falls down. And luckily for him, Matt Olsen fouled it off. He was so excited to steal, he fell over. The next pitch, he's going because he knew he couldn't throw over again unless he got him. And he gets the stolen base. Those bases are bigger. There's a lot of rules. Easier to grab onto. All right. From the west coast to the east coast. Yankees hosting the Giants on opening day. Aaron Judd, you see his numbers entering the season and season openers. Of course, he had 62 home runs last year. And how about this? First at-bat, first home run of 2023. It took him six games last year before he hit his first long ball. But short work here in the opener. New York's got an early 1-0 lead. The other big anticipated at-bat was Anthony Volpe. Of course, he grew up there in New York. A lot of friends, a lot of family. Check out that high school jersey. Everybody rocking it. And his first at-bat, he gets a walk. But he was not content to stay at first. How about that running start pretty much on the steal attempt? Second easy bag for him. Yeah, right? They're hyped up. First career stolen base for Volpe. Next batter, Judge Logan Webb gets him swinging. Career-high 12 strikeouts for Webb on the day. Speaking of strikeouts, Garrett Cole. He was at the Smoking Joes like Frazier, too. Michael Conforto. Wilmer Flores. Jacque Peterson. And then his brother-in-law, Brandon Crawford. Ten Ks through four innings for Cole. We go to the top of the sixth. We got two outs. Peterson at the plate again. He saw three pitches during this at-bat. All three of them were strikes. Cole, six innings, three hits, 11 Ks. Most in season opener history for the Yankees. They win it 5-0. Any time you come away with a win opening day and kind of get things rolling like that, it makes for a pretty special opening day. Fans were loud. Great reception for everybody in the lineup. It was pretty cool getting to see Anthony Volpe's reception, too, there batting ninth. I almost felt like he was chasing 62 there for his first at-bat, man, the way the crowd was. It was pretty special. But what a game. Cole starting off for us and coming away with a win. That was a big time. So, Judge stepping into 2023 the same way he stepped out of 22, posting just the ninth 60-home run season in Major League Baseball last year. Today, he became the fourth player of that group to homer on opening day of the next season. Barry Bonds, Martin McGuire, Roger Marisal did it as well. Only Bonds, though, hit a homer in his team's first two games. And McGuire's hot start, well, that led to a second consecutive 60-home run season. Out of the new faces in new places, you've got the Rangers hosting the Phillies and Jacob deGrom making his debut in Texas. It's also a Philly debut for Trey Turner. DeGrom v. Turner. Turner swinging a miss. DeGrom had two strikeouts in the first, so far so good. Problem is they, like, pulled the thread in the second. Still no score, but not for long. Alec Boehm had a runner on. Go ahead and bring him home. Fastball. It was 99 miles an hour, and it left quickly as well. Phillies now up 2-0. Let's go to the third, still 2-0. Brandon Marsh is on third after a triple. Now it's Turner's turn at the plate. And that goes down the first baseline. Marsh comes in easily. Turner is on it. He goes to third. So with the Mets, DeGrom only gave up one triple in 20 starts against the Phillies. In one start with the Rangers, he's now given up two triples. And back-to-back at bats, Phillies with a 3-0 lead. Bottom four, Rangers down 5-2. Aaron Nola to face Robbie Grossman. There's a couple on. Well, and clear those bases. Way deep. Way gone. Grossman now ties it with a three-run homer. And Elise Garcia with two men on. Rangers up 7-5. Just to add to it, clear the bases off the wall. He'd get to second. A bit of a stretch. Rangers now leads 9-5. It's now 9-6, bottom of five. Brad Miller up. He's got a man on. Everyone coming safely. Just trot. Second five-run comeback. In a season opener in Rangers franchise history, Rangers beat the Phillies 11-7. Well, the Mets lost the expectations for 2023. Took a little hit today when the newly-acquired Justin Verlander got sent to the injured list with a low-grade muscle strain near his pitching shoulder. He will continue to throw on the side. Get reevaluated next week. The reigning AL Cy Young winner, originally set to make his Mets debut Saturday. Once I got through that start, it was like, all right, I got through it. We're good to go. On to the next one, let's get ready for my first start of the season. And then in the bullpen when it wasn't quite right is when I knew best case would have been, hey, there's nothing there and you're just sore. But I would think this is probably second best case. If this was a different point in the season, particularly late in the year, I think pitching is definitely on the table. Playoffs, I'm definitely pitching. But being the beginning of the season, coming off of spring training, it just makes too much sense to not push it right now. All right, so they didn't have Verlander, but they do have Max Scherzer. He's on the bump for the Mets. Sandy Alcantara on the bump for the Marlins. There's Steve Cohen. He writes the checks for the highest payroll in baseball for more than $300 million. This season, Scherzer gets Brian De La Cruz swinging. And then Jacob Stallings. Scherzer took a shutout into the sixth. We go to that sixth inning. The Mets are up 2-0. First and third, two outs. Jeff McNeil fouls off the first pitch. Now check out Pete Alonzo kind of taking his time to get back to first. Umpire Larry Vanover calls a batter time violation. That's an automatic strike. Alonzo can't believe it. Buck Showalter still didn't quite understand what happened. I'm not 100% sure I'm getting two or three different stories. My first one was that Pete was too slow getting back to first. But he told Pete something different when he got around third. So we're going to try to decipher what exactly happened. It's funny now, right? It wasn't funny then. All right, so McNeil down 0-2 because of that violation. Two pitches later, he's like, it's all good. Because that one sneaks through the infield. Starling Marte scores. That would be it for Alcantara. Five and two-thirds. Three runs, two hits, four walks. Here in Cooper. Here in the bottom of the sixth off Max Scherzer. Deep and gone. That ties the game at three all. We go to the top of the seventh, Brandon Nemo. That one's going to find a whole lot of real estate in center field. Two runs coming to score. Nemo first met with three RBI on opening day in ten years. And the New York squad goes up 5-3. Ninth inning we go. David Robertson on the close for the Mets. Of course, Edwin Diaz out after getting injured in the World Baseball Classic. Jorge Soler. Fly ball. There's your ball game. Mets win it 5-3. They're 41-21 all time on opening day. That's the best percentage. Carrot cake and coconut to be discussed later. For now, angels and athletics. And Shohei Otani is on the mound. Doing well. Bottom of the fourth. Facing Connor Campbell. Strikes him out. Just looking. That's his fifth of the night. A little bit later and a jam. Runners on second and third. They're not going anywhere. A couple of outs. Still squirrelers. Adam Wainwright. He's going to sing the national anthem. Really? Really good pitcher for his generation. Now he's. I mean, maybe he's going to start gigging and that's his career. I mean, that was kind of cool. Last opening day. It's cool. All right, so let's go to the third inning of this game between the Cardinals and the Blue Jays. That is Tyler O'Neal at the plate. And he's going to take his time running around the bases. Two run shot. He becomes the fourth player in MLB history to homer on four straight opening days. Yogi Berra. Gary Carter. Todd Hundley. Couple Hall of Famers there. Cardinals down 4-3. Let's go to the bottom of the fourth. Brendan Donovan. He's like, you know what? I like two run home runs too. Off Alec Manoa. He lasted just three and a third. After going at least five in every start last season. That ties the game at five all. It's 7-6 now here in the eighth. Ladd Jr. Fights that one off. Into right. Two runners coming to score. And the Blue Jays regain the lead 8-7. We go to the bottom of the eighth. Nolan Arenado at the plate. He's got runners on second and third. And he sends one down the left field line. That's fair. Ends up being a ground rule double. Both run score. Now St. Louis is back on top 9-8. We go to the top of the ninth. George Springer. He's got runners on first and third. Straight out of hard-hitting New Britain. Not the hardest ball he hit all day. They get five hits, by the way, in this game. That tied the game at nine. First player for Toronto with five hits on opening day. Two batters later. It's Ladd Jr. again. And he gives his team the lead again. Sack fly. They end up taking the 10-9 win. 34 hits combined in this game. That's the most in any opening day game since 2011. Orioles now taking on the Red Sox. And the Red Sox are just trotting out some of their best. There's David Ortiz. The Bruins have Sean Thornton out there. Celtics, Dana Farrows. And then a Patriot there in Devin McCourty. Meanwhile, the Orioles are trotting out the number one overall pick in the 2019 draft. Adley Rutschman up in the first and just weaving. Off of Corey Kluber, he's the first Orioles catcher to homer in the season opener since 2013. In the fourth. Tied at one. Man on. Ramon Urias off the plate. And he, too, is just leaving. Kluber not happy. He went three and one-third. He allowed six hits. Five earned. Struck out four and walked four. He said he called this start less than ideal. Orioles had a 3-1 lead. Rutschman again. Top of the fifth. He's got two men on. This one to left. Score one in Cedric Mullins. And he is the first player, Rutschman is, to ever go five for five or better with four RBI on opening day. Orioles have an 8-2 lead. But we're going to get a little dramatic here. It's now 10-5. Christian Arroyo at the plate. Two on, two out. Arroyo. Yep. Over the left fielder there. Two runs come in. Red Saks with a little bit of a rally here. They caught the lead. It was 10-5. It's now 10-7. In the ninth. Red Saks down 10-8. And they got two on for Masataka Yoshida. Grounds to short. Jorge Mateo steps on second, throws to first, but the throw gets away. And Yoshida is able to get to second. And it's now a 10-9 ballgame. Next batter, Adam Duvall. But Felix Bautista gets him. Orioles hold off the Red Saks. They win it on opening day. 10-9.