March 31, 2025 [LINK / comment]

Play ball! The 2025 season gets underway

Other than the two-game season between the World Champion L.A. Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Dome two weeks ago, for the other 28 MLB teams Thursday March 27 was Opening Day this year. Living up to their champion status, the Dodgers swept the Tigers at home over the weekend, and beat the Atlanta Braves tonight, giving them a 6-0 record. Close behind are the San Diego Padres, at 5-0. The only other undefeated team thus far is the New York Yankees, who swept the Milwaukee Brewers at home in New Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees-Brewers series (in New York) was a complete blowout, as the Bronx Bombers lived up to their nickname, with a grand total of fifteen (15) home runs, setting all kinds of records. In Saturday's game, Aaron Judge hit three homers, and came within a few feet of putting a fourth ball over the fence in the (very short) right field. What's more, six of his team mates did likewise, for a total of nine (9) Yankee home runs. With its cozy dimensions in right field, New Yankee Stadium is friendly to sluggers, but this year another factor seems to have had an effect: specially-tapered bats that put more wood at the "sweet spot" and less toward the end of the bat. These "torpedo" bats have been deemed legal by MLB, and I would expect other teams to adopt them for their own use very soon. See ESPN.com.

Great starts for Nationals pitchers

Opening Day for the Washington Nationals, at home, was marked by a historic performance by starting pitcher Mackenzie Gore. He was up against the Phillies' Zach Wheeler, and to the astonishment of almost everyone, he came out ahead. Both pitchers went six full innings, but Gore threw an amazing 13 strikeouts while only giving up one hit and no walks. He left the game after 93 pitches, in line for the win (thanks to a home run by Keibert Ruiz, on the 12th pitch, no less), but the bullpen let him down. In the top of the seventh inning, newly acquired relief pitcher Lucas Sims, who has played for most of his career in Cincinnati, gave up a one-out home run to former National Bryce Harper, and two batters later, Jose Ferrer gave up a home run to another former National, Kyle Schwarber. The Nationals rallied in the eight inning to tie it 3-3, and the game went into (dreaded) extra innings. Another newly acquired reliever, Colin Poche (formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays) gave up a two-out double to Alex Bohm, giving the Phillies a two-run lead, and J.T. Realmuto soon batted in two more runs with a triple to the right field corner. It was a disappointing finish, after the heroic performances by Mackenzie Gore and Keibert Ruiz, but it was a good fight to the end. Final score: Phillies 7, Nats 3.

Only one pitcher in MLB has thrown 13 strikeouts without giving up a run on Opening Day: Bob Gibson, who did so in early April, 1967. That only adds to the magnitude of what Gore accomplished on the mound.

The next game was on Saturday afternoon, and the Nats took an early two-run lead thanks to another home run by Keibert Ruiz, but the Phillies soon tied it. Jake Irvin pitched 5 solid innings, but in the sixth inning the bullpen failed once again: Colin Poche and Lucas Sims had five earned runs between them, and things got worse after that. The Nats scored a few late runs, but the outcome wasn't really in doubt. Final score: 11-6.

Things went much better on Sunday afternoon, when Mitchell Parker pitched for 6 1/3 innings without giving up any runs. This time the Nats benefited from two clutch home runs: a 3-run blast by Josh Bell, and a 2-run dinger by Nathaniel Lowe. Bell used to play for the Nationals before he was traded a couple years ago, and Lowe was likewise acquired as a free agent after playing for the Texas Rangers for the last few years. The Nationals won their first game of the year by a score of 5-1, avoiding being swept.

Tonight the Nats started a three-game series with the Blue Jays in Toronto, but this time their starting pitcher faltered. Michael Soroka, acquired during the winter as a free agent, gave up four runs in five innings pitched. The Nats failed to get any hits until the sixth inning, when C.J. Abrams and James Wood hit back-to-back home runs. That was really the only bright spot in the game, and the home team won it, 5-2.

Two new "MLB" stadiums!

A few weeks ago, I added a new diagram of George M. Steinbrenner Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays were forced to seek "shelter" after Tropicana Field suffered major damage from Hurricane Milton in October. Located across Tampa Bay on the west side of Tampa, it is the spring training home of the New York Yankees. That diagram is very rough, and will have to be revised before long. On a more serious note, the delicate arrangement by which the Rays' owner Stuart Sternberg was hoping to commit funds to help build a new stadium next to Tropicana Field collapsed two weeks ago. The deadline for ironing down such a deal passed tonight, and it now appears more likely than not that the Rays will end up relocating to a new city in the next few years. See abcactionnews.com. It's a tragic situation made worse by the need to pay for repairs to Tropicana Field. Among the possible destinations: Nashville, Charlotte, Montreal, and Portland, Oregon. I'd favor Montreal, but there would need to be a sudden surge of popular support in that city to make a relocation deal happen.

In the next week or so I hope to get a similarly "rough draft" version of a diagram of Sutter Health Park, in Sacramento, where the former Oakland Athletics are residing until a new stadium gets built in Las Vegas, perhaps three years from now. That situation is likewise tragic, but in my view it was totally unnecessary. More good faith by Oakland city leaders and the Athletics' owner John Fisher could have gotten a new stadium built for the A's. Such a pity.