The best time of the year finally arrived when Opening Day graced our presence signaling the start of a new season in America’s pastime. Opening Day is new beginning for all teams as they set out to try and build a winner. There’s a saying that anything can happen in baseball and there certainly was a lot that happened on Opening Day worth noting. Here are the best five things that happened on Opening Day.
- Bryce Harper still loves Opening Day
Coming off winning his first MVP award, Bryce Harper picked up right where he left off in 2015 crushing a solo home run in hist first at bat of 2016. Why is this significant you ask? Harper homering on Opening Day is significant because he joins an exclusive list of Gary Carter and Vladimir Guerrero as the only players in team history to homer consecutive Opening Days. Also via Elias Sports Bureau, Bryce Harper has the most Opening Day home runs in the modern era with four before reaching the age of 24 surpassing Gary Carter who had three Opening Day homers. Bryce Harper will probably win another MVP this year.
- Chris Archer already bringing the heat
Chris Archer got the nod for the Opening Day start for the Rays going five innings, allowing two earned and struck out 12 batters. Looking at his line, you would have thought he won his start, but you would be dead wrong. Chris Archer became the first pitcher since 1975 to record 12 strikeouts in a losing effort on Opening Day. Via Elias Sports Bureau, Chris Archer joins Bob Gibson, Gary Nolan, and Tony Cloninger who all struck 12 batters on Opening Day, but got slapped with a loss. If Archer keeps pitching like this all year long he will be a surefire CY Young candidate and could possibly carry the Rays into the playoffs.
- Jeremy Hellickson struck out Joey Votto not once, not twice, but three times
Jeremy Hellickson had an great Opening Day aside from the Phillies blowing the game and completely wasting his gem. Hellickson did something against the Reds that only a handful of pitchers have been able to do; striking out Joey Votto three times in game. According to Stats Inc., Hellickson became just the ninth pitcher to strike out Votto three times in one game. Joey Votto has struck three times in game 36 times in 1,110 games (3.2%) in his career. Congratulations to Jeremy Hellickson on joining a very exclusive club and this probably won’t happen again this year if Votto has anything to say about it.
- Less is more for the Rangers
The Rangers did something pretty remarkable on Opening Day, they became the first team in the modern era to win a season opener despite getting one hit or fewer. It was the first time the Rangers won a game while recording one hit since July 27, 1993 when they defeated the Royals 1-0. The Rangers did have some help in the game from the Mariners’ poor defense and who could have predicted Felix Hernandez issuing five walks. Kudos to the Rangers pitching staff for holding down the fort and Cole Hamels actually pitched well on Opening Day.
- Giants go back to back to back
Lets face it, the Brewers have no chance this year and the Giants feasted on them putting up 12 runs like Madison Bumgarner needed any help. In the eighth inning, the Giants hit back to back to back home runs for the first time in 10 years when Barry Bonds, Ray Durham, and Pedro Feliz did it. It started off with a three-run bomb by Denard Span then Joe Panik went deep and to put the exclamation put on it, Buster Posey got a hold of one. They made Brewers reliever Ariel Pena famous for the wrong reasons. Pena became the first reliever in MLB history to allow three home runs in an Opening Day game. 28 pitchers have allowed two. Friendly reminder, it’s an even year so we should just hand the Giants the World Series trophy right now.
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