Opening Day Musings

We’re off and running on another season. Here are some of the more unusual occurrences this opening day.

In the following narrative “opening day” means the first games for all teams, regardless of the calendar day those games were played.

  • Bartolo Colon was the winning pitcher for the Mets. Colon becomes the 9th oldest pitcher since 1914 to start and win on opening day, and the oldest Met to do so, 10 months older than Tom Glavine in 2007.
  • Three pitchers (Joe NathanJason GrilliFernando Rodney) recorded a save aged 38 or older, tied with 1993 for the most on any opening day. 1952 is the only other season with more than one such pitcher.
  • Fifteen starting pitchers struck out 5 batters or less. It’s the third straight season with exactly that number of opening day starters, after 37 seasons (1976-2012) with only one opening day (1997) having so few starters reach 5 punchouts. It’s also the first time since 1965-68 (when there were 10 fewer teams) with so few such starters in three consecutive opening days.
  • Both starting pitchers recorded a decision in 13 of 15 games, second only to the 14 such games in 1993. In relative terms since 1969, there have been so many such opening day games only in: 1993 (every game); 1970 and 1971 (all but one); and 1991 and 1976 (all but two).
  • Six teams failed to score. That’s the most in any season since at least 1914, breaking the previous mark of 5 teams, set way back in 1943. It’s also the fourth straight season with four teams being shutout, almost as many such opening days as have occurred previously (in 1998, 1976, 1970, 1968, 1958 and 1943).
  • The Indians and Astros each had three hits. It’s only the third opening day game since 1914 with both teams recording three hits or less, and the first in the AL. As in the two previous games (in 1918 and 1980), only one of the teams scored.
  • Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez both clubbed two home runs for the Red Sox. They are the seventh pair of teammates to do so on opening day, all but one since 1988. It’s the first time since 1973 that even one Red Sox player has homered twice on opening day. The Yankees and Phillies are the only original franchises that currently have waited longer than Boston did for a player to have a multi-HR game on opening day.
  • Devon Travis homered for Toronto. He’s the 37th player to go deep on opening day playing in his career debut game, and the first Blue Jay to do so since the franchise’s debut game in 1977. Toronto is the ninth franchise with two such players, a group led by the Braves (5 players) and Cardinals (4). Among the original franchises, the Yankees, Twins, Pirates and White Sox have never had such a player.
  • Devon Travis homered while batting 9th,  making 2015 the twelfth straight season with an opening day homer from a no. 9 batter, including three seasons (2006, 2013, 2014) when the only such home run was by a pitcher or pinch-hitter. The longest previous streak is 6 season (1995-2000), and the longest pre-DH streak is four seasons (1928-31 and  1953-56). Jack Hannahan (2011-12), Alex Gonzalez (1996-97) and Don Drysdale (1959, 1965) are the only no. 9 hitters to twice homer on opening day.
  • Angel Pagan‘s 0.381 WPA for the Giants was the best of the opening day batting performances. It’s only the second time since 1994 (the other was 2006) that no player had a 0.400 WPA on opening day.
  • Every game was completed in under 200 minutes (3:20), only the second time since 1994 (the other was 2007) that that has happened.
  • There were no extra-inning games. It’s the sixth time since 2000 that that has happened on opening day, after occurring only four times in the 32 preceding seasons (since the major leagues expanded to 24 teams in 1969).

What caught your eye in yesterday’s action?

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JW Lewis
JW Lewis
8 years ago

The Pirates loss to the Reds was their 10,000 loss in franchise history. They join the Cubs, Braves, and Phillies in reaching that mark. The Reds can also reach that mark later this season, with 75 more losses needed.

brp
brp
8 years ago

That statistic about starting pitchers striking out 5 or fewer batters is really weird. Goes against everything we’ve seen in K trends the last decade-plus. Of course, a lot of the Ks are going to the relievers, but still odd.

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
8 years ago

Did you all see this:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2015/franchise_four.jsp

It reminds me of our Mt. Rushmore. I thought you folks might like to contribute to something that will probably get a bit more press than the stuff we do here at High Heat Stats.

Lawrence Azrin
Lawrence Azrin
8 years ago
Reply to  Dr. Doom

@3/DD;

It’s interesting how they treat franchises that moved; for the Dodgers and A’s, there’s a decent mix of Brooklyn/LA and Philadelphia/ Oakland, but for the Baltimore Orioles, it’s like the Browns never existed.

Though – to be fair, George Sisler was clearly the best player in Browns history. OTOH, three of the choices were an inferior first baseman to Sisler (Boog Powell), Paul Blair, and Dave McNally. I think they coulod’ve bumped one of those for Sisler.

robbs
robbs
8 years ago

It looks exactly the same Doc, though I’m sure without our erudite banter. We should have copyrighted it.

David P
David P
8 years ago

No mention yet of Brett Lawrie’s perfect golden sombrero. 4 PAs, 4 Ks, a total of 12 pitches faced. That’s…..um….wow! Way to go Brett!

BTW, some guy named Mike Schmidt nearly did the same thing in 1983 but he got a 5th PA and hit a walk off home run.

Richard Chester
Richard Chester
8 years ago
Reply to  David P

In the searchable era there have been two other players who matched Schmidt’s feat. David Justice did it on 4-22-01 and Ray Knight did it on 7-3-86.

mosc
mosc
8 years ago

Braves bullpen opens the season not allowing a run in it’s first 18 innings over 5 games. 5 hits, 3 walk, 21 k’s. In case you were wondering where 5-0 came from.