I was warned in advance that if this roundup of the game, the first opening day assignment of my tenure here at LGT, was not good, we would have to shut down the site and our managing editor would be forced to sell his yacht. I can’t have that on my conscience. So nothing happens here …
It was a quiet afternoon at Progressive Field, not only because the stands were empty, save for a collection of cardboard cutouts that included Slider, Jim Thome, and Nicolas Cage, but because none of the lineups seemed to have picked up a bat since the start of the league. hiatus 134 days ago. Fortunately, the Cleveland Indians were the first team to figure out which end of the bat to hit, and they crossed a couple of runs to defeat the Kansas City Royals on opening day.
Shane Bieber certainly did his part in the Tribe’s 2-0 season opener of the season, breaking a club record in Opening Day strikeouts with 14. Making his first career start on Opening Day. Bieber looked like an experienced veteran, scattering four hits in six close innings. Everything was working for him, including his trade, but Bieber’s command of his four-seam fastball (14 strokes) and knuckle curve (13 swinging strokes) was unreal.
The club’s previous record holder for Opening Day strikeouts was Gary Bell, who needed 10.1 innings to fan 12 batters on Opening Day in 1960. Bieber’s 14 strikeouts were slightly less than the record for Major League Baseball for Opening Day (a record that was also set in 1960)
Royals starter Danny Duffy, who bragged about a gruesome 5.48 ERA against the Indians prior to this game, went through the first four innings against a Cleveland lineup that was unusually aggressive at the start of at-bats. By the end of the first four frames, the left-hander had retired nine consecutive hitters while throwing a two-hit shutout.
Oddly, or what could be a common occurrence in this abbreviated season, Royals manager Mike Matheny chose to pull Duffy at the first sign of trouble. That problem arose in the fifth inning, when Duffy gave Jordan Luplow a free pass with a fastball on his shoulder and then delivered a single to Roberto Pérez to put the runners in the corners.
Scott Barlow took the mound to Duffy’s relief, but fortunately he didn’t provide the Royals with much of it, allowing Oscar Mercado to open the game with an RBI in the middle for a 1-0 lead. On the next pitch, César Hernández cut a line at the third base line to score Pérez and give the Tribu a two-run lead over Kansas City.
Adam Cimber threw a seventh scoreless, Nick Wittgren kept the shutout in the eighth, and Brad Hand managed to take over the business in the ninth to close it despite his fastball reaching 90 mph. Nothing to worry about, I tell myself.
Odds and end of opening day:
- Francisco Lindor was 0-for-4 and the only member of the starting line-up who didn’t reach the base, but decreased any trade value he ever had. If the Indians’ office is smart, they will buy little and sign it at an extension in the next 24 hours.
- Bieber struck out eight of the nine hitters in the Royals’ starting lineup. The only one who kept him from being called was Whit Merrifield. Good for him.
- I think MLB really needs to reconsider what constitutes “shot put.”
- José Ramírez’s first at-bat was a double on the left wall. Baseball is officially back.
