That special day for baseball fans has arrived: opening day has finally come. Baseball fans wait for this day all offseason and it never disappoints. The best part about opening day is the excitement for a new season most certainly; it brings expectations and the two New York teams have some expectations. It is pretty clear that this season there are more expectations for the Mets than for the Yankees. Simply, the Mets are in a World Series-or-bust sort of season and the Yankees are retooling for future years.
The 27-time champions opened up regular season play on Sunday, April 2 when the Yankees opposed the Rays at Tropicana Field down in St. Petersburg, Fla. Masahiro Tanaka started for the Bronx Bombers as their ace but had a rough outing. He only survived 2.2 innings pitched while surrendering seven runs on eight hits. Evan Longoria, the lifetime Tampa Bay Ray, hit a homerun in the game as that was the first round tripper of the 2017 season.
Along with Longoria, three other Rays hitters compiled multi-hit games. Chris Archer started for the Rays and threw seven solid innings while only allowing two runs. Despite Chase Headley and Starlin Castro each having three-hit games, no real offense showed up. The Yankees started out the season with a loss, their fifth opening day loss, falling 7-3. Baseball has a long season so there is no need to push the panic button just yet. However, if the Yankees are going to have a chance at making the playoffs, Tanaka needs to be sharp at every start, no excuses.
The Mets, on the other hand, started their regular season against the divisional foe, the Atlanta Braves. The starting matchup was one to definitely watch, with Noah Syndergaard on the hill against Julio Teheran. These two aces traded zeros for six innings as Thor gave up five hits, striking out seven and the Colombia native only surrendered four hits, striking out six.
The Mansfield, Texas native looked electric in his first action of the season, looking like he picked up right where he left off last year. The 6-foot-6-inch flamethrower is now the ace of this stacked Mets’ pitching staff and has the repertoire to do it. This Mets ace is good but yet still so young for this rotation. To follow Syndergaard, DeGrom will take the hill when the Mets square off against the Braves at Citi Field, followed by Matt Harvey in the series finale.
The Mets took the regular season opener by a score of 6-0 with Lucas Duda providing the bases-clearing double in the seventh inning to give the Mets bullpen some breathing room. The Amazins started out with a win, as they always seem to do on opening day since they hold the best winning percentage on the first day of the season with a .643 winning percentage.
For baseball fans, opening day is an event that is regarded very highly. Baseball has a very long season so not every team will start out with a win. However, it is important to start off the campaign with good momentum so teams can play to the best of their ability. For those baseball fanatics, opening day is a day that is circled on the calendar and there is so much anticipation for that one day. Year in and year out, opening day is always joyful and exciting.
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