Strong Start

What do the 1927 Yankees, 1955 Dodgers, 1984 Tigers, 1990 Reds, and 2005 White Sox teams have in common?  They all went “wire to wire”, in first place in their league (or division after 1968) after every game of the entire season and capping the season off with a World Series Championship.  Just 5 teams in the history of Major League Baseball have done this!

Just about 10 games into the 2019 season, and we do have a team in the American League that is in the position at least to accomplish the feat.  The Seattle Mariners, buoyed by the two early wins over Oakland in Japan before the rest of MLB opened the season, have led the AL West from the first pitch and are sitting at 9-2 after yesterday’s win against the White Sox, 3 1/2 games in first place.  Will the magic continue wire to wire for the Mariners? The odds are heavily against it.

Both leagues have other teams off to some hot starts, the Brewers and Dodgers in the NL and the Rays in the AL.  Milwaukee and L.A. are no secrets, given that they met in the NLCS last year.  The Brewers’ 8-2 record after yesterday’s play has other NL Central contenders scrambling.  The Dodgers have started the season with an identical record and bats booming, a home run in each of its 10 games and 24 HRs in total.

Tampa though was somewhat of an afterthought by the experts as the Rays compete in the AL East with the media darlings Yankees and Red Sox.  Beware of the division-leading Rays!  They are pitching deep with a team ERA of 2.09 during the first 10 games of the season.

And what about the NL East with the best win-loss division record in baseball.  The Phillies jumped off to a 4-0 start (their best since 1915!) and lead the competitive division with a 6-2 record.   Have the 2019 Amazin’ Mets returned for a 50-year reunion of the ’69 title?  Perhaps so with starters Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, reminiscent of the Seaver-led staff days. One of the Mets players you need to watch play is rookie first baseman Pete Alonso who is batting .382 at the end of week’s play.  The Nationals, despite the loss of Bryce Harvey, will contend with its own ace pitchers, Scherzer, Strasburg, and Corbin.  Certainly don’t count out the Braves, who won the division crown last year, and are 5-1 in the last six games.

This April, like any April in baseball, the standings look somewhat upside down in other divisions.  The Red Sox  (3-8) and Cubs (2-7), winners of two of the last three World Series, are off to slow starts.  Has the panic button been pushed in Boston or the north side of Chicago?  I don’t think so, especially since they are the only remaining teams yet to play a home game. It will be interesting to see this week if home stands at Fenway and Wrigley will right their ships.

Other not so strong starts belong to the Marlins, Reds, Giants, Rockies, Blue Jays, Royals, and Angels. But there is so much baseball to be played in the 162-game marathon. Think of it this way; playing your first 10 games of a season in baseball is the equivalent of playing one game in the 16-game NFL season.

There’s an old adage that baseball standings do not matter until Memorial Day.   By that point each team has played about one-third of its games and seen the other teams in the league at least once.  (Yes, I know, with the odd scheduling in baseball nowadays, there are exceptions to that.)  For those of us attending a game at the ballpark in the next several weeks, we can ignore the pennant race flags flying beyond the outfield fence for now.  But of course pay attention on Monday, May 27, to see which teams are leading the divisions in the Memorial Day edition of this blog!  There is so much to cover between now and then.

Until Next Monday, 
your Baseball Bench Coach

Opening Day

Opening Day, my favorite day in sports!  Your Baseball Bench Coach was raised in a baseball town, Cincinnati, where, until most recently, the National League would officially open its season.  Opening Day is a holiday there, featuring half-empty schools in the area and the Findlay Market Parade downtown. My strongest memory was actually watching the opener in 1970 on my family’s brand new color television set purchased for the occasion.  The Reds beat the Montreal Expos 5-1 in the last home opener at Crosley Field. Yes, I remember the score (only a baseball nut would understand).

The 1970 Reds home opener was also memorable because you came away with the belief that something big was about to happen that season.  Indeed, it was the first game of the Big Red Machine era. Maybe that same feeling was in the air on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.  The Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves 10-4 with the help of its new, powerful top of the lineup, Andrew McCutcheon, Jean Segura, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and J.T. Realmuto. Led by veterans McCutcheon and Harper with 2 home runs apiece during the series Philadelphia completed the only sweep of Opening Weekend last night. Philly is certainly primed to be a contender this year.

This past weekend ESPN and MLB TV allowed me to tune in for some other home openers throughout baseball.  It’s your ace against their ace, and interestingly we saw match-ups featuring the best pitchers in each league from last year.  Both Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, 1-2 in the 2018 National League Cy Young race, threw gems as the Mets squeaked by the Nationals, 2-0.  DeGrom’s 10 Ks and Scherzer’s 12 was the first time since 1970 that the starting pitchers both recorded 10 or more strikeouts in an opener.

In the American League duel between last year’s Cy Young winner, Tampa’s Blake Snell, and runner-up, Justin Verlander of the Astros, the veteran Verlander stole the show in Houston’s 5-1 win.   Blake Snell though is a wonderful stylist on the mound. Make a point of catching one or more of his starts this year.

Home runs, all 46 of them on Opening Day throughout the big leagues (most since 1999), was the highlight reel story.  The Dodgers actually hit 8 of them on Opening Day. Beyond the arm raising and fireworks of today’s HR celebrations, there is the art of hitting the ball with power where it is pitched.  That was so evident in Arlington, Texas, where the Cubs saw two of its right-handed sluggers, Baez and Bryant, launch home runs to right center field. Ask any hitting instructor; hitting the ball with authority to the opposite field power alley is a sign of good things to come.

The series of the Opening Weekend had to be in Milwaukee.   You have probably seen by now Lorenzo Cain’s ninth-inning, leaping catch over the center field wall to close out the Brewers’ 5-4 Opening Day win over St. Louis. On Friday night, Lorenzo Cain could not keep Paul Goldschmidt’s three long blasts in the park as the Cardinals rebounded with a win. Speaking of three’s, how about Josh Hader’s 3-pitch, 3-batters, 3-strikeout save in game 3 of the series! Then yesterday, the reigning NL MVP, Christian Yelich, tied the major league record by hitting a home run in each of the first four games and added a walk-off double in the ninth inning to win the series. It was a wild weekend in Milwaukee, and it promises to be an exciting NL Central race this year.

I have to give the Baseball Bench Coach nod to the most interesting managerial move made this weekend. It comes back to the place where this story began, Opening Day in Cincinnati. It’s not something you would notice unless you saw the game or devour box scores each morning.  In the seventh inning of the Reds 5-3 win over the Pirates, new Reds manager, David Bell, brought in one of his top relief pitchers, Michael Lorenzen, as a pinch runner. (I guess this blog should give credit as well to Freddie Benavides, Bell’s bench coach!)  Lorenzen, who also happens to be a great athlete and good stick, finished the game as the Reds centerfielder. It’s one of those creative ways to make use of today’s pitcher-laden player rosters, a story we are going to follow throughout the season.

I hope you are as excited about this season as I am.  What’s your fondest Opening Day memory?

Until next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach.

Opening Pitch

All 30 MLB teams will be in action on Thursday, March 28, with a full slate of games throughout that weekend.  And so on Monday, April 1st, we will be ready with the opening pitch of the Baseball Bench Coach.   I hope you find your baseball home here. Click here to read my welcome message.