New York Yankees Fall And New York Mets Soar On MLB Opening Day

Opening day finally came and went, with New York baseball offering a mixed bag. If you prefer the good old pin stripes, then you are probably nervous about the Yank’s prime investment Masahiro Tanaka. If the blue and orange uniform is more your style, then you have to be ecstatic about Bartolo Colon’s outing and the bullpen’s efforts.

Lets start off with the team from the Bronx, who welcomed the Toronto Blue Jays to the hallowed Yankee Stadium grounds. There were a few key storylines going into yesterday’s matchup: how will Tanaka look after his injury, will A-Rod provide any offense and can Didi Gregorius fill Derek Jeter’s very large shoes? Now, these questions are going to be answered over time, throughout the course of the 2015 season. But the public was given their very first glimpse yesterday.

On the mound, Tanaka did not look like his old self, pitching only four innings and giving up five hits and four earned runs. This left the Yankees in a big 5-0 hole that put a ton of pressure on another question mark, the Yank’s bullpen. And surprisingly, they pitched fantastic with the five relievers finishing the game by giving up only one hit and one run.

As for the Yankees offense, they were held to three hits with Gardner hitting a solo home run in the sixth to put the only run on the board. As for A-Rod, he went one for two with a walk.

Now, the New York Mets are actually expected to do something this year. And in their opening game, they looked fairly good, considering they won a close 3-1 matchup against the Washington Nationals’ new $210 million man, Max Scherzer.

The Mets were able to get the better of Scherzer by capitalizing on two errors by shortstop Ian Desmond. In fact, the Nationals’ ace lost the game, yet did not give up an earned run in his 7.2 inning outing — despite the loss Scherzer looked good, but to be fair not $210 million good.

On the other side, Colon pitched a great game, giving up only three hits and one earned run in six innings. Best of all, the Mets’ bullpen, which has been a sore subject over the last few years, pitched phenomenally. They did not concede a run or a hit in the final three innings. As for the offense, both Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud had a stellar day with two hits each.

Again, this is all still extremely early, but the Mets did look sharp and there are things to worry about with the Yankees. Will the Mets choke and the Yankees get better over the season: only time will tell.