The MLB season begins with highs and lows for Mets
Notable performances by established stars and aspiring All-Stars highlighted the start of the 2023 Major League Baseball season for the Mets and Yankees.
The Mets began in Miami last Thursday with a 5-3 win versus the Marlins, improving their franchise opening day record to 41-13. Ace Max Scherzer delivered a solid performance, going six innings and allowing three runs on four hits. However, opening day also arrived with bad news for the Mets. General Manager Billy Eppler announced that No. 2 starter Justin Verlander, last season’s American League Cy Young Award winner with the World Series champion Houston Astros, will start the season on the injured list with a low grain teres major (thick muscle of the shoulder joint) strain. There is no timetable for his return, but the Mets hope he will not miss more than three starts. They signed Verlander to a two-year, $86.7 million deal in December.
In Games 2 and 3 of the series against the Marlins, starters David Peterson and Tylor Megill respectively had strong outings in allowing just three runs in total but the Mets settled for a split, losing Game 2, 2-1 and taking Game 3, 6-2. In the finale of the four-game set, Kodai Senga, another Mets off-season signing, dazzled in his MLB debut, striking out eight batters and allowing one run in five 1/3 innings in a 5-1 victory. The 30-year-old Senga was a two-time Pacific League (Japan) strikeout leader and five-time Japan League champion.
The Mets opened this week getting bombed by a combined 19-0 facing the Milwaukee Brewers on the road, falling 10-0 on Monday and 9-0 on Tuesday. Starter Carlos Carasco was the losing pitcher on Monday while Scherzer gave up five runs in his second start on Tuesday. The Mets ended the three-game series at Milwaukee yesterday afternoon and will now host the Marlins for three-games at Citi Field in their home opening series with Game 1 today (1:10 p.m.). Afterwards, they will travel to San Diego to take on the Padres for three games next Monday through Wednesday.
The Yankees’ season began last Thursday with a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants in the Bronx and featured Gerrit Cole breaking a franchise Opening Day record with 10 strikeouts in a 5-0 win. Last season’s American League MVP Aaron Judge, who broke the AL home run record with 62, picked up where left off with his first of this season. Heralded rookie Anthony Volpe made his MLB debut and showed the versatility that has the organization and fans excited about what he can become by stealing a base every game against the Giants as the Yankees captured two out of three.
“It’s been a whirlwind, but the best type of whirlwind there can be,” said the 21-year-old shortstop. On Monday, the Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the Bronx 8-1 but were on the losing end Tuesday 4-1. They closed out the series yesterday and are in Baltimore to play the Orioles today, Saturday, and Sunday before meeting the Cleveland Indians on the road for three games next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
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