One of the most intense rivalries in all of sports was center stage in the Bronx for Major League Baseball’s Opening Weekend. Meanwhile, down in the Nation’s Capital, tensions were flaring – with no love lost between the Mets and Nationals as well.
The start of Game 1 wasn’t what the Yankees wanted, as ace Gerrit Cole toed the rubber against the Boston Red Sox and gave up three runs in the first inning, showing shades of his equally less-than-stellar efforts in last year’s Red Sox-won Wild Card game. Fortunately, the deficit was cut to within one when Anthony Rizzo crushed a two-run home run into the right field residence of the “bleacher creatures.”
The Yankees would slug two more homers, one from Giancarlo Stanton, and the other from DJ LeMahieu, to tie the game at 3 and 4, respectively.
After regulation, the teams would trade runs for two extra innings before Josh Donaldson walked it off with a single that scored fellow pinstripe newcomer, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, giving the Yankees the victory by a score of 6-5.
This was the Yankees first opening day walk-off since 1957. The Bronx Bombers would go on to win the next game, overcoming another early deficit courtesy of Rizzo and Stanton’s second homers on the season.
Unfortunately, they would fall short of a sweep, failing to deliver the timely heroics in the third and final game they’d drop to Boston on Sunday Night in primetime. Despite this, their bullpen looked phenomenal all weekend long, as it will have to be if the Yankees stand to supplant the Toronto Blue Jays’ as the season favorites to take the American League East division.
The Mets breezed past their divisional foe Washington Nationals on opening day despite missing their ace, Jacob deGrom. New York scored four runs in two innings, with eight of the nine starters compiling hits. They wound up winning 5-1, and would go on to scoop the next two as well – starting the season with an impressive 3-0 record under new manager, the veteran Buck Showalter.
In Max Scherzer’s first start in blue and orange on Friday, there were several instances of hit by pitches all throughout the game. The breaking point came when Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor was hit in the face with a pitch.
Both team’s benches cleared, and an on-field altercation broke out. Though quickly dispelled, this didn’t stop other players from being “plunked” later on in the series. This should set up for an interesting slate of showdowns over their next fifteen contests with each other in 2022.
The final game of the four-game set was a loss, as the Mets, similarly to the Yankees, could not put the finishing touches on a sweep. Their troublesome bullpen once again reared its head, much to the chagrin of pessimistic Mets fans the world over.
However, they did not lack offense in the slightest, which is to be a prominent part of their mission to reclaim the National League East crown for the first time since their 2015 World Series run.
On the home front, this past opening weekend was an entertaining one overall, setting up a fun 2022 season that surely won’t invite distraction thanks to residual awkwardness leftover from stalled contract extension negotiations. Well, at least not for one team in town.
