An Opening Day Bummer for the Royals
The Royals had a lead. The Royals had chances. They fumbled it all on day one.
Game 1 of 1.
Game 1 of 162.
Both of the above statements describe what we have to work with when discussing Opening Day. On one hand, it is the first game of a long season. Any conclusions you make based on one game of a season are conclusions that are essentially worthless. It’s one game out of 162. The best teams can lose to the worst teams. Bad teams can look good. Good teams can look bad. Because the season is just so long, there is very little room in evaluating and coming to conclusions based on one game.
But also, Opening Day is literally the only sample we have. If you saw yesterday’s game, you have seen 100 percent of the games this team has played. So while conclusions are impossible to come by based on one game, it’s also hard not to put more stock than you should into that one game.
I also fully understand that for some, it’s not one game. It’s last season plus one game. Or maybe it’s three seasons plus one game. I remember being absolutely done with Omar Infante a few days into the 2015 season and someone commented to me that it’s only the fourth game (I may be wrong on the number, if that was you). And my response was, “No, actually it’s the fourth game plus last season.” So that’s absolutely true. I’ll get to some of that here in a bit, but first the pomp and circumstance of Opening Day is something that, regardless of result, I will never not love.
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I love the players lining up on the first base line. I love that every award earned the season before is announced with the players (mostly) standing behind them as pictures are taken. I love that the ceremonial first pitch is such a big deal. Yesterday, Willie Wilson and Lorenzo Cain shared the honor. Little did we know that it was the current number six who would hit the ball that led me to overreact about something (though I’m not sure I’m overreacting). The real first pitch feels so much more important than any other first pitch. Throw a strike and everyone can exhale. Throw a ball and it’s pure trouble.
I guess I’ll start with Cole Ragans in digging into Opening Day. I thought he had a weird day. The stuff started out looking crisp. He struggled a bit with command, but he was also the victim of some early bad luck that elevated his pitch count some. After a beautiful pitch right on the black to Steven Kwan at 96.1 MPH, he threw a slider that got Kwan reaching and Kwan hit a little spinner along the third base line at 51.9 MPH. Jonathan India, making his first career start at third charged the ball but quickly realized there was no play and hoped it would roll foul, but no dice. It was a leadoff single reminiscent of the first hit for Cleveland in Major League actually.