Yankees: First Impressions after Seasons Opening Series
By Manny Gómez
Yankee Kryptonite: The Opener
On Saturday, the Baltimore Orioles became the latest team to deploy an Opener in baseball. Having struggled with Openers last season, the New York Yankees apparently picked up right where they left off in 2018.
Per my record-keeping, last season the Yanks faced off against an Opener 7 times. In those matchups, the Yanks featured a W-L record of 3-4 while scoring just under FOUR runs per game.
By comparison, in 2018 the Yankees were the second-best team – behind the Boston Red Sox – in terms of runs scored. On average, the Yanks scored over FIVE runs per game in 2018. They finished the season 100-62, their best record since 2009.
Against Baltimore’s Opener, Nate Karns, the Yankees struggled to score runs despite racking up 10 hits. Eventually, they would lose the game by a score of 5-3 behind a solid performance by J.A. Happ, who went 5.2 IP while allowing just 1 ER.
As explained HERE, the idea behind an Opener is to neutralize high scoring in the first inning. In 2018, the Yankees scored the most runs in the first inning than in any other inning of the game.
- 1st Inning: 118 R
- 2nd Inning: 76 R
- 3rd Inning: 96 R
- 4th Inning: 105 R
- 5th Inning: 116 R
- 6th Inning: 76 R
- 7th Inning: 94 R
- 8th Inning: 97 R
- 9th Inning: 58 R
- Ext Inning: 15 R