Baseball is finally back! 2022 is underway and the opening series of MLB action was full of great moments. There were walk-offs, debuts, late-inning no-hit bids, and more. Here’s a look at the biggest moments of the first week of baseball.
Best and worst team performances from the MLB Opening Day weekend
29 Major League Baseball teams got a win over the first few days of the season and those same 29 MLB teams each scored a total of at least eight runs. That one outlier — surprise, surprise — was the Baltimore Orioles. The hapless Orioles scored only four runs in their first three games, getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays. Long-suffering Baltimore fans may have to “wait ‘til next year.”
It would be easy to pick the Rays as the team with the best week, but they’re supposed to beat up on teams like the Orioles. I give my nod to the New York Mets. The Metropolitans took three of four from the Washington Nationals and outscored them by 11 runs in the process. All four starting pitchers tossed at least five innings and left with the lead. The Nationals aren’t exactly juggernauts but, after all the money invested in the team this season, this is about as good of an opening series as they could have hoped for.
Best hitting games from MLB Opening Day weekend
There were a number of big hits over the first few games and I’ll get to a few of those later. With the offensive explosion the Cleveland Guardians put up on Sunday, there were a lot of options for best individual games just from that team alone. These three performances stood out in the first week.
- Nolan Arenado, April 8 – 4-for-4, 3 doubles, 3 RBI and 2 runs scored
- Steven Kwan, April 10 – 5-for-5, 4 runs scored and a double
- Jose Ramirez, April 10 – 3-for-4, home run, double, 3 RBI and 3 runs scored
The worst hitting game belonged, however, to Yoshi Tsutsugo.
There were a handful of times where a player struck out four times. Giancarlo Stanton had one, but he also homered in the same game. The most futile performance of the week goes to Tsutsugo, who went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts and an infield pop-up. Despite his performance out of the clean-up spot, the Pittsburgh Pirates got their first win of the season and somehow put up nine runs.