As has not happened since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic caused multiple restrictions, the Opening Day of the 2023 season it landed on top of us without any major distraction.
For the first time since 1968, all 30 teams were scheduled to perform on the first day of the campaign. to create a baseball marathon of at least 12 hours that had its starting point in New York.
The Yankees, ninth built to reach the World Series for the first time since 2009received at noon the San Francisco Giants in a meeting that would have attracted much more morbidity if Aaron Judge had moved hisu talent to bay as was speculated for several weeks of the offseason.
Finally Judge decided to stay in the big apple thanks to an agreement 360 million dollars that also included the captaincy of the Bombers.
For Judge and the Yankees, the year began almost where it left off in 2022: hitting home runs.
The American League MVP hit a solo home run in the first inningg that caused the takeoff on the board of the ninth New York in the 5-0 victory over the Giants. It was Judge’s first home run on Opening Day and the first that has hit a Yankees center fielder since Curtis Granderson did in the 2011 season.
The ninth New Yorker had the assurance that her ace of the rotation Gerrit Cole almost always gives them. The right-hander pitched six innings in which he limited San Francisco’s offense to 11 hits and struck out 11.
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Cole signed several milestones in his first outing of the year. He became the pitcher with the most strikeouts in Yankees history in Opening Day surpassing Tim Leavy who in 1991 achieved nine.
Cole’s formidable performance from the mound garnered other accolades for the history books. Cole caught up with Nola Ryan as the only players with 600 strikeouts in each of their three organizations.
On a sunny but cold afternoon in New York, Gerrit Cole was in charge of putting the heat to the fans that filled Yankee Stadium by prescribing chocolates to the first six men he faced.
The new look with short hair was a complete renewal for Cole, leaving behind the curse of Samson.
Cole got into a pitching duel with Logan Webb who struck out 12 enemies, the most in San Francisco history on Opening Day. Webb didn’t have the support of his offense, however, and along with Judge’s home run, he was hurt in the bottom of the fourth inning with a home run by Gleyber Torres with a runner on the pads. Webb allowed four hits and four earned runs to take the first loss of the year.
a special afternoon
In his first game as captain of the Yankees, the most recognized and winning team in MLB, Aaron Judge lived a day full of smiles. And it is that despite facing the Giants, his favorite team in childhood, the Judge demonstrated the value he has within the New York organization by promoting two stripes that were decisive in the victory.
