After his record-breaking 2022 season, there was no one more fitting to hit the first home run of the 2023 campaign than Aaron Judge as the New York Yankees won 5-0 over the San Francisco Giants on Thursday.
Judge, who blasted an American League single-season record 62 home runs last season, lit up Opening Day with the first home-run shot of 2023 in the first inning at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees outfielder needed only two pitches before launching Logan Webb's sinker over the center-field wall. Judge's blast had an exit velocity of 109.3 mph and traveled 422 feet according to Statcast projections.
Gerrit Cole did the rest on the mound, recording an Opening Day franchise record 11 strikeouts across six scoreless innings.
Gleyber Torres creamed a two-run blast in the fourth inning to open up a 3-0 lead, while Torres scored again from a D.J. LeMahieu single in the seventh.
Judge chimed in with a broken-bat RBI single in the same inning, with Jose Trevino scoring, securing a 5-0 win and initiating "M-V-P!" chants from the home crowd.
Top prospect Anthony Volpe also got a rousing reception from the Yankees faithful, finishing 0-2 with a walk in his maiden start at shortstop.
Jays edge Cards in 19-run, 34-hit epic
The Toronto Blue Jays edged the St Louis Cardinals 10-9 in a wild 19-run 34-hit Opening Day classic where Vladimir Guerrero Jr played a key role.
Guerrero brought home the decisive run with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly for new addition Kevin Kiermaier to score the go-ahead run. Guerrero finished with three RBIs from two hits.
Alejandro Kirk had helped the Jays to a 3-0 first-inning lead with a two-run single on a line drive, after Daulton Varsho drove in George Springer on a double.
The chaotic contest saw the Jays become the first MLB team to allow a go-ahead run in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings on the road and still win since the Boston Red Sox in 1938.
Ohtani sends down 10 Ks in Angels defeat
Shohei Ohtani took the unusual step of calling his own pitches, sending down 10 strikeouts, but it was not enough for the Los Angeles Angels in a 2-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics.
Ohtani threw six shutout innings, allowing only two hits, but the A's capitalized after he exited, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 victory, scoring two at the bottom of the eighth.
Tony Kemp doubled on a fly ball past Mike Trout in center field with Esteury Ruiz scoring, before Aledmys Diaz's line drive drove in Kemp.
Angels outfielder Hunter Renfroe produced a moment of magic in the fifth inning with a no-look catch, leaving Ohtani stunned.
Yankees slugger Judge goes back on injured list
The New York Yankees will be without slugger Aaron Judge for at least the next 10 days, with the superstar going back on the injured list with a contusion and sprained ligament in his right big toe.
An MRI on Tuesday showed Judge has no break or fracture in his toe, but a sprain will keep him sidelined until at least mid-June.
The 2022 AL MVP sustained the injury while making a highlight-reel catch against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. He knocked open the door of the visiting bullpen while making the catch and slammed his toe against the concrete at the bottom of the wall.
This is the second time this season that Judge will spend time on the injured list after a right hip strain forced him to miss two weeks in late April/early May.
Judge is putting together another stellar season, batting .291 with an AL-best 19 home runs and 40 RBIs in 49 games.
Blue Jays send struggling Alek Manoah to minors
The 2022 season could not have gone much better for Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah.
The 2023 season, meanwhile, could not have started much worse for the struggling right-hander.
The Blue Jays sent Manoah to the rookie-level Florida Complex League on Tuesday, one day after he managed to get just one out in an 11-4 loss to the Houston Astros.
The 25-year-old has been a major disappointment this season after finishing third in AL Cy Young Award balloting in 2022 and earning a selection to the All-Star Game.
Through 58 innings and 13 starts this year, Manoah has surrendered 45 runs - 10 fewer runs than he permitted all of 2022 in 196 2/3 innings.
He's 1-7 with a 6.36 ERA this year after going 16-7 with a 2.24 ERA in 31 starts last season. As a rookie in 2021, he was 9-2 with a 3.22 ERA in 20 starts.
Among the 96 players in the majors with at least 50 innings pitched this season, Manoah's ERA is the ninth highest while his 1.90 WHIP is second worst.
This is after he compiled the fourth-lowest ERA and 10th-lowest WHIP (0.99), among all qualifying MLB pitchers in 2022.
His latest outing was the shortest out of 64 career starts.
Manoah faced nine Astros and got just one out, allowing six runs and seven hits - including a grand slam - while walking one.
He'll now be working at one of the lowest minor league levels.
Reds call up highly touted prospect Elly De La Cruz
The future is now for the Cincinnati Reds.
Elly De La Cruz will make his highly anticipated major league debut after the Reds called up the touted prospect ahead of Tuesday's series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With the lethal combination of power and speed, the 21-year-old shortstop is ranked as Baseball America's third-best prospect, and has been crushing the ball in the minors.
In 38 games this season for Triple-A Louisville, Cruz slashed .297/.398/.633 with 12 home runs, 11 doubles and 11 stolen bases. He's also driven in 36 runs and scored 38.
This came after he hit .304 with 28 homers and stole 47 bases in 120 games last year for Class A Dayton and Double-A Chattanooga.
Signed as a teenager by Cincinnati out of the Dominican Republic, the tall middle infielder has drawn comparisons to Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz.
De La Cruz joins a Reds team that has won three in a row to improve to 27-33, and is surprisingly in the mix in the pedestrian NL Central, sitting 5 /1/2 games behind the first-place Pirates.
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