IN THE BIG INNING

Opening Day redeemed Opening Night. 

Yankees versus Giants in San Francisco was a 7-0 bore of defensive failure. The Star Spangled Banner provided the highlight of the whole evening before the first pitch was thrown. Retired U.S. Navy serviceman Generald Wilson and a rousing a capella version of the national anthem punctuated by a technological wonder. 

Dave Flemming on KNBR described it. 

“You might have heard there was an audible gasp from this huge crowd when a group of drones hovering above McCovey Cove right before the end of the anthem they each shot out a puff, a cloud of colored smoke that put together looked like a giant sort of magical American flag floating in the sky above McCovey Cove and that was pretty spectacular,” Dave said. “The cloud of all that smoke is now moving out over San Francisco Bay.” 

“I've truly never seen anything like it,” Jon Miller said.  

“It was amazing,” Dave said. 

“I didn’t know they could do that,” Mike Krukow said, awestruck. 

“Do it again!” Jon quipped. 

Image courtesy MLB.

Then, unfortunately for Giants fans, they played the game. 

Aaron Judge did go 0-for-5 with four strikeouts. 

Wednesday made things better. 

First up was the Pirates in New York to face the Mets, with the Pittsburgh club led into battle by Paul Skenes.  

Pirates fans were whipsawed in the first inning. Oneil Cruz led off in the first and promptly singled. Up to the plate came Brandon Lowe, rhymes with how, as in how did the Rays let him go. He hit it out. 

Greg Brown on KDKA called it for the Pirates fans listening on the 30-station radio network and streaming for anyone on the globe with internet service. 

“High fly ball to right,” Greg began, calmly. “Benge drifts back toward the wall. Leaping up. This ball is gone! Brandon Lowe. The first home run in the major leagues in 2026 belongs to the new Pirate Brandon Lowe and he gives the pirates a 2-nothing lead.” 

“Wow, Brownie,” Joe Block said. “Three hundred thirty-seven feet. Just got it over the right field wall there. A hundred and four miles an hour off the bat on what looked like a first-pitch breaking ball.” 

“Talk about immediate payoff,” Brown said. 

Every Pirates fan, every Mets fan, everyone listening or watching or in attendance probably had the same thought. Well, Skenes got no run support during his dominant year in 2025. They’ve given him a lead now. It’s over. 

Not so fast. 

In the bottom of the first Francisco Lindor walked. Juan Soto singled to send Lindor to third. Bo Bichette hit a sacrifice fly to score Lindor. Skenes walked the next two to load the bases and Brett Baty tripled to clear the bases. A Keystone Kops routine breaks out with balls lost in the sun and poor Oneil Cruz befuddled in center. Skenes, last year’s Cy Young winner, doesn’t make it out of the first inning. His line for the day is 2/3 of an inning pitched, four earned runs, and a 67.50 earned run average. 

Ugly. It ended 11-7 in favor of the Mets. 

The Red Sox were in Cincinnati for the opener. The Reds have been the first-out-of-the-gate team since 1882 only recently supplanted to make way for MLB marketing games.  

The Wills on WEEI – Will Flemming and Will Middlebrooks – were caught up in the pomp the Queen City puts on, including a parade, for Opening Day. There is excitement among Red Sox fans for this year’s team. 

“We are delighted to narrate yet another chapter in this storied franchise’s history,” Will F. said pre-game.  

It’s Roman Anthony who’s got imaginations fired up. The 21-year-old went to Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, made infamous by tragedy in 2018. 

Today, though, was a day for making good memories. 

“It’s a perfect day for ball,” Will M. added, beautifully and simply. 

“There’s no feeling like it,” Will Flemming said. “There's this air of expectation in this ballpark, everything waiting for the Reds to take the field and they are led out by their southpaw, Andrew Abbott, in the home whites, some of the great uniforms in all of big league baseball.”  

Anthony did not disappoint. He went 3-for-4 in the opener, starting things off with a single to center. In the ninth he challenged a called third strike that would have ended the inning with the Red Sox headed to the bottom half with a thin, single-run lead. Instead, Anthony’s challenge converted the strike to a ball and a walk that extended the inning. He ultimately scored on successive Trevor Story and Jarren Duran singles to provide a cushion in the final half inning. 

After Aroldis Chapman shut it down in the ninth for the save with a no hits, no walks, no runs 1-2-3 inning I had time to catch the final inning and a half of the Cardinals 9-7 win in St. Louis. John Rooney and Ricky Horton had their familiar presentation on KMOX. I think the sixth inning might have done me in. Six runs in the top by the Rays, 8 runs from the Cardinals in the bottom of the frame. There were 17 hits by Tampa Bay and 14 hits from the Cardinals. Hope-for-the-future JJ Wetherholt went 1-for-4, but that hit was a home run in the third, a 425-foot shot to center. 

“He hits that ball high and deep to centerfield. He got a lot of that one and it’s gone!” Ricky called with enthusiasm. “First major league home run, first major league hit for JJ Wetherholt on an 0-2 pitch to straightaway centerfield and it’s 1-nothing Cardinals on Opening Day.”  

He did let the moment linger with uncharacteristic silence on the Cardinals broadcast, Ricky letting the crowd noise tell the story. 

“I would imagine he will have his first curtain call here shortly. Somebody's going to have to teach him about those,” Ricky continued. “Cardinals ask for time at home plate and here he comes. Could not have written that any better.” 

Alec Burleson went 3-for-4 to start strong for the Cardinals. 

Finally, I stayed up long enough to hear the end of the eighth inning in Seattle as the Guardians beat the Mariners. Rick Rizzs and Gary Hill Jr. brought their hyper-professionalism to the call. It sounds very nearly scripted.  

The announcers, the fans, and the national media are all primed for the Mariners in 2026.  

“You and I have been waiting for this moment for a long time and it’s finally here,” Rizzs said. “The red, white, and blue bunting drapes the ballpark. A sellout crowd is settling in and the magenta carpet is out for the arrival of the players, the coaches, and manager Dan Wilson. Opening Day is truly a magical moment. It's the Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve and Christmas morning all rolled into one with the hopes and dreams of another exciting season. Fifty seasons ago it was Diego Segui who started that very first game in mariner’s history at the King Dome, 1977. And to get things started half a century later Logan Gilbert gets his second consecutive opening day start and he’ll be opposed by Tanner Bibee of the Guardians. And so another chapter in Mariners history begins tonight and this team is ready to take us on another magical ride.” 

It is just the start of the season, but it has already been a magical ride, in Rizzs’s construction, and many turns and twists await.