It was opening day in Major League Baseball yesterday Anthony Volpe went 0 for 2 with a walk, stolen base and two nice defensive plays in his major league debut, a 5-0 opening-day win over the San Francisco Giants. Aaron Judge followed his record-setting 2022 season by homering on his first swing as Yankees captain, a drive off Logan Webb, and Gerrit Cole struck out 11 in six scoreless innings Gleyber Torres added a two-run, opposite-field homer to right in the fourth and Judge blooped an RBI broken-bat single in a two-run seventh that included DJ LeMahieu’s run-scoring single.
Elsewhere, Adley Rutschman became the first catcher in major league history with five hits on opening day, and the Baltimore Orioles survived a wild ninth inning to beat the Boston Red Sox 10-9. Playing in his first season-opener after starring for the Orioles as a rookie last year, Rutschman homered in his first at-bat and finished 5-for-5 with a career-best four RBIs and a walk on a chilly day at Fenway Park. Ramon Urias hit a two-run homer for Baltimore, which finished with 15 hits, nine walks and five stolen bases. Starter Kyle Gibson got the win for Baltimore and Félix Bautista got the save. Corey Kluber took the loss for Boston.
Brandon Nimmo broke a seventh-inning tie with a two-run double, sending Max Scherzer and the New York Mets to a 5-3 victory over the Miami Marlins. Scherzer coughed up a three-run lead but threw six solid innings in a matchup with NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara. The Mets improved to 41-21 on opening day — the best record in baseball. Nimmo had three RBIs after re-signing with the Mets in the offseason for $162 million over eight years. He ripped a slider from reliever Tanner Scott into center field to put New York ahead 5-3 in the seventh, propelling the Mets to their 41st win in the past 53 openers. Garrett Cooper tied it 3-all in the sixth with a two-run homer off Scherzer.
Robbie Grossman and Brad Miller homered in a big comeback for Texas to beat the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies 11-7 in the season opener. Grossman hit a three-run homer that tied the game at 5-5 in the middle of a nine-run outburst in the bottom of the fourth inning. An inning later, Miller became the first Rangers player in 11 years to homer in consecutive season openers with his two-run shot. Jacob deGrom struck out seven without a walk in his Rangers debut, but allowed five runs on six extra-base hits in his 3 2/3 innings. Phillies starter Aaron Nola also gave up five runs in 3 2/3 innings.
Oneil Cruz homered shortly after a pitch clock violation and later hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, helping the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 on opening day. The game was played in 3 hours, 2 minutes under new rules this season designed to speed things up. There were a combined 15 walks and 26 strikeouts, and one pitch clock violation for each team. Spencer Steer homered for Cincinnati. Rob Zastryzny got the win. Buck Farmer took the loss. David Bednar fanned two in the ninth for the save.
Chicago Cubs right-hander Marcus Stroman committed Major League Baseball’s first pitch-clock violation in the third inning of Thursday’s opening day game against the Milwaukee Brewers. With no outs, rookie Brice Turang on second base and Christian Yelich at the plate, plate umpire Ron Kulpa called the violation on Stroman at Wrigley Field. Kulpa pointed to his wrist in announcing the call, and the automatic ball made it a 2-2 count against Yelich. Cubs-Brewers was the fourth of 15 opening day games to begin Thursday. Several more violations followed on the first day of regular season games since MLB introduced a slate of rules changes this season.
NBA
Jayson Tatum scored 40 points, Jaylen Brown added 30 and the Boston Celtics steamrolled the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks 140-99. The Celtics shot 22 of 43 from 3-point range and moved within two games of the Bucks in the Eastern Conference standings. The Celtics won the season series with the Bucks 2-1 and therefore would win the tiebreaker if both teams finish the regular season with the same record. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 24 points. Bucks forward Khris Middleton left midway through the third quarter after taking an elbow to the face from Brown.
NHL
Erik Haula and Timo Meier scored and Vitek Vanecek made three big third-period saves to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 win over the New York Rangers. Vanecek finished with 24 saves as the Devils won the season series 3-1 and opened a four-point lead over the Rangers in the Metropolitan Division with two weeks left in the season. He stopped Vincent Trocheck in close twice and Vladimir Tarasenko in the final 12 minutes in picking up his 30th win. The Rangers and Devils could meet in the first round of the playoffs. Chris Kreider scored his 33rd goal for the Rangers.
NHL
David Pastrnak scored his 53rd goal of the season 41 seconds into overtime and the Boston Bruins wrapped up the Presidents’ Trophy with their franchise-record 58th victory, 2-1 over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night, The Presidents’ Trophy goes to the NHL regular-season points leader. Boston broke a tie with the 1970-71 team for the franchise victory mark and moved four away from tying the NHL record of 62 set by Detroit in 1995-96 and matched by Tampa Bay in 2018-19. Tyler Bertuzzi had a tying power-play goal in the second and Linus Ullmark made 25 saves to help the Bruins win for the eighth time in nine games. Jack Roslovic scored for Columbus. The Blue Jackets have lost six of eight.
Alex DeBrincat scored at 1:36 of overtime off goalie Felix Sandstrom’s giveaway in the Ottawa Senators’ 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. After the Flyers scored three straight goals to force overtime, Sandstrom misplayed the puck behind the net, with DeBrincat scoring into an open net to keep the Senators’ playoff hopes alive. Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist, Austin Watson, Shane Pinto and Claude Giroux also scored and Cam Talbot stopped seven of 11 shots. Tony DeAngelo, Cam York and Noah Cates, Owen Tippett scored for the Flyers. Sandstrom made 41 saves. Tippett tied it with 2:39 left.
Pittsburgh 2 Nashville 0
Tristan Jarry turned away 27 shots to outduel Juuse Saros and the Pittsburgh Penguins edged Nashville 2-0. Jason Zucker scored his 26th goal in the second period to give Jarry all the help he would need on his way to his 13th career shutout. Jake Guentzel provided some breathing room with a power-play goal in the later stages of the third period. Pittsburgh held on to the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with the victory. Juuse Saros made 43 saves for the Predators but Nashville fell a game after stunning NHL-leading Boston on the road.
Tampa Bay 5 Washington 1
Pat Maroon scored twice in the third period, Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the slumping Washington Capitals 5-1 on Thursday night. Stamkos assisted on Alex Killorn’s goal midway through the opening period, then scored his 32nd of the season with 2.8 seconds left to put Tampa Bay up by two. Maroon scored early in the third period to give Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead, then put the game away with his second with 3:32 to go. Erik Cernak added a short-handed, empty-net goal with 1:54 remaining. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for the Lightning. Craig Smith scored for Washington. The Capitals are 1-4-2 in their last seven games.
NCAA
On the women’s side, LSU takes on VA Tech tonight at 7PM, and Iowa faces South Carolina tonight at 9PM in Dallas.
On the men’s side up first, it’s FL Atlantic versus San Diego State at 6:09, then Miami faces UConn at 8:49 p.m. Both games are in Houston tomorrow night.
Jim Larrañaga led one of the greatest mid-major runs in NCAA Tournament history when George Mason reached the 2006 men’s Final Four. The 73-year-old coach is at again at Miami, leading the Hurricanes to their first Final Four game against UConn this weekend. Both teams started their March Madness runs in Albany, and the UConn Huskies are the favorite in Saturday’s semifinal in Houston. UConn guard Andre Jackson Jr. is an Amsterdam, New York native and Albany Academy graduate. He says the team’s unselfish play has brought UConn to its first Final Four since 2014:
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