To be clear, the Baltimore Orioles didn’t need six homers to defeat Toronto this afternoon on Opening Day. But they got six homers, breaking an Opening Day franchise record. 12 runs and an outstanding effort by starter Zach Eflin later, and the Birds were in the WIN COLUMN on Opening Day. Eflin’s line: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 2 K.
If you keep track of such things, that’s a quality start. To be clear, this is game one. There are 161 left to play. The season can still go either way. But this was a great start.
And the onslaught started early. Adley Rutschman smacked a solo home run in the first inning. Little did we know at that time that they were off to the races. One inning later, Cedric Mullins’ RBI-single extended it to 2-0.
But they were just getting warmed up. The Birds put two on in the third, and Tyler O’Neil showed us our first Earl Weaver special of the season with a three-run homer. That blew the game wide open.
But wait…there’s more. Cedric Mullins gave the O’s a solo shot in the fourth, sending it to 6-0. The lone Toronto highlight would come in the bottom of the inning on a two-run homer by Gimenez. But Toronto wasn’t spoiling the Orioles’ party on this day. Not by a country mile.
The Birds stood pat for a couple of innings – retooling, if you will. Then Cedric Mullins came up with two on in the seventh. And he cranked the heat up even more with a three-run homer. An inning later in the eighth it was Adley Rutschman’s turn again – another two-run shot.
Jordan Westburg finished things off later in the inning with a solo shot, capping off the Birds’ 12-2 Opening Day victory. I’m not going to lie – that was a complete and total beat-down. And on Opening Day at that.
You aren’t going to see many games like that overall – much less the first game of the season. Toronto used to be a tough place to play for the O’s. And again to be clear, it still could be this year. All we know is that on this day it wasn’t. AND that the O’s set a franchise record for home runs on Opening Day.
The series continues tomorrow night at Rogers Centre. Charlie Morton gets the start for the O’s, and he’ll be opposed by Toronto’s Kevin Gausman. Game time is set for just after 7 PM.
Birdland Crush 