The O's surprised alot of people on Opening Day when the best players of the day were the ones no one was expecting.
Luis Matos homered in his first at bat against one of the best pitchers in baseball, Barry Zito. Matos has taken a lot of criticism this off-season for not being productive at the plate. This is the first game of the season, but I hope he does keep surprising people and this isn't a one time thing. Jay Gibbons also did very good on his first day by showing his patience at the plate and taking two walks. One of the walks came right before Matos homered. Another surprise during Opening day was the reception Sammy Sosa got while sprinting out into right field. He proved to be not only a homerun machine by delivering two base hits.
The pitching on Opening day was a great sign for Rodrigo Lopez. The last time Lopez was named the #1 starter, he failed. Lopez didn't look like had all of his stuff on Monday, but he was able to get some key outs at the right time. Lopez also got some good help defensively behind him with base runners. The only two mistakes were a Brian Roberts error and a misplay in right field by Sosa. Lopez blanked a team in which the O's have struggled in recent years and earned his first victory of the year. Steve Reed stepped in and replaced Lopez after 6 innings and allowed one hit. Next, Jorge Julio came in the 8th inning at his new position as set up man and took out the side. B.J. Ryan finished the game in a non-close situation to get him into rythym, and he took care of the side.
Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come this year, for every expects the big sluggers to hit some homeruns and score. However, the O's got offense from there #9 hitter, and they had a solid outing from their new #1 starter.
Posted by helimech24 at April 6, 2005 12:24 PM | TrackBack