Opening Week Surprises

The new MLB rules appear to working. Through the first week of action this season, games are considerably shorter, offense is up, and players are stealing bases with abandon. Personally, I never found baseball boring. And it’s always ground my gears that people complain about how little “action” there is in a baseball game when an NFL game has, on average, only 18 minutes of live action. Eighteen minutes of action in a game that lasts three hours!

But if the quicker pace and increased action in MLB games enhance the fan experience—and bring more fans to the game—I’m all for it.

Whatever the pace, I love baseball because every game presents an opportunity for something that’s never happened before in the sport. Every pitch is a beginning of something new and exciting.

In that vein, let’s talk about my top surprises from the first (almost) week of action.

And then there was one

The Rays are now the only undefeated team.

Tampa Bay scored five runs in the 9th inning Tuesday night for a come-from-behind victory over the the Nationals. The Rays went home run, home run, walk (then caught stealing), single, double home run. The Rays did all their damage off Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan, who wasn’t spectacular last season but did post a 26.1% strikeout rate. So far this season, Finnegan has faced 16 batters are struck out none. That seems like a problem.

The Twins were undefeated until they ran into the Sandy Alcantara buzzsaw on Tuesday night in Miami. Alcantara pitched a complete game shutout, scattering three hits with one walk and nine strikeouts. Last season’s NL Cy Young Award winner looks to be in midseason form already.

Feast or famine

Heading into Wednesday’s action, the Giants have only played four games and have had two off days—a function of being the visiting team for Opening Day at the Yankees and White Sox. MLB schedulers left an off day after each home opener in case weather forced a game cancellation.

In those four games, the Giants twice scored zero runs and twice exploded with offense. According to Susan Slusser, the Giants beat writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, that was the first time in the history of the Giants franchise that the team was shut out in two of first three games of the season.

In Monday’s game against the White Sox, the Giants changed the narrative and hit seven home runs: David Villar hit two, including a grand slam, and Mike Yastrzemski, Joc Pederson, Michael Conforto, Thairo Estrada, and Bryce Johnson each hit one. That’s one shy of the team record of eight home runs in a game, a feat San Francisco last accomplished in the Barry Bonds era: July 2, 2002.

The major league record for home runs in a game is 10. The Blue Jays hit 10 on September 14, 1987 in a game against the Orioles. Something to shoot for, Giants.

Hi Mom, Hi Dad

Before the season started, Brice Turang was one of the Brewers’ top prospects. Now he’s a Milwaukee legend.

The 23-year-old California native is a versatile infielder with some pop in his bat. Okay, a lot of pop. In his third career MLB game, Turang hit his first home run—a grand slam—with his parents in the crowd. Great moment.

Put a fork in it

Kodai Senga is a 30-year-old MLB rookie pitcher with the Mets. Before coming over to play in the U.S., Senga pitched 11 seasons in Japan in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. There, he developed a new kind of pitch dubbed a “ghost forkball” because the ball leaves his hand looking like a fastball and then dives and disappears just as the batter is getting ready to square it up.

Senga made his major league debut on Sunday against the Marlins. He pitched five-and-a third innings, gave up one hit, one run, walked three and struck out eight. His ghost forkball flummoxed Marlins’ hitters. You can see why.

Hope springs eternal

The Tampa Bay Rays are really, really good at scouting, drafting, developing, and trading for excellent pitchers. But because the Rays play in a small media market and do not garner a lot of national media attention, a lot of baseball fans don’t know about the Rays’ elite pitchers unless and until the Rays play in the postseason.

I’m here to tell you: pay attention to Jeffrey Springs. In his first start of the season for the Rays on Sunday against the Tigers, the 30-year-old left hander pitched six innings, struck out 12 and didn’t allow a hit. Rays manager Kevin Cash removed Springs after six because he’d thrown 81 pitches, which is a lot for a pitcher’s arm this early in the season. Still, when a guy is dealing like that, you like to see the manager give him a chance to pitch a no-hitter.

Springs throws a fastball, a change up, a slider, and new this season, a sweeping breaking ball. He threw them for all strikes on Sunday and kept Tigers hitter off balance all day. A thing of beauty.

Thompson for three!

Readers from the San Francisco Bay Area have heard that phrase many, many times since Klay Thompson debuted with the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day in 2011. On Friday night, it was Dodgers’ broadcasters exclaiming “Thompson for three!” after Klay’s brother Trayce Thompson hit his third home run of the night for the Dodgers in their game against the Diamondbacks. Amazingly, Statcast (MLB’s data tracking system) measured Thompson’s three home runs as having the same exit velocity: 107.5 mph.

That’s a level of consistency Thompson hasn’t experienced in his career. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 2015. That season, he saw action in 44 games and accumulated 135 plate appearances, ending with a slash of .295/.363/.533. The White Sox traded Thompson to the Dodgers after 2015 season and Los Angeles gave him more playing time in 2016 even though his production dropped significantly as Thompson battled a back injury. Since then, he’s bounced around the major and minor leagues, spending time with the Athletics, the Cubs, the Padres, the White Sox (again) and back with the Dodgers.

Good on Trayce Thompson. What a night.