ARLINGTON, Texas — Ah, Opening Day. The galloping hope. The gnashing tooth. The dizzying elation. The sudden lack of cabin stress, if not the need to stay.
And that’s simply the primary inning.
“No matter how lengthy you’re within the sport, there’s a long-standing custom of overreacting to no matter occurs on Opening Day,’’ Cubs president Theo Epstein mentioned.
On Thursday, after Jon Lester threw 22 pitches within the first and gave up a two-run homer to the Rangers’ Elvis Andrus within the third, the “sense of urgency’’ the Cubs had vowed to deliver to Epstein’s “season of reckoning’’ appeared to have slipped right into a coma.
Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant rounds third base after hitting a two-run house run within the eighth inning in opposition to the Rangers on Thursday. (AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez)
Then Javy Baez reckoned it was time for some pressing enterprise.
In a span of two innings, he hit two house runs and knocked in 4 runs. The Cubs received 12-4. Kris Bryant and his no-longer-injured, now-flawless shoulder additionally homered, which is why smoke is now popping out of the Overreaction Meter.
The 1-0 Cubs are on tempo for 162 victories, Baez will win the National League Most Valuable Player award and the one query is what number of years Joe Maddon needs on his subsequent contract.
It’s good to be the king for a day.
Really, this couldn’t have gone a lot better for the Cubs, who talked all spring coaching about October starting in March. Last yr, they marched out of October with a wild-card playoff loss to the Rockies, leaving a really dangerous style within the mouths of all concerned. They promised to deliver the aforementioned sense of urgency to this season, which, let’s face it, is what each staff guarantees to deliver to a season.
But, nonetheless. Twelve runs? In one sport? Remember, this was the staff that wanted a search social gathering to search out runs within the second half of final season. And if the roles had been reversed Thursday, if the Rangers had completed the pounding, the overreaction the opposite manner wouldn’t have been sort to the Cubs.
Baez didn’t want a newfound sense of urgency. He had it final season, when he completed second in MVP voting. He merely carried over his behavior of mashing the ball all around the park into this yr. It simply so occurred that everyone adopted him this time.
“With the lineup, you possibly can actually put me wherever,’’ he mentioned. “You’ve acquired guys who can hit leadoff, third, fourth, final – it doesn’t matter.’’
Baez loves an enormous stage, so it didn’t come as a shock that he was the one main the best way on Opening Day. But he had firm. No, he had a mob. David Bote had two hits. So did Jason Heyward. Anthony Rizzo walked thrice and had successful. Jon Lester gave up two runs in six innings. And the Cubs had been helped alongside by seven Rangers pitchers who gave up a mixed eight walks.
“We had the mentality that felt like, ‘Get the next guy up,’ ’’ Bote mentioned. “I imply, what number of walks did we draw? Quality at-bats. Grinding at-bats. No out was simple.’’
It’s all the time going to be like this, proper? Hits all over the place? An oversupply of urgency? Opening Day responds: Of course it’s all the time going to be like this.
“We performed with quite a lot of power, man, quite a lot of power, and it was actually enjoyable to observe,’’ Maddon mentioned.
If you’re in search of a nit to select or a buzz to kill, it got here within the ninth inning when Maddon pulled reliever Pedro Strop with two outs and the Cubs main 12-2. Don’t ask me why he did that. Mike Montgomery got here in and gave up a two-run homer.
Oh, properly.
The Cubs don’t play once more till Saturday, which implies that the overreaction to this victory might be allowed to go unchecked for 48 hours. It may appear like a high-school pep rally by the point the primary pitch is thrown Saturday.
“One sport’s one sport,’’ Lester mentioned. “We’re 1-0. That’s all that issues. And we scored 12. I like our guys. Everybody goes by funks. Everybody goes by ups and downs all through a season. We’ll journey this…