Baseball is Back! Opening Week Recap: Sweeps, Streaks, and Surprises

Hey babes! Baseball is officially back, and opening week did not disappoint! 

In this episode, I’m breaking down the biggest storylines from the first full week of the MLB season; from early sweeps and surprising series wins to teams that are still trying to find their rhythm. We’re talking Dodgers and Yankees dominance, under-the-radar teams making noise, and a few rough starts that honestly… we’re not judging (it’s still early, okay).

I also get into one of the wildest moments of the weekend: Jo Adell robbing THREE home runs in one game! Plus the first-ever MLB game ending on an ABS challenge. And we know historical firsts are a cornerstone of baseball culture!

If you’re a new fan or just want a cozy, no-pressure way to keep up with what’s happening around the league, this is your place for weekly baseball recaps.

Let’s talk storylines, surprises, and what I’ll be watching next! 

Transcript

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Hey babe! Welcome to Baseball for Girls, where baseball means soft girl energy. I'm Shaughnessy, and here we do baseball with heart, humanity, and a little humor. So, whether you're brand new to the game or deep in your baseball era, you're in the right place. So grab something cozy. Settle in. And let's get into today's episode. Playboy. So they started their first game on March 25th, which was the Yankees versus the Giants. The Yankees ended up sweeping them. Oof, it was rough. It was a really rough game. First game of the season. And the Yankees beat them seven to zero, which was um pretty pretty uh pretty disappointing as a non-Yankees fan. Um and I mean I'm not necessarily a Giants fan, but I do love Rocky Devers. I mean, who doesn't? Um that was super disappointing that he didn't get a home run. But uh let's get into the rest of the week. So like I said, the Yankees versus Giants was the first game that was uh March 25th, which was a Wednesday. It was the earliest recorded um opening day like ever, I believe. So that was pretty cool. But actual opening day started the next day, which was like the rest of the teams, which was March 26th, um on Thursday. So last week was like opening week, and the week before was also like kind of opening weekend. Um, so the games that started on Thursday were going into the weekend as well. So most of those games, even though they started on Thursday, and typically games that start on Thursday go Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, um, that was not the case um for opening that first opening week. A lot of those games that started on Thursday took a day off on Friday, and then continued the weekend series Saturday and Sunday. So let's see. I wanted to touch on some of the sweeps that happened because there were a couple um in that first opening weekend. So the Dodgers swept the D-Backs, Diamondbacks, Arizona Diamondbacks. Um the Brewers, so the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Chicago White Sox, and like I mentioned, the Yankees swept the Giants, um, the Toronto Blue Jays swept the athletics. Uh where are the athletics playing? I actually don't remember. They are no longer in Oakland, though. Uh, and then the Marlins swept the Colorado Rockies. So that's the Miami Marlins. They swept the Rockies. So that's pretty interesting. So those all those teams, that means they started off with a three-game win streak. Um, but the other teams, that means that they started out with a three-game losing streak. So going into the next week, which would have been March 30th through April 5th, so last week. So going into that weekend, we wanna I wanted to touch on the teams that won their opening night. So either that Thursday or that Friday. So the Orioles, which is my team, the Baltimore Orioles, they did win their opening night, and they won the series um that weekend, so they won two out of three. They were playing the Twins. And the Dodgers, like I mentioned, they swept the D-Backs, the Mets, they won their opening night. Um they were playing the Pirates. Um, the Brewers won their opening night. Like I said, they swept the White Sox, the Cardinals actually also won their opening night, and they also won their series against the Rays, so they won two out of three. Phillies, uh the Philadelphia Phillies, they won their opening night, but they did lose the series to the Rangers, who then who won two out of three. The Blue Jays won their opening night, Marlins also, and the Braves, but they also won their opening night, and they won their series against the Royals, the Kansas City Royals. So um uh typically in baseball there's several series that go on throughout the week. So there's a Monday through Wednesday series, uh typically a Tuesday through Thursday series, and then sometimes there's a Thursday to Sunday, so four-game series, or just a Friday to Sunday uh three-game series for the weekend. So for March 30th, that would have been Monday. So the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday games. The even though the D Backs lost um three games in a row, they did come back in the next week and sweep the uh swept they swept the Tigers. So the Tigers then were on a three-game losing streak, unfortunately for them. Um, and the only other team that week to sweep during that um beginning of the week series was the Astros. They swept the Red Sox. And so going back to the ongoing losing streaks from that first week, so the White Sox did lose four uh three in a row. They did win one game um the next week on that Monday, but then they lost Tuesday, Wednesday, and they took a break and went back home and they won their home opener. Um, their home opener was actually supposed to be on Thursday, but that was postponed due to rain. So they were supposed to have a four-game series that uh this past weekend, but they were not able to make up that game with the Blue Jays. But um they did play that Friday night where they won five to four uh against the Blue Jays in extras. So they went to the 10th inning for that game. And so in that series, that modified series, they did sweep the Blue Jays. Um, but we don't know if they would have if the Blue Jays were able to play that fourth game. So they did technically sweep the Blue Jays, so good for them. Um, and then another team that was on a losing streak was the Giants. Like I mentioned, they lost first three games against the Yankees. They did go on to win their weekday series versus the Padres in San Diego, but then they did lose the weekend series versus the Mets. So the Giants right now, as of Monday, April 6th, they are three to six. So they've only they've only won three games out of the past nine. So they're having a bit of a rough go, but it's very, very early in this season. The other team that was on a losing streak were the athletics, who were swept by the Blue Jays. They were on a four-game losing streak, and they did one win one game against the Braves during their um weekday series, but they ultimately lost that weekday series as well. However, they did win the weekend series they had against the Astros, where on Friday they beat the Astros 11 to 4, and on Sunday they beat the Astros 12 to 10 in extras. So they went to the 10th inning. Um, so the athletics are honestly, they have some really good players. SodaStrum is a really good player, um, and Lingaliers. So they have some good people um on their team. So they are a very sneaky bunch. You never know if you're gonna lose against the lose against the athletics. Never count them out, honestly. Um, the Rockies, however, um a little bit of a different story. They did lose their first three games. Again, like I mentioned, they lost against the Miami Marlins, but they did go on to win their um weekday series against the Blue Jays. They won two out of three, but they did lose their weekend series against the Phillies. So the Rockies are also so they're they won three out of their past nine games. So those are the storylines from the very beginning of the season, and then going on to this past weekend. So starting on April, Thursday, April 1st, um, that Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Um, well, so for the four-game series, it was Braves versus D-Backs, Blue Jays versus White Sox, and the Mets versus the Giants. They all played Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But like I mentioned, the White Sox um they did win their home opener, but they were not able to play the full four-game series against the Blue Jays. So for this past weekend, the Pirates ended up sweeping the Orioles. So sad. Um, and the Reds actually swept the Rangers. Surprising. Um, and the Dodgers actually swept the Nationals for the winning series. So the Angels won their series against the Mariners. The Yankees won their series against the Miami Marlins. The Padres won their series against the um Boston Red Sox. The Guardians won their series against the Cubs. The Rays won their series against the Twins. And Philly won their series against the Rockies, like I mentioned. And the Athletics won their series against the Astros. And the Brewers won their series against the Royals, and the Cardinals lost, actually. The Cardinals lost their series against the Tigers. Um, so a lot of these teams are still warming up, I'd I'd like to say, but there are some teams that are super hot. Um for example, the Dodgers and the Yankees have pretty much been dominating um these games, but everyone else is still kind of getting their footing. So for some games that I'm excited about for next week, um, well, for this upcoming week, so April 6th through whatever the next number is, um 12th. Um, to April 12th. I'm excited for the weekday series for the Mariners versus the Rangers because I'm a Mariners fan as well. Dodgers versus Blue Jays should be really, really good. I mean, that is the World Series matchup, okay, where the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays um best out of seven for the 2025 World Series. Um that's a whole other a whole other conversation. Um I'm I'm a Dodgers fan. Um and I mean I like the Blue Jays, but the Blue Jays, I feel like they probably should have they probably should have won the that World Series. The Dodgers definitely uh kind of snuck and took it away from them. But let's see, and I'm also excited for Bruce versus Red Sox. The Red Sox, I really love Jaren Duran, he's definitely one of my favorites, so I'm hoping the Red Sox can get a little bit hot, get a little bit better for the rest of this week. Um, and for the weekend series, Astros versus Mariners. So that is gonna be a four-game series this weekend. Um, it's funnily enough, it's gonna be a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Um, that typically doesn't happen very often. Um, but that will be happening this weekend. Um, I'm looking forward to Giants versus Orioles, just as an Orioles fan, knowing that the Giants are not doing great. Hopefully, we can uh take this series from them. Um, the Rangers are gonna be playing the Dodgers this weekend. That should be a really good game. Honestly, any game against the Dodgers is gonna be super good. I mean, they have just been dominating, and the Rangers are typically a very good team. They won the World Series in 2023. I mean, come on, they're a good team, but are they better than the Dodgers? The answer has been no for a lot of these teams. So we'll see. And let's see, I'm also excited for the D-Bax versus the Phillies. I'm a D-Bax fan. I love Zach Gallon, he's one of their starting pitchers. Um, I forget his first name, but Fought. Um he he's been having a rough go at it. He used to be very, very good, very much shut down, guaranteed win kind of game um for him whenever he would start. Um, but last year he didn't have a very good season pitching, and he has not had a very good start um to this season either. But I'm still rooting for him. Uh I don't know, he probably let's see, I think he played yesterday. He either played on Sunday or Saturday, so he probably won't play, he probably won't start in the beginning of this week, but he may be starting um for the weekend. So I'm excited to see that as well. Oh, one interesting thing that happened over the weekend. Um, even though I am a very much a Mariners fan, I was watching obviously the Mariners series against the Angels this past weekend, and it was hard to watch. It definitely was hard to watch um that second game where the Mariners had three home runs stolen from them by Adele. What's his name? Joe, Joe Adele. He oh my gosh, they were dragging him on MLB network on um what's it called? Sunday's scorecard. I guess they weren't really dragging him per se. I mean the Mariners announcers were definitely dragging him during the game. Um, just talking about how Joe Adele is not known to as being a very good player defensively, um, and how in 2020 he apparently gave two home runs to teams because he like so once you have touched the ball, even if you don't catch it, like it's still in play. So there were like home runs where he should have been able to catch the ball, but because he touched the ball and like it made it go over the little line, that means it's a home run. He like basically gave them a home run versus like actually can't catch the ball. Um that happened to him twice, apparently, in 2020. Um, so they were saying last night that um since he had a minus two for that and he stole three home runs last night, now he's at a positive one. Because apparently I don't even I don't really understand how the numbers work for defensive players, but they were saying that he's a negative in his defensive plays or something, and so he's not very good. I mean, you don't have to be a baseball savant to understand that negative might mean bad. Um, so apparently he's not typically a very good player. I mean, the angels are they're an okay team. Once they don't have, you know, Shohei Otani, uh, it's just kind of downhill from there. Trout is back, but he did just get hit yesterday, so that's up in the air as well. I did hear that the x-rays were negative for that. So hopefully Trout is fine. But anyway, Joe Adele stole three home runs during that game, and the Angels won one to zero Friday night. Um, or I guess it was Saturday night. Um, and so that was hard to watch. Um, especially because it would have been Cal Raleigh's first home run, it and it would have been JP Crawford's first first home run since returning off the I. So it was a rough weekend. It was a rough weekend for Mariners fans for sure. Um, but you know, it's been a rough start. It's been a rough start for the Mariners overall. They lost their series against the Yankees, they split their series versus the Guardians, which happened at the and during the opening weekend, the very first opening weekend. Um, I didn't really mention that, but they won two out of the four games, and so the Guardians won the other two. Um so they they're they're warming up, okay? They're warming up. The Orioles, they're they're also warming. They might take a little time, they might take a little time to warm up, but um all hope is not lost. It's still the beginning of the season, and I'm so excited. This is gonna be a great year. The abs so the automated balls and strikes system is such a cool extra feature that um that has been added. So basically, you know, the umpire that stands behind the catcher, he is looking to see if the pitch that the pitcher throws is either a ball or a strike. Um, and so sometimes the umpire says it's a ball, but actually it's a strike, or he says it's a strike and it's actually a ball. And in the before times, it was not allowed for anyone to challenge um an umpire's call. Like his word was final, basically. Um and so there were a lot of times where he would be wrong and like they would call it a strike, and it could like end the game because that was the third strike or something, and like, or it was he called it a ball, and then the person, the batter walks, and then the next batter ends up hitting a home run or something, like you know, so it can really impact the outcome of the game. So they implemented this ABS automated balls and strikes system into the minor leagues a couple of years ago now. I think at least I feel like it's been in the minors for at least three years, if not more. Um, but they finally allowed it to come to the major leagues this year, and it does, it adds a little extra spice. Um, I was watching MLB now, and they were saying how it kind of makes it like a little mini game within the game because you're like kind of watching to see if like a batter is gonna challenge because we at home watching on TV, they put up a little tiny box where the strike zone is. So then we always know if it's a ball or a strike. But if you're in the stadium, you're at the game, you're in the game, like you can't really tell. I mean, other than being the pitcher, the batter, or the catcher in the umpire, like those are really the ones that have the best view. So they're really the ones that know for sure. Um, well, at least one of them knows for sure. Um and we on um we at home can tell as well. So now they're able to play back and pull up the Seat and be like, yep, this was a ball, or yep, this was a strike, or the call gets overturned and it is a strike, or it is a ball. And last week, for the first time ever, for the Orioles game, I believe that happened during the week, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, it was the Orioles game that happened um on Wednesday of last week. That game ended due to an ABS challenge being um successful. So basically they were in their third, they had like one more strike. Um, but the umpire called it oh, like they had one more strike to end the game. Um, and the umpire said that the pitch was a ball. Um, the Orioles challenged that call, and it ended up being a strike, and that was the last strike that they needed in order to end the game. So that was the first time ever that a game has been ended on an ABS challenge. So it's it's gonna be really cool, and it'll be really interesting to see what the stats are at the end of the year. Um, so only pitchers, um, catchers, and batters are allowed to um challenge. No one from the dugout or like on the sidelines are allowed to challenge. It has to be one of those three people, and they only have two seconds after the call to like make a decision whether they're gonna challenge it or not. And right now, catchers are the ones that are the most accurate, they get the most calls overturned. Mostly because the catcher is the one that's calling the pitches a lot of the times. The catcher is really um the one that is telling the pitcher what pitch to throw a lot of the times, not every time, but a lot of the time. Um, so they know where the pitch was supposed to be. They know like if they if the pitcher got it into the area that they told him to throw it into or whatever. So they are gonna be a little bit more accurate. And they're also not really moving around. The batter is like swinging, so he might not really be able to tell. The pitcher is throwing it, so he is wanting it to be a strike, so he's gonna always think it's a strike or you know, whatever. And so the catcher really has the most um advantage in the ABS system, and at least that's what the statistics are also showing. But they're also showing that like most of the time, the umpires fine, the umpire's correct, like 50% of the time, over 50% of the time, um, the umpire still ends up being correct. So, and that's like always been the case, I think. Well, not 100% sure on that, but a lot of the times, like even though the umpires get called wrong sometimes, most of the time, like at least 90% of the time, they are pretty accurate. Um, or else why would we even have them in the first place? Right. So that is all that I have for y'all today. Um, super excited for this season. It's gonna be so much fun. I can't wait to recap once a week um and get y'all caught up on like what just happened over the weekend and talk about the series and anything cool that might have happened. I mean, the Joe Adele stealing three home runs was not super cool, but it definitely was and is the talk of the whole weekend. Um, so I had to bring it up. So thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget to rate and review, and I'll talk to you guys next time. Bye.