Happy MLB Opening Day!
The 2026 season has arrived, and as of Friday night, all 30 teams have taken the field. Whether it was ace showdowns, powerhouse matchups or new faces in new places, there was something for everyone.
What are we watching as the season gets started? Here’s our takeaway from each completed game, from the Yankees’ Opening Night win Wednesday over the Giants to the Blue Jays’ walk-off victory over the A’s on Friday.
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Takeaways
Friday’s games
It was a good news/bad news opener for the Blue Jays as they began defense of their AL title. The good: New third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, essentially taking Bo Bichette’s place in the lineup, went 2-for-3 with a walk in his debut. His two-out single to start the winning rally in the bottom of the ninth — Andres Gimenez had the two-out single to walk it off — was a lovely piece of hitting, lining a two-strike outside fastball to the opposite field at 106 mph. The bad: Closer Jeff Hoffman, last seen serving up the tying home run to Miguel Rojas in the World Series, gave up a Shea Langeliers home run in the top of the ninth to tie it. Hoffman will get chances to show he has put Game 7 behind him, but it might not be many. — David Schoenfield
This was a classic Sandy Alcantara performance from his NL Cy Young days. He threw 73 pitches in seven efficient innings, getting ahead of hitters and inducing a healthy rate of groundballs. He received a big assist from Austin Slater, who threw out the speedy Jake McCarthy at home in the fourth. Alcantara later escaped that inning with a bases-loaded strikeout. The Marlins struggled early in 2025, having a 12-18 record by the end of April, but they were better than .500 the rest of the way. Getting off to a hot start on this homestand against the very beatable Rockies and White Sox will be key. — David Schoenfield
In a matchup of playoff hopefuls with elite lefties on the mound, the Braves and Chris Sale breezed against the Royals and Cole Ragans. Sale was sharp, mixing good stuff and velocity that touched 98.3. He also benefited from a slew of excellent defensive plays behind him, many with runners on base.
Ragans’ stuff and command wavered throughout the outing. He walked four and gave up three homers to three different hitters on three different pitches, including one of his signature changeups that he left up to Ozzie Albies. Salvador Perez’s work behind the plate, challenging pitches, was the highlight for the Royals. Perez challenged three pitches on the lower edge of the strike zone that Doug Eddings called low, and he got the pitches turned into strikes.
It’s just one win for the Braves, but it probably means more to win the opener this year. Flash back to a year ago, when the touted Braves opened with a seven-game road trip to San Diego and Los Angeles — and lost all seven games. Getting that first win in Game 1 has to feel like a boost. — Bradford Doolittle
Thursday’s games
The Guardians and the Mariners are coming off division titles, but though the Mariners are a popular World Series pick, the Guardians are not expected to return to the playoffs. Cleveland served up four home runs but pulled out the win anyway, with — who else? — Jose Ramirez driving in the go-ahead runs with a two-out double in the seventh. Chase DeLauter might be the key to Cleveland’s playoff hopes.
You might remember him making his MLB debut in the wild card series, so when he homered in the top of the first, he technically homered in his first career at-bat (but not his official MLB debut). He also singled ahead of Ramirez’s double to keep that inning alive and then blasted another home run in the ninth. Cleveland needs offense — and DeLauter might be the answer. — David Schoenfield
The Dodgers’ offense is incredibly deep and supremely talented. Also, as the Diamondbacks learned on Opening Day, it’s the type you can’t hold down for long. Zac Gallen did it for four innings, allowing just two baserunners. Then, the Dodgers exploded, scoring four runs in the fifth and another four in the seventh, a stretch highlighted by home runs from Andy Pages and Will Smith.
The Dodgers totaled 12 baserunners in those two innings. By the end of the night, they cranked out 10 hits, including an RBI double from newcomer Kyle Tucker. Seven of those hits — including Tucker’s — came with two strikes. It was a reminder of what makes this offense so dangerous: The Dodgers are never out of it, no matter how well one executes. — Alden Gonzalez
The Cardinals came back to beat the Rays on Alec Burleson’s home run that capped an eight-run sixth inning, and that wasn’t the only sobering development for Tampa Bay. St. Louis deployed a strategy that might haunt dangerous Rays slugger Junior Caminero all season after he blasted 45 homers last year. The Cardinals walked him in four of his six plate appearances, refusing to throw him fastballs.
Given his bat speed and power, Caminero might face this game plan all summer, unless teammates around him in the Tampa Bay lineup do damage. Caminero, who drew only 41 walks in 2025, might have to wait for pitches to hit this year. — Buster Olney
It’s Opening Day. Everyone is allowed to dream big, such as dreaming about a vintage Mike Trout season. This game looked like Trout circa 2016 or so. His 403-foot home run that broke a scoreless game in the seventh was a classic Trout swing, golfing a low fastball to left field. In his heyday, nobody hit a low fastball better than Trout. He walked three times. He played center field. He even stole a base, which gives him half his total from last season.
As for the Astros, their concerns heading into the season were lineup depth and bullpen depth. They didn’t score, and the bullpen allowed all three runs. — David Schoenfield
After some aces got touched up in their first outings of the year, Cristopher Sanchez threw a masterful — and typical — six innings for the Phillies. Texas managed just three hits, didn’t draw a walk and struck out 10 times, including the final three batters Sanchez faced. The last was particularly nasty, a left-on-left changeup — one of the hardest pitches to throw effectively — that got Corey Seager swinging.
Buoyed by a pair of home runs, Sanchez filled in admirably for Zack Wheeler on Opening Day. And with his return to a rotation that already includes Jesus Luzardo and Aaron Nola coming, the Phillies have reason to feel good well beyond Opening Day. — Jeff Passan
The Tigers’ season opener played out as if manager A.J. Hinch had drawn up a script. Tarik Skubal, winner of back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards, pitched out of first-inning trouble against the Padres, with help from his changeup, and allowed just an unearned run in six innings, hard-launching his season. Touted prospect Kevin McGonigle started his career with two doubles and an infield single; he finally made his first out in the seventh inning then picked up his fourth hit on a ninth-inning single. Dillon Dingler obliterated a two-run homer deep to left field. And Javier Baez extended an at-bat with an ABS challenge and ripped a single on the next pitch. A near-perfect game on a perfect San Diego day. — Buster Olney
It’s always nice when your biggest stars show up on Opening Day, and that’s what happened with the Red Sox. Garrett Crochet, aiming to end Tarik Skubal’s run of Cy Young Awards, pitched six scoreless innings. Crochet escaped a one-out bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning of a scoreless game, striking out Eugenio Suarez and Spencer Steer. Roman Anthony, who hit leadoff and went 3-for-4 with a walk, is already a star. He will score a ton of runs. And let’s call Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman the other big stars for the Red Sox. The relief duo was dominant a year ago and closed this one out after the Red Sox tacked on a couple of late runs. — David Schoenfield
Baltimore’s new-look rotation had a similar feel to last year, at least for Opening Day. Trevor Rogers, who sported the best ERA in the American League last year from May 24 until the end of the season — yes, even better than Skubal’s — navigated around four walks and a hit-by-pitch to spin seven scoreless innings. His fastball wasn’t overwhelming but it got outs, and Rogers carved the Minnesota Twins’ iffy lineup, which mustered a run off Tyler Wells in the eighth inning before Ryan Helsley shut them down in the ninth to secure his first save as Orioles closer. In the gnarly American League East, every out-of-division win matters, and Baltimore has its first. — Jeff Passan
A howling wind knocked down one ball for him, but Matthew Boyd didn’t look like the pitcher who made the All-Star team last season and was a member of Team USA in this year’s World Baseball Classic. He gave up six earned runs to the lowly Nationals, who jumped on all sorts of hittable pitches during a six-run fourth inning.
It was more runs than Boyd gave up in any start last season. He was chased after just 3⅔ innings after the Cubs handed him a 2-1 lead. The veteran lefty faded some down the stretch last year, so was this a sign of things to come or a simple Day 1 bad outing? The good news is he struck out seven batters over the first three innings before falling apart. — Jesse Rogers
A year ago, 37 games separated the 97-65 Brewers from the 60-102 White Sox in the MLB-level standings. Despite projections that suggested the gap had narrowed, Opening Day certainly felt like it has not. The Brewers began the day with the unexpected news that Jackson Chourio had landed on the injured list, but that didn’t stop them from dominating the White Sox in every phase. From Jacob Misiorowski’s franchise-record 11 Opening Day strikeouts to the strike zone dominance of the entire Brewers lineup, it was no contest from the early innings. Even the sausage race, won by the Italian Sausage, was a blowout. For now, 2026 looks for both teams a lot like 2025. But it was, after all, only one game. — Bradford Doolittle
That’s not how anyone envisioned Paul Skenes would launch his NL Cy Young Award defense. An unusual lack of execution combined with misfortune and terrible defense behind him produced the worst start of Skenes’ young career. The right-hander gave up five runs on four hits, a walk and a hit batter over just two-thirds of an inning. The Mets’ first two hits were a bloop single and a swinging bunt, but they made Skenes work. New York fouled off 10 of his 37 pitches and, other than Carson Benge’s strikeout on three whiffs in his first career plate appearance, swung through just two. And yet Skenes would’ve escaped the trouble had center fielder Oneil Cruz not botched back-to-back routine plays, which led to four runs instead of the end of the inning. If Cruz makes those plays, Skenes gets through the inning and could have rebounded. But he wasn’t sharp, and it cost him. — Jorge Castillo
Wednesday’s game
It has become something close to a legal obligation to assess the Yankees’ offseason by using the words run it back. But lost in the implied criticism of the team’s offseason, which included no splashy additions, is this: The guys they’re running it back with are pretty good.
In the first game of the 2026 season, a stand-alone spectacle at Oracle Park that was long on pomp and short on suspense, Max Fried cruised through 6⅓ innings, allowing just two hits and one runner past first base, as the Yankees beat the Giants and made rookie manager Tony Vitello’s debut one he’ll probably want to forget.
Vitello became the first person to go directly from college head coach to big league manager, and Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey made the out-of-the-box decision in part to inject the former Tennessee head coach’s unique brand of energy and intensity into a team that has hovered around .500 for the past four seasons. But a pitcher like Fried can sap the energy of even the most rabid group, and with him on the mound, the Yankees’ five-run second inning made the outcome all but inevitable. — Tim Keown
