How sweep it is for the Yankees
The last couple of Thursdays featured two of the greatest days on the sports calendar: the first day of March Madness and MLB Opening Day. I promise we won’t tell anyone that you were watching these events during the work day. Luckily for Yankees fans, they didn’t have to worry about getting caught slacking on the job, as the Bronx Bombers began their season the previous night against the Giants. While there were a myriad of complaints about the Netflix broadcast from virtually the entire baseball world, there was nothing to complain about for the Yankees that night and for the rest of the series.
A 7-0 victory to begin the season was notable in many ways. Max Fried dazzled on the mound allowing just two hits through 6.1 innings pitched, even though he admitted he wasn’t at his sharpest. But the biggest positives were from their hitting. One of the consistent criticisms about the Yankees lineup in recent memory is that they’re too reliant on the long ball. That argument certainly has some merit, but it was an encouraging sign to see they began the season without needing any home runs to put up a good amount of runs.
The second plus was that they were able to produce with the best hitter in their lineup—and in all of MLB, really—donning a golden sombrero. That’s right, Aaron Judge struck out four times and went 0-for-5 in his debut. You would’ve thought the sky was falling with all the hot takes dished out about Judge the morning after. Is the World Baseball Classic hangover real? Is he starting to fall off?
Let’s just say he put all that noise to bed pretty quickly.
It only took until the second game of a 162-game season to record his first hit. Naturally it was a 405-foot blast to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning. Two batters later, Giancarlo Stanton went yard to add the third and final run of their 3-0 victory. But the real story from that game was their stellar pitching. Cam Schlittler threw 5.1 innings of one-hit ball while the bullpen did not give up any hits. This marked the first time in their 123-year history that they opened the season with two straight shutouts. Not too shabby.
Judge continued to terrorize San Francisco in the series finale on Saturday, mashing another home run in the fifth inning. Two frames earlier, Ben Rice knocked in two runs with a double, and that was all the offense they needed for a 3-1 win to complete the sweep.
It’s now the third straight season that the Yankees have begun 3-0. Winning in March obviously does not guarantee you a World Series title in October, but there’s plenty to be optimistic about in all facets of their game so far. Yes, that includes their previously-shaky defense, which turned four double plays on Saturday. With a full season of Ryan McMahon at third base, Jazz Chisholm Jr. now in his natural position at second base, and Jose Caballero potentially taking Anthony Volpe’s spot at shortstop for good, things are looking up in that aspect.
A drama-filled series opener for the Mets
As the Yankees began their season all the way out on the West Coast, the Mets mostly enjoyed some home cooking against the Pirates.
The opener brought out the big guns on the mound: the newly-acquired Freddy Peralta against the reigning Cy Young winner Paul Skenes. It had all the makings for a pitcher’s duel, but baseball has a funny way of working out, because it was far from a true battle of aces.
For starters, Peralta allowed a two-run homer to Brandon Lowe in just his second batter faced to put the Mets behind early. But Skenes had his own struggles in the bottom half of the frame, allowing five runs and getting pulled from the game incredibly early. In fairness, some of those runs should have been unearned after Oneil Cruz lost two fly balls in the sun (without wearing sunglasses, I might add).
Peralta would end a mediocre debut with four runs allowed through five innings. But he got plenty of run support, including a solo shot from Carson Benge for his first major league hit, as the Mets prevailed 11-7.
While Peralta vs. Skenes failed to live up to the hype, the real pitcher’s duel came the following night between David Peterson and Mitch Keller, just as we all expected. Neither pitcher allowed any runs through six innings, and both bullpens did the same for innings seven through nine. That meant extra innings, where Pittsburgh would take one-run leads in the tenth and eleventh frames. That’s when unsung heroes emerged for New York. Luis Torrens’ first at-bat of the game tied things up in the tenth. In the following inning, it was Luis Robert Jr.’s turn to don the Superman cape with a walk-off three-run homer to win it 4-2. Robert Jr. is one of many new faces on the Mets this year and he’s already made more of an impact than trade deadline day acquisition Cedric Mullins had last season.
Fans who stayed the full weekend inside Citi Field certainly got a bang for their buck as the series finale also went to extras knotted up at 2-2. Once again, the Pirates scored in the tenth inning, plating two runs. But once more, the Mets had an answer as Juan Soto drove in one run and was about to send in another with Francisco Lindor racing around third base. But the send from third base coach Tim Leiper proved to be too aggressive as the throw to home plate beat Lindor by a mile. The Mets couldn’t muster up the tying run as they fell short of the sweep with a 4-3 defeat.
Although it was a tough way to end the weekend, a series win to begin the season should leave people with not too much to be upset about. But fans booing Bo Bichette? Interesting choice. Yes, Bichette struggled mightily in his first three games with the Mets, going 1-14 with eight strikeouts. It would be more understandable if the boo-birds rang out if this slump continued for the first month or two. But seriously? After three games? That about sums up the overreactive nature of late March baseball. At least Bichette was a good sport about it, saying, “I get it. I thought my at-bats were terrible, too.” Welcome to New York, I guess?
Cornell men’s hockey concludes campaign in Colorado
Entering Selection Sunday, Cornell men’s hockey was hoping to stay close to home for NCAA regionals. Instead of being drawn into the Albany or Worcester, Massachusetts region, the Big Red was sent all the way out to Loveland, Colorado. To make matters even more challenging, it had the misfortune of playing a red-hot Denver team in the regional semifinals, who only had to travel one hour to the rink. Entering Friday night’s contest, the Pioneers had won nine straight games and were unbeaten in their last 13 contests. On the other hand, the Big Red was 5-5-1 in its last 11 games, including an upset loss to Princeton in the ECAC semifinals.
Simply put, Cornell ran into a buzzsaw.
The Pioneers blanked the Big Red 5-0, denying Cornell a third straight trip to the regional final. Don’t let the final score fool you: It was not the worst performance for the Big Red this season and was not a poor performance by any means. It just had the misfortune of facing one of the most in-form teams in the entire nation on what was essentially their home ice.
The Big Red’s bad luck occurred right from the get-go as the two goals it conceded in the first period were both via deflections. The Big Red had some great chances to get on the scoreboard, but it also ran into a goaltender on his A-game in Johnny Hicks. The freshman made 24 saves for the shutout, but what’s even more astonishing is that the Pioneers have yet to lose since he took the starting job in late January. The old adage of needing a hot goaltender in the postseason rang true for Denver, who later knocked off the defending national champions Western Michigan 6-2 to reach the Frozen Four.
As for Cornell, the players and coaches have nothing to hang their heads on. A 22-11-1 record is impressive no matter which way you slice it. But the fact that the Big Red had 14 new players—including 12 freshmen—and a new head coach in Casey Jones after 30 years of sustained success under Mike Schafer and still made the NCAA Tournament shows the standard of excellence remains the same despite so much turnover.
A lot of lessons will be learned from Friday night’s defeat, especially for those who made their NCAA tournament debuts. There’s no doubt this young Big Red team will be better off for it in the near future.
Other things that caught my eye
- There are blowouts, and then there’s what Cortland men’s lacrosse subjected Canton to on Saturday. In a result that at first glance you might think is a typo, the Red Dragons eviscerated the Roos 34-2. Even more shocking? That’s not the most goals they’ve scored in a single game in program history. You have to go back to 1985 when they put 35 past Oneonta. That’s certainly one way to end a three-game skid.
- It’s the end of an era for Ithaca women’s basketball. On Wednesday, head coach Dan Raymond announced his retirement after leading the Bombers for the past 26 years. The list of accolades during his time could fill an entire encyclopedia, but in short: 522 wins, 12 conference titles, and 17 trips to the NCAA Tournament (including Elite 8 appearances in 2014 and 2019). That level of consistent success is incredibly admirable, and it’s no surprise to see since so many coaches have done the same on South Hill. Mindy Quigg with women’s soccer. Jeff Long with men’s lacrosse. Mike Welch with football. And the list goes on.
- Remember when people said that March Madness had fallen off just because there was no ‘Cinderella’ run this year? The second weekend of the Big Dance produced more fantastic battles and iconic moments. There was the nine-seed Iowa making it all the way to the Elite 8 with multi-time Division II national champion head coach Ben McCollum leading the way. There was Purdue taking down Texas thanks to a last-second tip-in from Trey Kaufman-Renn. And last but not least, there was Braylon Mullins. A shot that will go down as one of the greatest moments in March Madness. A logo three-pointer that gave UConn a 73-72 lead over Duke with 0.4 seconds left. A dagger to the heart of the Blue Devils to send them packing after inexplicably throwing away a 19-point advantage and becoming the first one-seed to lose an NCAA tournament game when leading by 15 or more points at halftime. If that’s supposed to be this tournament ‘falling off,’ then sign me up for more in the Final Four.
