Corbin Burnes’ Opening Day outing proved that the Orioles got themselves an ace.
Corbin Burnes turned in the most impressive Opening Day performance by an Orioles starter in decades.
Happy Opening Day, Birdland! That was lots of fun, wasn’t it? On Wednesday afternoon, the Orioles convincingly thrashed the Los Angeles Angels in a 11-3 Opening Day win.
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A not-terribly-controversial Top 3 countdown of the most impressive things witnessed yesterday might look like this:
3. The national anthem. I’ve heard it a lot of times, but it turns out, 45,000 people shouting “O!” all together is pretty loud. (What resonance!).
2. Opposite-field hitting! Baltimore took a 2-1 lead on Jordan Westburg’s RBI single in the first, then added three more runs in a second inning that featured an Adley Rutschman two-run single, plus an oppo-field single by Ryan Mountcastle. Both Rutschman and Mountcastle had big blows the other way, including a Mountcastle warning track sac fly in the sixth.
And of course. . .
1. Corbin Burnes’ brilliant start. There’s no suspense here, how could there be? The defending AL East Champions took the field on Opening Day brimming with confidence and excitement for a “New Chapter” centered around new owner David Rubenstein—and somehow Corbin Burnes managed to top that.
In his team debut, the new Orioles ace delivered an astonishing effort: a six-inning, 11-strikeout performance in which he allowed just one hit (a solo home run to Mike Trout) and retired 18 of 19 Angels hitters faced.
