Getty Image / Greg Fiume
Few fan bases in Major League Baseball are as optimistic about their season as Baltimore Orioles fans. With an exciting young core of position players from last year’s 101-win season and a great farm system, the future is bright in Baltimore.
The Orioles, who are under new ownership as of this week, also acquired a top-line starting pitcher in former Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde gave him the ball for opening day, and he did not disappoint.
The 2021 Cy Young winner surrendered just one hit, a first-inning home run to Mike Trout, and struck out eleven Angels over six standout innings.
That’s a good outing any time. But, to give up just one hit over six innings and have double-digit strikeouts is incredibly rare. How rare, you ask?
According to OptaStats, Corbin Burnes became the first pitcher in a team’s first game of the season to have ten or more strikeouts while giving up one or less hits since Lon Warneke for the Cubs back in 1934.
That’s how the entire game went for the Orioles. They tallied ten hits en route to eleven runs in an 11-3 blowout win over the Angels. The Orioles are many people’s pick to win the American League, and they showed why on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the meme of the Angels being carried by Mike Trout immediately came true once again on Thursday. It could be a long season for Angels fans.