Mr. Red prepares for another season at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Bryan Walters | OVP)
The Cincinnati Reds hosted rivals the St. Louis Cardinals on the opening day of Major League Baseball. Pictured is Great American Ball Park during a previous season. (Bryan Walters | OVP)
Thursday was opening day for Major League Baseball with 30 teams playing, including the Cincinnati Reds, a fan favorite in the Ohio Valley Publishing readership area.
The Associated Press compiled a look at what was happening around the majors on Thursday, including what was happening on opening day as follows:
From Fenway Park to Petco Park, ballparks were buzzing with real fans, rather than pumped-in crowd noise, as Fernando Tatis Jr., Randy Arozarena, Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and MVPs José Abreu and Freddie Freeman stepped to the plate on opening day.
All 30 teams were scheduled to be in action, with Gerrit Cole set to throw the first pitch of the season against Toronto at Yankee Stadium. Clayton Kershaw was to start for the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at Colorado, AL Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber was to go for Cleveland at Detroit, San Diego newcomer Yu Darvish was to take on Arizona and the matchup in Washington was max effort: Jacob deGrom of the Mets vs. Max Scherzer of the Nats, the pair combining to win five Cy Young trophies.
A year after no fans were allowed during the virus-shortened 60-game season, every stadium was to be open, in varying degrees as teams adhere to coronavirus protocols.
“Going from zero to anything was going to be fun, especially for the players,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said during spring training.
The Cincinnati Reds hosted rivals the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park on opening day. The scores from Thursday’s games were not known due to press times.
Information provided by the Associated Press. More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
