Indians Opening Day: Despite the loss, it is just one game

Well, if first impressions are a sign of things to come…as Sam Jackson once said, “Hold on to your butts.” The Indians did about as much as some were expecting them to do on Opening Day. They had a great outing by their starting pitcher, a lock-down bullpen, and had a bunch of hits, that never materialized into anything. The Indians ended up trying to rally in the 9th, but they fell 3-2 against the Tigers.

The worst part is the Tigers starter for the day, Matthew Boyd, a career ERA of 5.08 pitcher.

So now the comments will roll in, talking about how bad the start of the season was, and sure. I get it. Being optimistic in 2021 isn’t a big thing. Truthfully, it is just one game. The Indians are a young team and are not one to start hot under Terry Francona usually. That’s just not how things usually go. It’s always an up-and-down April and then “Boom!” they explode in late May-early June. Like clockwork.

So yes, they dropped the Opening Day meeting but so what? Baseball is not a sport that can ever be accurately measured by just one game. It’s the only sport besides maybe soccer, where failing is so expected. Just think, a “great” season by a hitter is being successful a third of the time. If you have one hit out of three in a game, you had a good game.

If you succeed at only 30% of what you’re doing in any other sport, you’re not going to have a job. Baseball can’t be measured in game-by-game increments. It’s the reason why we won’t be doing game-by-game recaps, because one game is just a third or a fourth, of the overall puzzle.

So yes, the Indians lost their season opener, and they only put up two runs on a pitcher that could be described as “bad”. It happens. This doesn’t mean I’m 100% on board with predicting a World Series ring, but on the flip side, it’s not me conceding either.

This team will need two, maybe three months of ball to determine who they are and what they’re about. To rush to conclusions, good or bad, after just one game of the first series of the season, would be horribly rushed.

We’ll see where this team stands in June before we rush to any judgments on them being good or bad.

Today sucked, but there’s always tomorrow.