New York (AFP) – Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes was sent to the exit after two-thirds of an inning while other pitchers and new technology created a historic Thursday of Major League Baseball season openers. The New York Mets sent Pirates star Skenes packing early in an 11-7 home victory. Most clubs began their 2026 campaign on Thursday, with the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers starting their quest for a World Series three-peat at home later against Arizona.
Pittsburgh’s Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Skenes boasted an earned-run average of 1.97 — the lowest for any Pirates starter since 1920 — last year. But the 23-year-old right-hander was blasted off the mound by the Mets in the shortest outing of his career. Brett Baty’s three-run triple powered a five-run first inning for the host Mets. A Marcus Semien single scored Baty, and Skenes was pulled.
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MLB history was made in the third inning at Citi Field when the first successful Automated Ball-Strike challenge in a Major League game was made by Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez. Alvarez challenged a full-count fastball thrown by Freddy Peralta to Oneil Cruz and called a ball on the outside edge of the strike zone. The call was overturned by the new “robot umpire” system for strike three and the second out of the inning. Francisco Lindor walked and scored three times, Juan Soto had two hits and a walk, and Luis Robert added two hits and drove in two runs for the Mets.
Milwaukee pitcher Jacob Misiorowski surrendered a leadoff homer to the visiting Chicago White Sox, then the 23-year-old right-hander struck out 11 batters over the first five innings to set a Brewers opening-day record for strikeouts, eclipsing the mark of eight set by Ben Sheets the day before Misiorowski was born in 2002. He is the youngest pitcher with 10 or more strikeouts on an MLB opening day since Seattle’s Félix Hernández in 2007 at age 20. Misiorowski’s effort helped the Brewers beat the White Sox 14-2. Japan’s Munetaka Murakami blasted his first MLB homer in the ninth for the White Sox.
Homers by Joey Wiemer, Jacob Young, and Brady House powered the Washington Nationals to a 10-4 triumph at the Chicago Cubs. Colton Cowser’s sacrifice fly and Blaze Alexander’s single each drove in a run in the seventh inning to lift host Baltimore over Minnesota 2-1.
– McGonigle’s big debut – Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle hit a two-run double down the right-field line on the first pitch he saw in his MLB career to help the Tigers win 8-2 at San Diego. McGonigle was only the second Tiger, after Billy Bean in 1987, and 25th MLB player ever with four hits in his MLB debut. Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, a 29-year-old left-hander chasing his third consecutive American League Cy Young Award, struck out six and allowed only three hits in six innings for the victory.
Boston left-hander Garrett Crochet struck out eight and allowed only three hits in six scoreless innings as the Red Sox won 3-0 at Cincinnati. Kyle Schwarber smacked a two-run homer in the first inning and Alec Bohm added a three-run homer in the fifth in Philadelphia’s 5-3 home victory over Texas. Jose Soriano struck out seven batters and allowed only two hits in six shutout innings as the Los Angeles Angels opened the season with a 3-0 victory at Houston. Alec Burleson’s two-run homer capped an eight-run sixth inning and made the difference in a 9-7 St. Louis home victory over Tampa Bay.
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