Mets Morning News: The Circle of Yo

Meet the Mets

After a lengthy shutdown, Mets baseball finally returned yesterday afternoon. The Amazins continued their remarkable string of opening day success by securing a 1-0 victory against the Atlanta Braves thanks to Jacob deGrom’s dominant start, the bullpen’s four shutout innings, and—perhaps most excitingly—a majestic solo homer by Yoenis Cespedes in his first major league game in two years.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue short and long, Daily News, ESPN, MLB.com, Newsday, Post, The Athletic

Cespedes’s homer provided hope that he can still be the electric player he once was.

deGrom looked to be well on his way to competing for a third straight Cy Young award in his first outing of the season.

Another major story from yesterday’s affair was Edwin Diaz getting the save and looking pretty good while doing it.

It didn’t take long for Luis Rojas to get his first win as a major league manager.

Some of the small moves that Rojas made yesterday offered a hopeful sign that the Mets are in capable hands.

His managerial debut was also noteworthy given how few managers of Dominican descent there have been in major league history.

We’re still living in extremely abnormal times, but the Mets provided some small sense of normality yesterday.

Marcus Stroman expressed confidence that he would be able to make a quick and successful return from his calf injury.

Pete Alonso provided a Q&A in which he discussed his expectations for the upcoming season and his love for cooking.

Around the National League East

The Braves didn’t have two of their catchers yesterday, as Travis d’Arnaud and Tyler Flowers—despite not testing positive for COVID-19—reported feeling symptoms of the virus and thus remained home.

Chipper Jones couldn’t resist the temptation to troll the Mets by buying a cardboard cutout of himself at Citi Field yesterday.

The Phillies and Marlins kicked off their respective seasons in a game against each other, and Miami came out on top 5-2 thanks to a strong start by Sandy Alcantara.

It wasn’t all good news for the Marlins yesterday, as catcher Jorge Alfaro was placed on the injured list prior to the game for unspecified reasons.

Around Major League Baseball

There were a bunch of exciting things happening all across the league yesterday as baseball finally made its return.

Opening day excitement does also introduce the possibility of fans making some mild overreactions.

A player changing uniform numbers is not too rare, but doing it in the middle of a game—as Nathan Eovaldi did last night thanks to a wardrobe mishap—is.

The Angels and Athletics were the first teams to test out the new extra inning rules, and there were one or two hiccups.

The league is hoping for replays to go a lot more smoothly this season thanks to their revamped replay operations center.

After scrambling between a few different options for a home ballpark in 2020, the Blue Jays announced that they will play their games in Buffalo this season.

In a blow to the “the players are young and healthy, so they’ll be fine if they get sick” crowd, Eduardo Rodriguez is apparently dealing with a health complication involving his heart due to his having contracted COVID-19.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

The A Pod of Their Own team discussed the return of baseball and shared details about their 2020 Dollars 4 Dingers fundraiser.

Richard Staff, Allison McCague, and Chris McShane provided season previews for Rick Porcello, Justin Wilson, and Marcus Stroman, respectively.

A bunch of us shared 60 words to describe our feelings as we embark upon this strange 60-game season.

This Date in Mets History

Original Mets manager Casey Stengel fractured his hip and thus ended his managerial career on this date in 1965.