How great does it feels to win on Opening Day? Winning > Losing.
When Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies took the field to start the game, his ninth consecutive Opening Day start at second base in his career with the Braves, he broke a tie with Glenn Hubbard for the most consecutive starts at second base in franchise history. (The last Braves player to start on Opening Day at second base? None other than “Dat Dude BP”, Brandon Phillips [AKA Mr. Jade Cargill].)
Albies wasn’t done with some notable Braves historical moments.
When he put the Braves on the board with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning, he became eighth Brave all-time to record three or more career home runs on Opening Day.
That list is a who’s who of organizational legends: MLB and Braves Hall of Famers Eddie Mathews (7), Joe Torre (4), Andruw Jones (3) and Fred McGriff (3) as well as Braves Hall of Famers Brian McCann (3) and Dale Murphy (3). Future both-of-those-things Freddie Freeman also hit three with the Braves. (Hat-tip to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman for that information).
The two hits Albies had on the night also moved him past Torre into 23rd in hits all-time in Braves franchise history. He is nine games away from passing Torre for 27th in games played with the Braves. He’s also now tied with Johnny Logan for 20th for runs scored in franchise history.
Braves left-handed starting pitcher Chris Sale tossed six shutout innings on the way to picking up the win on Opening Day, ringing up six batters along the way. Those strikeouts brought his career total to 2,585 and moved him past Braves legend and inner circle Hall of Fame left-hander Warren Spahn to 30th place in MLB history.
Sale is 23 strikeouts away from passing another Hall of Fame left-hander, and former Brave pitcher, Tom Glavine.
One last Opening Day note, it was Austin Riley’s seventh-consecutive start at third base on Opening Day. That ties him with Chipper Jones and Bob Horner who both started seven consecutive times on Opening Day at third base for the Braves. That is the longest streak for a third-baseman while exclusively in Atlanta. A reminder, Chipper Jones’s overall Opening Day start streak included three seasons as the team’s starting left fielder.
Mathews started 15-consecutive times on Opening Day at third base with the Braves, but only the final year of his streak took place after the team moved to Atlanta.
If Riley can start the next three season at third base on Opening Day with Atlanta, he would become the first third baseman in franchise history to be the only starter at the position for every year in a decade.
