Going into this shortened Major League Baseball season, we knew that things were going to be a bit different. For one, the league is only playing 60 games. But there are plenty of other interesting nuances that we’ll see, and that was on full display on Friday night.
Angels vs. Athletics
In the season-opening game between the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics, things were tight the entire way – a classic American League West battle. The A’s were listed as -148 favorites on the moneyline with a total of 8.5. Keep that total in mind.
The two teams scored a run apiece in the fourth inning, and the game was tied up until the seventh when the Angels took a 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the eighth, Ramon Laureano doubled in a run to tie the game, and that was followed by an exciting triple by Matt Chapman to take a 3-2 lead.
Oh, but the drama does not stop there.
In the top of the ninth inning, new addition Jason Castro homered to tie the game at 3. With the A’s failing to score in the bottom of the ninth, that opened the door for the debut of the new extra-inning rules.
New MLB Extra-Inning Rules
In this new world of baseball, each team starts their inning with a runner on second base and no outs.
The top of the 10th started with a great play by A’s first baseman Matt Olson, who fired the ball over to third baseman Matt Chapman (who made a great scoop play) for the run-down out on Shohei Ohtani. That was basically the end of the Angels’ threat.
“It definitely is interesting. There’s going to be more excitement,” said Olson. “I think it would be a lot tougher to go to 17- or 18-inning games with a guy on second. You’d think at some point somebody’s probably going to get a knock.”
In the bottom of the 10th, the A’s went to work. A hit-by-pitch and walk loaded the bases for Olson, who unloaded on the first pitch from Hoby Milner and deposited it into the right-field stands.
“It’s interesting for sure — it’s (like) a leadoff double in the 10th, so they got us tonight,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “Strategy-wise, we got to the five-man infield. We were ready to play that. Of course, the ball went over our heads. Nothing we could do about that.
“Everything that we had been working on, the guys were ready for tonight, and we really appreciate that.”
Olson’s homer was particularly big for bettors who took the over on 8.5 runs. Had he kept the ball in the park, Oakland would have won the game 4-3, and the under would have hit. This is certainly something that bettors need to be weary of going forward.
State of MLB
The new extra-inning rules aren’t even the weirdest thing to happen during the regular season. In fact, on the first day of the regular season, the league decided to add six playoff teams for 2020 only (we’ll see about the future).
That was actually a side note for the day games started, as Washington Nationals superstar Juan Soto tested positive for COVID-19, and Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw was suddenly scratched hours before his start against the San Francisco Giants.
