September 17, 2026
In his first start of the year, Luis Ortiz gave up seven runs in 4 2/3 innings on Monday night against the Padres.
Dating back to 1990, there have been 11 pitchers to give up at least seven runs in their Cleveland debut:
*MLB debut
Hunter Gaddis appeared in each of the Guardians first three games, the first pitcher to do so since Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez each appeared in the first three games of the 2012 season.
The other most recent occurances:
In 6th inning on Opening Day, Kyle Manzardo put Cleveland ahead 4-3 with a two-run home run off Royals’ reliever Angel Zerpa.
It was just the second time in franchise history the team had a go-head home run while trailing in the sixth inning or later on Opening Day.
The first was Tris Speaker in 1925.
Since Emmanuel Clase blew the save on Opening Day, it opened the door for Paul Sewald to come in an record a save in extra innings.
Since the role of closer was first established (roughly the late 1960s, early 1970s), only two pitchers have recorded a save on Opening Day for Cleveland who did not lead the team in saves that year (which is obviously likely the case for Sewald).
In 2014, John Axford recorded the save. He was the Opening Day closer, but Cody Allen was given the job later that year and would lead the team in saves.
In 1997, Paul Shuey recorded the Opening Day save. He was filling in as closer at the start of the year for Jose Mesa, who was inactive due to his active rape trial.
Kyle Manzardo fell a single shy of the cycle on Opening Day against the Royals.
Falling one hit shy of the cycle is not a rare event, but missing out on the single is almost as uncommon as the cycle itself.
Here are the last five instances of a Cleveland hitter collecting a double, triple, home run but no single:
Steven Kwan is the Opening Day lead off hitter for the third consecutive season, becoming the sixth player in franchise history to hold that role on Opening Day in three straight years.
The others:
Jose Ramirez has collected at least 65 extra-base hits in each of the last four seasons (2021-24). He’s the sixth player with such a streak in team history.
The others:
There have been 144 players in franchise history with at least 200 PA from the two-hole in the lineup in a single season.
Andres Gimenez‘s .309 OBP this year ranked 120th.
It was still an improvement from Amed Rosario (.306 last year and .308 the year before).
Jose Ramirez hit 20 HR and stole 21 bases in Progressive Field this year, just the ninth 20/20 home season in history. Back in 2008, Grady Sizemore had the sixth such season.
The others:
Josh Naylor and Jose Ramirez each topped 30 home runs this year, but walked fewer than 60 times.
There have only been 17 such seasons in team history.
The only time other time it happened twice in one year was 1987: Joe Carter and Cory Snyder
The other most recent instances of 30 HR and fewer than 60 BB: