O's game blog: The season opener arrives

The Orioles begin their 2020 season tonight with the beginning of a three-game series at Fenway Park in Boston. Tonight the Orioles begin their 67th season in Baltimore. The year starts with a five-game trip to Boston and Miami.

The Orioles tuned up for this with three exhibition games. They won 5-1 at Philadelphia and lost by scores of 4-2 and 6-4 to the Washington Nationals.

The Orioles lost on opening day last year to the Yankees in New York. Before that they had won the previous three opening days in walk-offs. Baltimore had won eight openers in a row overall since a last loss in 2010 before the 2019 opening game. The Orioles are 15-4 in their last 19 openers and 43-23 all-time on opening day.

The Red Sox are beginning their 120th season tonight. This is only the fifth time in the last 25 seasons that Boston has opened at home. The Orioles and Boston have played on opening day eight times, but not since 2014. The O's have won the last four such meetings, in 1989, 2001, 2004 and 2014. The O's are 6-2 versus the Red Sox on opening day.

Left-hander Tommy Milone will make his first opening day start, replacing John Means. Signed by the Orioles on Feb. 13 to a minor league deal, he went 4-10 with a 4.76 ERA in 23 games last season for Seattle. Over 111 2/3 innings, he allowed 102 hits and 24 home runs with 23 walks and 94 strikeouts. In a nine-year major league career, he is 50-47 with a 4.47 ERA and 1.316 WHIP. He recorded career win No. 50 on Sept. 18 at Pittsburgh.

Milone did post decent road numbers for the 2019 Mariners. In 11 games (two starts) he went 3-4 with a 3.91 ERA and 0.947 WHIP. He does not have good career numbers versus Boston, going 0-3 with a 9.26 ERA in five career starts. Over 23 1/3 innings he has allowed 41 hits against Boston.

But he has not faced the Red Sox since he pitched for Minnesota at Boston on July 24, 2016. He went 4 2/3 innings and gave up 10 hits and eight runs, four earned. He has a career 2.057 WHIP against the Red Sox.

The Orioles finished last in the American League East at 54-108 in 2019. Boston was in third place at 84-78.

The Red Sox return 197 of the franchise-record 245 homers they bashed last season. This year's club features eight players who hit 10 or more homers for the Sox last season, including J.D. Martinez (36), Xander Bogaerts (33), Rafael Devers (32), Christian Vázquez (23), Jackie Bradley Jr. (21), Mitch Moreland (19), Michael Chavis (18) and Andrew Benintendi (13).

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who was 2-1 with a 5.99 ERA in 2019 in 23 games for Boston, will start tonight for the Sox. In 67 2/3 innings Eovaldi gave up 72 hits and 16 home runs with 35 walks, 70 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.581. He gave up 2.1 homers per nine innings with 4.7 walks and 9.3 strikeouts.

Eovaldi made two 2019 starts versus Baltimore and was 0-1 with a 10.29 ERA. He gave up eight runs and seven walks over seven innings. In nine career starts, he is 3-1 with a 5.62 ERA and 1.704 WHIP. In the first plate appearance last season, opponent batters hit .266 with an .802 OPS against Eovaldi. On the second plate appearance those numbers are .325 and 1.176.

Eovaldi's average fastball in 2019, according to BrooksBaseball.net, was 97.65 mph. He has averaged 97 mph plus for the last four seasons.

Average fastball velocity, 2011-2019, per FanGraphs.com (minimum, 900 innings)

97.0 - Nathan Eovaldi
96.7 - Gerrit Cole
95.9 - Jacob deGrom
95.8 - Stephen Strasburg
95.5 - Chris Archer

Eovaldi grew up in Alvin, Texas, the same hometown as Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. Both pitchers attended Alvin High School, but they did not meet until 2016, when the Yankees visited the Astros.

Most O's starts all-time on opening day:

20 - Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr.
13 - Mark Belanger.
12 - Paul Blair, Eddie Murray, Boog Powell.
11 - Brady Anderson, Adam Jones.
10 - Rick Dempsey.
9 - Rich Dauer, Ken Singleton, Brian Roberts.
8 - Al Bumbry, Melvin Mora.