We have finally made it. Regular season baseball is upon us.
It’s been 176 long and grueling days since the Orioles last walked off the green grass of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Now, with some new faces in the dugout, the 2025 Orioles look to right the wrongs.
The first step in that righting of those wrongs here in 2025 will come across the northern border. The O’s visit Rogers Centre and the Toronto Blue Jays for four games to begin the year.
Starting Opening Day on the mound for Baltimore will be Zach Eflin, who is making his second consecutive game one nod, his first in orange and black. Behind Eflin will be Charlie Morton in game two on Friday, Dean Kremer on Saturday and Tomoyuki Sugano in the series finale on Sunday.
Right-hander José Berríos will get the start on day one for the Blue Jays opposite Eflin. It’s no secret that Berríos has had the O’s number in his career, pitching to a 2.95 ERA in 16 starts. Facing Morton in game two will be former Oriole Kevin Gausman, with Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt starting games three and four, respectively.
An unavoidable Opening Day storyline will certainly be Anthony Santander. For the first time in his 746-game career, Santander will play against the O’s. However, a very strong post-Santander outfield unit has been rounded out of camp.
One of those outfielders is new Oriole Tyler O’Neill, who has a remarkable five-game Opening Day home run streak. We’ll see if he can keep that feat going today.
The infield positions held a few more questions leading into today. Liván Soto was with the club in Toronto and had a locker at Rogers Centre. However, this morning, Jorge Mateo arrived and had his own locker, leading to him being a last minute surprise addition to the 26-man roster.
Luckily for Oriole fans, the Opening Day bullpen will be closed out once again by The Mountain, Félix Bautista. After a spring that showed the right-handed flamethrower is ready for major league action, one huge question was answered with that announcement.
For the last spot of the bullpen, Bryan Baker was given that job over Matt Bowman and Roansy Contreras. Baker was out of minor league options.
Some good news to add as well is that O’s shortstop Gunnar Henderson will play for Triple-A Norfolk tomorrow, manager Brandon Hyde told the media this afternoon. The focus is to get him in game shape after his intercostal muscle strain. Henderson is eligible to return as early as April 3.
BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR
One anomaly to Berríos’ career dominance against the Birds is none other than catcher Adley Rutschman.
Rutschman had a fantastic spring and a has nack for Opening Day dominance. He has hit three home runs in 24 plate appearances against Berríos in his young career, so look for Adley to start this series off strong with his bat.
That and his ability to work well with the O’s pitching staff is why he will be crucial to the success of the team in this opening series, making him our first BATTERY ❌️-FACTOR of the 2025 season.
GAME 1 STARTING LINEUP
Game one of the 2025 Season Opener begins on Thursday at 3:37 p.m. EST. That game will be televised on MASN2 and broadcast on your local Orioles Radio Network station.
Game two of this series will be on Apple TV+ at 7:07 p.m. EST. Games three and four will start at 3:07 and 1:37 p.m. EST on MASN2 and broadcast via your local Orioles Radio Network station.
What are your thoughts on this 2025 season-opening match-up? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, X, Bluesky and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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