Drew Gray – Picture by Todd Johnson

Going to an opening night game is always fun! I get a kick out of seeing new players in new uniforms and getting to catch up with a few other guys that have returned to the ball club. Such was the case last night in Davenport as I got to see some old and some new faces.

Just to remind you, it’s only one game, but here are some things that I took away from opening night.

1. Jefferson Rojas is not going to be in South Bend all year. The kid is just an extremely fluid athlete, almost effortless in his actions. It doesn’t matter whether it’s throwing or running, he does it with ease. It’s not that he’s effortless, but he’s not a robot swing guy so he can still adapt to things in the moment. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more impressed with a player that much at first glance.

#2. I really liked what Drew Gray brought last night as he went 3 scoreless with 6 scores. He didn’t go that deep in the game, but you could tell that he did not like the cold. He went to his mouth a lot, but the curve looked great at times. In the third inning, he had trouble spotting his pitches as it’s a little bit different pitching in 45° weather than out in Arizona. But there’s a lot to like there. There was one time he threw a curve that just fell off the table. That one pitch was probably better than any pitch I’ve seen from a left-handed starter since Jack Patterson and his slider back in 2019.

3. Jonny Long hits the ball extremely hard. Doesn’t matter if his batting practice or game, he looks really good at the plate.

4. Physically, Ed Howard looks miles ahead of where he was last summer when he came back from his hip injury. He looks much more natural running and moving in the infield. The bat is going to be the last thing to come around, but I wouldn’t be too worried about that. I really like how he runs now and it looks really clean. He doesn’t look herky- jerky or that he is trying to run too hard. He looks really sweet.

I got to meet manager Nick Lovullo and pitching coach Bruce Billings and I’ll probably talk with them more as the season goes on as it was opening night and they had a lot of things to do.

I’m going back again tonight. Originally, I was going to go back Sunday, but rain is in the forecast all day long. Today is supposed to be in the 60s in Davenport and the game starts a half hour early at 6 PM.

In Other Action

Tennessee walked it off with a Haydn McGeary single in the tenth. James Triantos went 4-for-5 and Christian Franklin went 2-for-4. On the pitching side of things, Porter Hodge looked good with 2 scoreless and 4 Ks and the Smokies won 7-6.

Myrtle Beach…well they had some issues in a 10-3 loss. Until Ty Johnson pitched 2 scoreless, Fayetteville was having additional BP. Christian Hernandez went 2-for-4 with a RBI.

Out in Iowa, David Bote tied the game at 3 in the 8th only to see Richard Lovelady hand the lead back to the Mud Hens in the top of the ninth.