, and Greg Bird added a solo homer in the eighth, the first big flies for New York a year after hitting a record 267 en route to 100 wins. Of course, that wasn't enough to catch the rival Boston Red Sox, who won 108 games and a World Series championship.Tanaka became the first Japanese pitcher to start four openers, breaking a tie with Hideo Nomo. Tanaka allowed two runs, one earned, and six hits over 5 2/3 innings, striking out five without a walk. Tanaka had been 0-2 with a 9.49 ERA on opening days.Brandon Hyde lost in his managerial debut with Baltimore. Hired to replace Buck Showalter, Hyde had just eight players at his disposal who also played in last year's Orioles opener. Baltimore had won its previous three opening games with walk-off hits, but the rally never came against Tanaka and New York's vaunted bullpen.Fans wore ski caps and jackets with the first-pitch temperature at 48 degrees, but also needed sunglasses for the majors' earliest ever opening day in the U. S. A giant American flag was unfurled in center field, a few Orioles fans revealed themselves by shouting ''O!'' during the national anthem, and the sellout crowd roared after Mariano Rivera delivered the ceremonial first pitch. The longtime Yankees closer became baseball's first unanimous Hall of Fame selection in January.''Today is a celebration of our sport,'' Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before the game.Just like the second half of last season, Voit was the life of the party.The exuberant, oversized slugger hit his homer off the batter's eye in center field after Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton both beat infield shifts with hard, groundball singles - Judge's at 108.4 mph, Stanton at 120.Voit got a fourth RBI in the fifth when he was plunked with the bases loaded and also walked twice. Judge had two hits, free agent addition Troy Tulowitzki doubled for his first hit with the Yankees and every starter reached base at least once.BALTIMORE BLUESThe rebuilding Orioles, coming off a 115-loss season, didn't exactly put their best foot forward. Baltimore's first inning at-bat ended when baserunner Jonathan Villar ran right into Trey Mancini's would-be base hit, resulting in an automatic out.In the fifth inning, Cashner and Mike Wright combined to walk three straight batters before Wright plunked Voit. Baltimore walked eight batters overall, four of them by Cashner in four-plus innings.Catcher Jesus Sucre dropped a popup in the seventh, although Baltimore got away with that one when umpires invoked the infield fly rule and Yankees runners tried to advance, anyway. Voit was tagged out in a rundown for a 2-5-4-6-4 double play.Chris Davis struck out in each of his three plate appearances, a rough day after a historically unproductive 2018. His .539 OPS was the worst by a qualified hitter since Matt Walbeck (.530) in 1994. Hyde pinch hit for Davis in the ninth against Aroldis Chapman.It wasn't all bad. Mancini had three hits, and right fielder Joey Rickard robbed Gary Sanchez with a diving catch in the fifth.LUUUUUKEVoit was in Triple-A with the Cardinals last opening day, a then-27-year-old with limited major league experience. He was traded to New York in July, hit 14 homers in 39 games down the stretch and became a fan favorite for his big biceps and boisterous home run trots.It didn't take long for the ''Luuuuuke!'' chants to make a Yankee Stadium return. Fans serenaded Voit as he crossed home plate and gave leaping forearm bumps to Judge and Stanton.PAYING TRIBUTEThe Orioles are wearing commemorative patches with Frank Robinson's No. 20 this season. The Hall of Famer died in February at 83.The Yankees have black armbands on the left sleeve of their jerseys to honor former pitching coach and LHP Mel Stottlemyre. He died in January at 77.TRAINER'S ROOMOrioles: RHP Alex Cobb is recovering well from a right groin strain and is on track to pitch Baltimore's home opener April 4 against the Yankees.Yankees: New York put six players on the 10-day injured list to open the season, including RHPs Dellin Betances (right shoulder impingement) and Luis Severino (right rotator cuff inflammation), OF Aaron Hicks (lower back strain) and SS Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery). LHP CC Sabathia started serving his five-game suspension for hitting Tampa Bay's Jesus Sucre with a pitch in his last regular season start of 2018.UP NEXTLHP James Paxton makes his first start with the Yankees after being acquired from Seattle this offseason. Baltimore will use RHP Nate Karns as an opener, the first time in 2019 a reliever will start a game.---Follow Jake Seiner: https://twitter.com/Jake-Seiner---More MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Powerful Yanks set to start 2019 against Orioles The driving distance between Yankee Stadium and Camden Yards is approximately 200 miles.The distance separating the expectations between the AL East teams seems significantly wider.Heading into Thursday's season opener at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees are among the teams viewed as championship contenders and the Orioles are projected to be among the worst teams in baseball.The Yankees are coming off two straight playoff appearances that ultimately fell short of their 28th World Series title. They reached Game 7 of the ALCS in 2017 against the Houston Astros in the final season under manager Joe Girardi and fell short by losing in Game 4 of the ALDS to the Boston Red Sox under Aaron Boone.Boone's second team returns most of the same cast, though there are some injuries. When the Yankees take the field, outfielder Aaron Hicks (back), ace Luis Severino (shoulder), Dellin Betances (elbow) and Didi Gregorius (elbow) will be on the injured list."I'd like to think we are, but we were pretty good last year," Boone said of his team's depth. Maybe a little bit deeper and hopefully better equipped to handle some of these early-season injuries. Obviously, it's going to be important over the long haul that we get the guys back that we are missing right now because obviously, they are impact performers for us." Giancarlo Stanton will be in left field after hitting 38 homers in his first season as a Yankee. Stanton will be joined in the outfield by Aaron Judge, who missed nearly two months last season with a fractured wrist.Stanton and Judge were part of a team that hit a major-league-record 267 homers and the Yankees believe they can hit more, especially if Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres duplicate their rookie seasons. Andujar hit 27 homers and became a permanent fixture in the lineup in the second week of the season and Torres hit 24 homers after joining the team in late April.The Orioles will be trying to pick up the pieces after setting a franchise record with 115 losses, breaking the previous mark of 111 losses by the 1939 St. Louis Browns. After the franchise's first 100-loss season since 1988, the Orioles made sweeping changes in management.Brandon Hyde replaced Buck Showalter as the manager to oversee the massive rebuilding project and Mike Elias took over for Dan Duquette as the general manager. Under Showalter, the Orioles won the AL East in 2014 and reached postseason two other times in his eight seasons but spent virtually all of last season as the worst team in the majors.Since the start of last season, the Orioles traded Manny Machado, Jonathan Schoop, Kevin Gausman, Zach Britton and Darren O'Day and did not re-sign Adam Jones.One veteran who remains is Chris Davis, who enters the fourth of a seven-year, $161 deal that he signed in Jan. 2016. Last season Davis batted .168 with 192 strikeouts and a slugging percentage of .296. His batting average and OPS were the lowest among all qualified hitters in the majors.Among players acquired in last season's trades, the only one expected to be in the lineup Thursday is second baseman Jonathan Villar. Villar was obtained from Milwaukee for Schoop and hit .258 with eight homers, 24 RBIs and 21 stolen bases in 54 games after the trade.Masahiro Tanaka will make his fourth Opening Day start for the Yankees in place of Severino, who is expected to miss a month. Tanaka was 12-6 with a 3.75 ERA in 27 starts last season.Tanaka went 2-1 with a 4.09 ERA in four starts against Baltimore last season. He is 4-3 with a 3.72 ERA in 12 career starts against the Orioles.Alex Cobb was originally slated to start for the Orioles but he was put on the injured list Monday with a sore right groin. The club is hopeful Cobb can return by its home opener on April 4 against the Yankees."Just awful timing," Hyde told reporters. "This was something he was really looking forward to and I think he had a lot of people going and it's something you'll be able to save forever." Andrew Cashner will start in Cobb's place and is coming off the worst season of his nine-year career as part of a pitching staff that posted a 5.18 ERA. Cashner signed a two-year deal with the Orioles in February 2018 and finished with a 4-15 record, a 5.29 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP. He also allowed 10.4 hits per nine innings and allowed a career-high 25 homers.Cashner is 2-3 with a 3.18 ERA in seven career starts against the Yankees. He was 1-2 with a 4.26 ERA in four starts against New York last season.Baltimore also selected the contract of Jesus Sucre from Triple-A Norfolk and placed fellow catcher Austin Wynns (oblique) on the 10-day injured list. Outfielder Mark Trumbo, who is still recovering from knee surgery last September, was placed on the 60-day injured list.--Field Level Media
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