Five Things We Learned on Opening Day About The LA Angels

“A lotta people say” declared the great Harry Doyle, “you can tell how the season’s gonna go by the first hitter of the year.” For the LA Angels it may take a little longer to figure out.

So, what can we say about the LA Angels’ Opening Day?

First batters, first pitches, first games; human beings instinctively take every first has an omen for what’s to come. We just can’t help it. The future is a turbulent, uncertain ocean, and so we look for safe harbor in the certainty of the present. Here are the five things we learned on Opening Day:

Learned thing #1:  Same Ol’ Garrett Richards

This isn’t really something we learned so much as something we’ve been reminded of: Garrett Richards at his best is nigh-unhittable, but the Garrett Richards that shows up on most days has problems throwing strikes consistently from inning to inning, and from batter to batter. On Opening Day 2018, Richards was ineffectively wild, his slider wandering high and wide of the strike zone, without the usual sink that makes it such a devastating out pitch, especially with two strikes.

There were some positives. RIchards looks healthy, and that’s more important than anything else that we could expect. He threw 89 pitches in total, the most he’s thrown in one game since April 25, 2016, nearly two full years ago. His fastball sat comfortably in the mid-90s, and touched 97 with ease.

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In this game, unable to get swings and misses with his sinker, the opposing A’s were able to nickel-and-dime base hits off cheap and work counts on him — Oakland put at least one runner on base in each of his five innings. Richards was at the 50-pitch mark by just the third inning. Come the fifth inning, he couldn’t get Matt Joyce and Marcus Semien to bite on his stuff away. Working on Khris Davis with two outs and two on, he couldn’t get Davis to bite on a two-strike slider, and Davis hit the next pitch, a 97-MPH fastball, over the centerfield wall. Richards needs his slider to set up his fastball. He hadn’t been able to do that much in Spring Training, and he couldn’t do that today.

Learned thing #3:  Zack Cozart is as advertised

New third baseman Zack Cozart didn’t play third base today. Ian Kinsler is still nursing some groin tightness, so instead of getting his first big league start at third base, Cozart got his first big league start at second base, and managed to start a 4-6-3 double play in the third inning, then laughed about it with Andrelton Simmons as they jogged off the field. More good things came around in the fifth inning, as Cozart took a first-pitch hanger and deposited his first hit as an Angel into the left field seats. Cozart started at the top of the lineup on Opening Day, but once Kinsler comes back, Cozart’s expected to bat down in the middle of the lineup. If you’re looking for good omens, a homer and a double in his first game with the Angels feels like a good one.

Learned thing # 4: The bullpen is not THAT that bad

By most accounts, if your bullpen gives up just one run over five innings, that’s a fairly decent effort. On the other hand, if you give the bullpen a one-run lead and they cough it up, that’s less decent. Blake Wood, José Alvarez, Keynan Middleton, Jim Johnson, and Noé Ramirez got every single batter they faced. Unfortunately, Cam Bedrosian got only one of the four batters he faced, and the three consecutive ringing singles he gave up tied the game. After an outstanding 2016 and first half of 2017, Bedrosian just can’t seem to be able to get anyone out. His uneven Spring Training is now extending into the regular season, and if Bedrosian can’t be counted on to be part of the solution, the Angels will need to find a way to replace him, and fast.

Had Justin Upton caught Boog Powell’s fly ball in the 11th inning, we’d be able to say that Ramirez had two excellent innings. But he didn’t, so we can’t.

Learned thing # 5: Nothing

That’s right, we learned nothing. It’s one game, and just because it’s the first one doesn’t make it the magical harbinger of all things. Mike Trout is not going to go 0-6 every game. Justin Upton is not going to 0-5 and drop fly balls all the live long day. Did we learn anything about Shohei Ohtani in his first game? His first two balls in play, a single and grounder, came off his bat at 95 and 102 MPH. He also couldn’t square up at all — ground ball single and three groundouts to go along with a strikeout — so all we learned was what we already knew, that he’s got a quick bat.

If there’s anything that we did learn for sure today, it’s that the Angels are still a work in progress.Expectations do not change realities, they only change the way we accept them. Right now, expectations for this Angels squad are high, but it’s a group that still has to figure out who can and can’t work in the bullpen and in the rotation, and there’s the ever-present Ohtani question to have to deal with.

Next: How will the Angels bench fare?

However, patience is hard, and it’s especially hard when the games count. The Angels couldn’t iron out their kinks in Spring Training, and now they’re going to have to do it when it matters. The one thing we know for sure after Opening Day? The Angels are 0-1.