Grayson Rodriguez didn’t pitch Friday, but he still garnered one of the loudest cheers during the Orioles’ home opener.
Judging by the pregame player introductions at Camden Yards, the top pitching prospect, who made his MLB debut Wednesday in his home state of Texas, is already one of the most popular players on the team.
“It felt like a dream,” Rodriguez said. “Man, that atmosphere was awesome. It’s something I’ve really dreamed about, something I’ve really wanted to experience as a player. It was just fantastic.”
The pomp and circumstance of the day wasn’t dampened by the postponement of the original home opener Thursday, nor the chilly, overcast afternoon. It helped that the Orioles beat the New York Yankees, 7-6, to improve to 4-3 on the season.
Baltimore fans still packed the park with a sellout attendance of 45,017 and performed all the typical duties — shouting “O” during the national anthem, booing rival players and rooting for the hometown team.
As a 21-year-old rookie, Gunnar Henderson has never played in the major league postseason. But he hopes the Orioles are playing games at Camden Yards in October that feel similar to Friday’s.
“Hopefully, we make it to the playoffs and it’ll be just like that,” Henderson said.
Oriole Park opened three hours before first pitch, with fans trickling into the stadium to take in several changes, including a new concessions operator, a new restaurant on Eutaw Street and a new bag policy. The rules of baseball were also different, with a new pitch clock promising a faster pace of play — though Friday’s game still went over three hours.
The ballpark had all the usual festivities, with Orioles players and manager Brandon Hyde jogging out from center field on the orange carpet as fans cheered. Some, of course, garnered more thunderous applause than others, with Rodriguez, Henderson and Adley Rutschman earning the loudest ovations.
“First off, don’t trip,” Rodriguez said of what was going through his head as he ran on the orange carpet. “No, man, it was a lot of fun. It was a very cool experience. It’s definitely something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
While those cheers were loud, several moments during the game were more deafening: Henderson’s RBI double in the third, Ramón Urías’ go-ahead double in the seventh, Bryan Baker’s heroic hold in the eighth and Félix Bautista’s thrilling save in the ninth.
“It was electric from the start,” said Baker, who shut down the Yankees’ scoring threat in the eighth. “Feeding off their energy is something that we can definitely use, for sure.”
In the past, especially during the rebuild years, home games against the Yankees oftentimes had a somber undertone. It would feel as if New York fans outnumbered those from Baltimore, with “Let’s go Yankees” chants breaking out several times a contest. But not Friday.
“I definitely have noticed that,” said starting pitcher Dean Kremer, who bounced back from a rough first start to pitch five solid innings. “When they get on base, you hear Yankee chants. But today I think we definitely outnumbered them, and it was an awesome sight to see. I hope a lot of games are gonna be like that.”
“That was fun,” Hyde said. “You could definitely feel the excitement. Sometimes we play the Yankees here the past few years there have been quite a few Yankees fans. Tonight was a definite Baltimore crowd all the way through.”
Every home opener offers excitement for a new season. But for the Orioles, who started a painful rebuild in 2018 and then dealt with the pandemic the past few years, this year’s opening day at Camden Yards was a return to normalcy.
Outfielder Austin Hays, who debuted with the Orioles in 2017, said the 2020 season during the pandemic was “really weird,” as he saw fewer jerseys as he walked around the city.
“I was driving to the field this morning at 8:30 [a.m.], and there’s Baltimore fans and jerseys everywhere,” Hays said before the game. “That’s what it was before the COVID days. To just see the streets of Baltimore be covered in Orioles jerseys again is really nice. I’m expecting to see that throughout the season, and I got to see a lot of that last year when we started to turn the corner. I think the city feels that, the fans feel that and we definitely feel their support as players.”
Hays pondered before the game whether Orioles fans would be louder Friday than they were during the 2022 season, in which the club was the surprise of the sport by winning 31 more games than the previous year. He hopes Friday’s atmosphere is a sign of things to come.
“It was phenomenal,” Hays said. “Sellout crowd, you could just feel the buzz in the stadium. From start to finish, it was never quiet. Even when there was no cheering going on, there was still that constant buzz of people talking.
“It was an awesome atmosphere. I’m looking forward to a lot more of that this year.”
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