Yankees: How crucial is the opening series against Baltimore?

After the 7-2 drumming of the Baltimore Orioles on Opening Day, let’s take a super-early look at where the Yankees stand?

Despite all of the injuries through Spring Training, the Yankees came out Opening Day firing on all cylinders. Pitching, hitting and fielding was for every sense of the word, near perfect.

Baltimore is among one of the worst teams in not only the American League but all of Major League Baseball, but that shouldn’t dull the Yanks’ pristine performance.

Masahiro Tanaka was flawless in 5.2 innings of work. He struck out five batters and allowed only one run on 83 pitches — 56 of which were for strikes. Having a solid first start of the season is crucial for the rest of the season especially when there is uncertainty surrounding Luis Severino’s return.

Should Tanaka replicate this type of performance until Severino is ready to go, the rest of the pitching staff with benefit.

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Then there was the debut of Adam Ottavino. All eyes were on the man that said he could strikeout “The Great Bambino” Babe Ruth.

In reality, Ottavino sat down three Orioles in four outs of work. It only took him 19 pitches to finish his afternoon and move the game along to the eighth inning. Zack Britton came in and looked OK, allowing one hit and one walk. All before Aroldis Chapman showed early signs of rust in the ninth, but still capable enough to close out the victory.

Having a solid 3.2 innings of work from the bullpen is another big plus for this season. One of the most significant needs headed into the winter was improving the ‘pen, and it clearly showed on Opening Day.

Going forward, the remaining members of the bullpen; Chad Green, Jonathan Holder, Tommy Kahnle and Stephen Tarpley will play vital roles.

At the plate, the battle for first base continues to reach a boiling point. Both Luke Voit and Greg Bird homered; however, the path the Yankees should take remains with Voit.

Before Bird homered, he had back-to-back-to-back strikeouts. Voit, on the other hand, smashed a three-run homer in the first inning and then walked in his next two at-bats before being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Aaron Judge is also off to a flying start. The face of the franchise went 2-for-3 with two walks. He also scored three of the Yankees seven runs.

Even still, it’s only the first game of the season. There are 161 more of these to go, and things will change rapidly. As wonderful as it would be, the Bombers will not go undefeated.

Missing key pieces like Aaron Hicks, Didi Gregorius and Luis Severino — when this team reaches full strength, they will be very difficult to beat.