Opening day winners and losers: Sonny Gray, the Royals and Pablo Sandoval

The best day of the year is over. Opening day has come and gone, and we’re left with stats, highlights and memories of the first full day of MLB action in 2015.

It was a pretty great day, wasn’t it? We saw some dominant pitching performances, quite a few homers and some close games. We also saw teams playing better than we expected and teams playing worse than we predicted.

[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball: Sign up and join a league today!]

It’s only one day, sure, but it’s an important day — mostly because a lot of people are watching. A win on April 6 is the same as a win on April 16, but a big performance on opening day sure lasts longer in our memories, so does a big flub.

With that, we invite you to enjoy The Stew’s annual list of opening day winners and losers:

WINNERS

Sonny Gray
Now 25 and taking his rightful place as Oakland Athletics ace, Gray took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. He was trying to become just the second pitcher to toss an opening day no-hitter (Bob Feller in 1940 is the only player to do it). Ryan Rua of the Texas Rangers ruined the no-no, but Gray proved that for all the questions we have about the A’s this season, he’s a pretty good answer.

The new-look A’s
Gray wasn’t the only member of the A’s who impressed. Ben Zobrist had two hits, including a two-run homer. Fellow new acquisitions Billy Butler and Marcus Semien each had RBIs too, as Oakland beat the Rangers 8-0. Sure, it’s just the Rangers, but hey, that ain’t bad for this completely made over A’s lineup.

The Royals
Lots of doubters out there for the defending AL champs, but the Kansas City Royals looked mighty fine on opening day. They torched the Chicago White Sox by the score of 10-1. Eight of the nine batters in the Royals lineup had hits, including newcomer Alex Rios, who had three. Yordano Ventura looked good too, before leaving the game with a thumb cramp.

The Tigers
The Detroit Tigers, the Royals’ AL Central foes, also looked lethal in their first game. They blanked the Minnesota Twins 4-0, with starter David Price coming within one out of a shutout. Meanwhile, the anybody-can-be-dangerous Tigers offense struck with homers from J.D. Martinez and Alex Avila.

Todd Frazier
Perhaps the most clutch homer of the day belonged to Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier, who hit a three-run, go-ahead homer in the eighth inning to seal his team’s win. Even better: It came in the next half-inning after Pittsburgh Pirates star Andrew McCutchen hit a homer to tie the game at two.

The new pace-of-play rules
Anytime there’s a new rule change and you don’t hear too many people whining about it on the first day, that’s a good thing. People hate change. Baseball people especially hate change. So the fact that complaints about MLB’s new pace-of-play rules were minimal was a good sign.

Bryce Harper
We’ll get to his team later (dramatic pause), but Bryce Harper continued to be a beast on opening day. He launched this homer, giving him three opening day homers in his career.

Drew Hutchison
The Blue Jays have a chance to win the AL East, but a lot of their fate depends on pitching. With Marcus Stroman already out of the season, the Jays need a big year from breakout candidate Drew Hutchison. So far, so good. Hutchison pitched six strong innings, giving up three hits and one run as the Jays handled the Yankees quite easily.

Dallas Keuchel
Keuchel had a breakout season for the Houston Astros in 2014, and rightfully earned himself the opening day nod. Then all he did was outduel the defending AL Cy Young winner, Corey Kluber, as the Astros beats the Indians 2-0. Kluber pitched well too, but Keuchel didn’t allow a run in seven innings, striking out four and surrendering just three hits. Not bad at all.

Jimmy Rollins
Way to introduce yourself to L.A., Jimmy Rollins. Rollins, the new Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop, hit a go-ahead three-run homer to push his new team past the San Diego Padres. Final: Dodgers 6, Padres 3.

Seth Smith
Smith, who was traded from the Padres to the Seattle Mariners, wasn’t the biggest acquisition of the offseason. But he did quite well in his first game for Seattle. Smith had three hits and two RBIs, a successful day for a platoon outfielder. The Mariners and Felix Hernandez won again, because they’re pretty good at doing that on opening day.

The Rockies
What a performance for the Colorado Rockies, who enjoyed the rare day that both Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki were healthy and productive. It was Nolan Arenado who was the most dangerous, though. He had three hits and four RBIs as the Rockies blasted the Milwaukee Brewers 10-0. The whole Colorado lineup contributed, but it’s still not enough to instill any long-term confidence in the team.

LOSERS

Pablo Sandoval
Pablo Sandoval, come on down, you’re the biggest loser of opening day. The Panda, in his first game as a member of the Boston Red Sox after signing that huge free-agent contract, was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. The good thing about this award, though, is that it only lasts one day.

Jeff Samardzija and the White Sox
After a much-hyped rebuild, the Chicago White Sox were pummeled by the Royals (as we covered above). In particular, Jeff Samardzija had a rough day filling in for ace Chris Sale as opening-day starter. He gave up five runs in six innings and angered the Royals by plunking Lorenzo Cain with a pitch after surrendering a homer to Mike Moustakas. Simmer down, Jeff.

The Nats
You can’t judge a rebuild on opening day, so us calling the White Sox and now the Washington Nationals “losers” doesn’t have much sticking power. But the fact is, with all the hype the Nats have this season, they couldn’t come out and lose 3-1 to the Mets with only three hits. You do that and people are going to be underwhelmed. Max Scherzer, their new $210 million man pitched very well, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth, but neither the Nats’ offense or defense gave him enough support.

People who were hoping Tanaka was OK
The New York Yankees had a rough day. As our pal Jeff Passan wrote, it was so bad that A-Rod was one of the highlights. Staff ace Masahiro Tanaka was not. He gave up five runs in four innings. His velocity was down and, frankly, he seemed like a guy trying to pitch through an injury — as we all know he is. Tanaka’s very important to the Yankees. A healthy Tanaka, and their chances look a lot better this season. With this version, though? It doesn’t look too good.

This Yankees fan who tried to throw back a homer
She ended up with Edwin Encarnacion’s home-run ball, tried to throw it back and oops, that didn’t go according to plan.

Cole Hamels
Hamels, the No. 1 piece of trade bait around MLB, was roughed up by the Red Sox, who hit four homers off him in five innings. The Red Sox could still use Hamels on their team, but hitting against him went just fine too.

Zero-run teams
Even though 29 homers were hit on opening day, a number of teams had trouble scoring. Five teams were shutout — the Twins, Indians, Rangers, Brewers and Phillies.

[Check out our predictions for the 2015 MLB season]

The Brewers
Let’s focus specifically on Milwaukee, who besides losing 10-0 to the Rockies lost 10-0 to the Rockies with Kyle Kendrick on the mound. It’s one thing to lose to the Rockies, another thing entirely to make Kendrick look like an opening-day stud.

The Marlins
We’ve covered the rough day for the Marlins in detail, but to recap: They had a rain delay in their domed stadium, because they neglected to check the weather. Then they had a couple of hilarious bloopers — in which Marcell Ozuna thought he caught a ball and it was sitting behind him, and Dee Gordon fell on his face after laying down a bunt. Oof.

People who didn’t eat a churro dog on opening day
This is the Arizona Diamondbacks latest and greatest concessions creation.