Chris Boline
• New York Yankees vs. San Francisco Giants on Opening Day
• Thursday, March 30 at 1:05 PM ET
• Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York
It’s finally here. Later this week, Major League Baseball will officially kick off the 2023 campaign on Thursday and people all over the globe can’t wait for the action to arrive. There are some exciting matchups on the docket, and people of course are going to be following the New York Yankees closely. Leading up to Game 1, the Yankees are favored to take down the Giants on MLB’s Opening Day, which isn’t a surprise.
New York holds strong World Series betting odds and they’re going to hope to start the new season off with a bang. There’s plenty of excitement surrounding the team right now, especially after it was announced that top prospect Anthony Volpe made the Opening Day roster and he’ll be starting at shortstop. Volpe will enter this new season with huge expectations, but people are ready to see this kid deliver.
| Opening Day odds |  |  |  |  |
| Yankees to win | -125 | -125 | -125 | -125 |
| Giants to win | +175 | +175 | +175 | +175 |
| Over to hit | -110 | -110 | -110 | -110 |
| Under to hit | -110 | -110 | -110 | -110 |
There’s going to be a ton of pressure on sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton to get the job done too, as they’re two of the best home-run hitters in the game. When the Yankees and San Francisco Giants face off on Thursday, Gerrit Cole will be starting for NY. Cole is one of the best hurlers in the game and he’s going to have to have a strong start too. There have been times when he’s been inconsistent. That can’t be the case in 2023.
According to the best-rated sportsbooks, which includes the reliable Bovada review, the Yankees hold -125 MLB betting odds to come away with a win in this one. The Giants have been set at +175. San Francisco is a great team and they sure have a lot of talent, but we think that the Yankees are going to prove to be too much for them to start the season. We’re going with the Yankees as our pick to record the Opening Day victory.
The video of Anthony Volpe finding out he made the team is just as awesome as you'd expect pic.twitter.com/CFlGsDM8NZ
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) March 26, 2023
Plenty of runs will be scored between the Yankees and Giants
With both of these high-powered offenses, plenty of runs will be scored between the Yankees and Giants. While some people might think that because. Cole and Logan Webb will be able to keep things low because of how brilliant they are as pitchers, we could really see things get going offensively late in the action. Because this is the first game of the season, it would be a surprise to see both Cole and Webb kept at around 5-6 innings each.
The last thing the managers for both of these clubs are going to want to do is overuse their aces in the first game. Because of this, both New York and San Francisco could look to rely on their bullpens towards the later stages of the contests. This will open the door for the hitters for both the Yankees and Giants to try and showcase their stuff in front of what’s expected to be a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium.
GOODNESS! Aaron Judge DEMOLISHES this baseball 💥 #NYY
pic.twitter.com/HgE3zXOoUj— Fireside Yankees (@FiresideYankees) February 24, 2023
There’s no question that Judge is going to want to make a statement in his first game. A lot of haters out there are claiming that he’s going to take a major step backward after hitting 62 homers last season and taking home AL MVP honors. We don’t think that will be the case, as there’s a full belief from our chair that Judge is going to live up to the hype from his massive deal worth $360 million.
Per the oddsmakers, -110 betting odds for both the over and under for this game are featured, which has been set at 7.5 runs. As impressive as Cole and Webb are, it’s going to be tough for them to contain the stacked lineups from both clubhouses. Because of this, we think that the over will hit in this case.
Yankees enter the season with high World Series odds
What adds to the intrigue of Opening Day arriving is that the Yankees enter the season with high World Series odds. Is this going to finally be the year where the Bronx Bombers get over the hump? As things stand, the Yankees hold +850 World Series betting odds, which is the second best for an American League Team. As you might have been able to guess, the Astros hold the top betting odds to win it all.
Houston captured the glory last season, which included taking down the Yankees in the ALCS. The Astros embarrassed the Yankees, beating them 4-0 for an impressive series sweep. In recent years, Houston has dominated New York in the postseason and it’s something that the fanbase is tired of seeing. Should these two teams meet again in the playoffs in ’23, it’d be an intriguing matchup.
Injuries are going to have a major impact on this squad. Unfortunately, star left-handed pitcher Carlos Rodon is going to miss around the first month of the season due to an injury. This is going to put extra pressure on Cole to lead the rotation to start off the year. Yankees fans believe in this team. Who knows, maybe a World Series could be on the way for the club next fall.
