Welcome to Rates in Beryl's.

It is Monday, April 5th.

Derek Van Riper here with Britt Jiroli.

A lot of fun stuff to talk about. Opening weekend now in the books. We're going to talk about the feats of Shohei Otani, who had one of the most eventful games. I think I've ever seen a player have, especially in early April on Sunday night baseball, no less. We had our first benches clearing situation. I don't even want to call it a brawl, but benches did clear this weekend between the Cardinals and Reds. And we had

some really big surprises, both in terms of individual player performances like Yermine Mercedes

coming up and doing some damage for the White Sox, a great pitcher's duel in Milwaukee between

Jose Barrios and Corbyn Burns

and a lot of messy bullpins to get to as well. The Nats, of course, haven't played yet, so we'll get an update on their situation. And the All-Star game is not going to be played in Atlanta. So we'll get to that at some point here as well. So, yeah, a lot happened since we last spoke Brit. But let let's start with the wonderful feats of Shohei Otani.

He threw a 101 mile an hour fastball in his start on Sunday night.

It's the fastest pitch thrown by a starter in this young season.

And he also hit a 451-foot home run.

This could be one of the most amazing things we ever see happen in a game, especially a game that's somewhat meaningless this early in the season. Yeah, and it's funny because it seemed like in spring training, Dirk, every time, like he didn't pitch well, people were like, well, let's just make up a full-time outfielder, right? Like, we're so quick to be like, well, you can't do both, see? And he showed

that you can. And what was interesting to me was that Jared Walsh, who used to be a two-way player, ends up being the guy who wins it. So it was like the night of the guys who can really do everything. And it's amazing to watch. My only gripe here is that the Angels on the West Coast are still going to miss out on a lot of eyeballs.

But you look at that game last night and you really look at that whole opening

scene. My only gripe here is that the Angels on the West Coast are still going to miss out on a lot of eyeballs.

But you look at that game last night and really look at that whole opening series, and the Angels are just a really fun team to watch. We're talking about the Angels here, and we haven't mentioned Mike Trout. That shows you how fun they are, right? We're talking about other guys here. And with Otani, I mean, it's unbelievable to be

able to do what he does, turn around, and then hit in that lineup. And Joe Badden said it best

last night. He said that was exactly what we had hoped he would do. I mean, that was exactly what we've

been looking for, what we've been hoping for. And I think as long as he stays healthy, you're going to

get a show from show every five days.

It is remarkable.

And Walsh came through with two home runs last night, walked it off in that game.

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