Game Thread #1: Milwaukee Brewers (0-0) @ New York Yankees (0-0)

Brewers open the 2025 season in The Big Apple

Hello everyone and welcome to the 2025 Major League Baseball season!

Before we get to today’s matchup, check out some of our preview articles from this week. We’ve got Brewers award predictions, NL Central standings predictions, and bold predictions and storylines to watch. Also check out our series preview for opening weekend and a primer for those of you who may have tuned out this winter.

The Brewers will get things started this afternoon in a high-profile matchup with the New York Yankees, the defending American League champs, at Yankee Stadium. Freddy Peralta will take the hill for the Brewers, but not against the Yankees’ ace, as Gerrit Cole was sidelined for the season after Tommy John surgery earlier this month. Instead, Carlos Rodón will take the hill for the Bronx Bombers.

Peralta is making his second consecutive Opening Day start, and he’s been hot out of the gate in each of his last two seasons. In last year’s opener, also in New York but against the Mets, Peralta allowed just one hit, one walk, and one run in six innings while striking out eight in a 3-1 Brewers victory. In 2023, Peralta didn’t pitch until the fifth game of the season, also coincidentally against the Mets, but he went six scoreless innings while allowing only two hits in a 10-0 victory.

Rodón, a lefty, signed a big free agent deal with the Yankees after very good seasons in 2021 (with the White Sox) and 2022 (with the Giants). His first year in the Bronx was a disaster; injuries limited him to 14 starts and he had by far the worst season of his career, with an ERA of almost seven. But he had a healthy bounce-back year in 2024, as he made 32 starts and went 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA and 4.39 FIP. Those numbers place Rodón around or slightly-better-than league average, which is not what the Yankees were hoping to get out of him, but he pitched well in last season’s ALCS (though he struggled in the World Series) and they’re surely hoping for another step up this year.

The Brewers’ first lineup of the season doesn’t feature any major surprises, but we will get a look at what Pat Murphy is thinking in terms of optimizing run production. Jackson Chourio, coming off a stellar second half of last season and an even better spring, will lead off, with Christian Yelich batting second as the designated hitter. William Contreras is third, Rhys Hoskins fourth, and then the lineup gets a bit interesting as right fielder Sal Frelick is in the five spot (despite the left-handed Rodón on the hill). He’ll be followed by Joey Ortiz, Garrett Mitchell, Vinny Capra (the right-handed side of the Brewers’ presumed third base platoon), and Brice Turang rounding it out.

The Yankees lineup looks quite different from the one that played in the World Series last year but still features the best hitter alive (at least in the regular season), Aaron Judge, as well as the presence of big-time prospect Jasson Dominguez. They also feature two big-name newcomers from the NL Central, Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt. Both seem a long way removed from the MVP awards they each won, but they could both be positive additions for this team.

Today’s game is on ESPN (and ESPN only, unfortunately) at 2:05 p.m. CT, and you can hear it on the Brewers Radio Network. Happy Opening Day!