With the calendar flipping to May, one month of the 2015 Major League Baseball season is in the books.
2015 is off to an interesting start throughout the league as some teams have surprised, rookies have gotten off to quick starts and milestones have been reached.
Here are 15 interesting storylines following the opening month of the 2015 MLB season:
1) Cruz Control: Nelson Cruz is surging in his first season with the Seattle Mariners. The slugger is tied for the MLB lead with 10 homers and 22 RBI while he paces the AL with 63 total bases and a .724 slugging percentage all while compiling an impressive .322 batting average. Despite his production, the Mariners are off to a 10-12 start and sit in third place in the AL West entering May.
2) Home, Sweet Home: Boston has been warm to Hanley Ramirez early in his Red Sox tenure as he is off to a heck of a start in Beantown. Ramirez is tied with Cruz with 10 long balls and 22 RBI while he's second in the AL with 54 total bases and a .659 slugging percentage. Ramirez is hitting .293 and Boston is off to a 12-10 start, one game behind the New York Yankees for first in the AL East.
3) The Great Debate: The St. Louis Cardinals lost ace Adam Wainwright for the season to an Achilles injury he suffered in the batter's box, sparking the seemingly endless debate over whether or not the National League should adopt the DH rule. While Wainwright, an opponent of the DH in the NL, is down for the season, the Cardinals currently lead the MLB with a 2.43 staff ERA. St. Louis is an MLB-best 15-6, good enought for first in the NL Central.
4) Royal Pain: The Kansas City Royals have been in three benches-clearing incidents just one month into the season. Yordano Ventura was at the forefront of two of them as the dugouts emptied in back-to-back games against the Oakland Athletics and then again when the Royals took on the Chicago White Sox last week. On the field, the reigning American League champions are 15-7 and sit atop the AL Central while hitting an MLB-best .306 as a team.
5) Championship Hangover?: It's an odd-numbered year, so it's doubtful that the San Francisco Giants will win the World Series as they did in 2010, 2012 and 2014, and if they have hopes of repeating as champions, they're off to a shaky start. The Giants are 9-13 this season and currently reside in last place in the NL West.
6) Cy Young Slowdown: The 2014 Cy Young Award winners are off to shaky starts. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who won the NL Cy Young and MVP Awards a year ago, has had some tough luck to start the campaign. Still, Kershaw is 1-2 with a 3.73 ERA thus far, but appears to be turning things around for the first place Dodgers (13-8). The same can't be said for 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber as the Cleveland Indians ace is still in search of his first win and has fastened an 0-3 record along with a 4.25 ERA. The last place Indians (7-14) are 0-5 in games started by Kluber.
7) Amazin' Beginnings: The New York Mets have cooled down as of late, but they rattled off an 11-game winning streak in mid-April and went a franchise-record 10-0 at home to start the season. The Mets, who are in first place in the NL East, are 15-8 and fell short of matching the franchise record for April wins (16) by one game. New York has been decimated with injuries this season, but has managed to stay strong for the most part. One key reason is the return of Matt Harvey (4-0, 3.04 ERA) from Tommy John surgery.
8) Welcome Back: Alex Rodriguez is back in a New York Yankees uniform after sitting out the entire 2014 campaign due to his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal and the use of performance-enhancing drugs. A-Rod started off the season hot, but he's cooled a bit lately. Rodriguez is hitting .232 with five homers and 13 RBI. His five long balls give him 659 for his career, one shy of matching Willie Mays (660) for fourth on the all-time homer list. The Texas Rangers are also welcoming back Josh Hamilton after the slugger's nasty divorce with the Los Angeles Angels.
9) Welcome To The Show: There have been several breakout rookies thus far this campaign and two of them are Los Angeles Dodgers infielder/outfielder Alex Guerrero and Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis. Guerrero, 28, has hit five homers and driven in 13 runs in 13 games while leading all rookies with a .423 batting average. Travis, 24, paces all first-year players with six homers and 19 RBI while hitting .325 through 22 games.
10) Empty Stadium: Due to the riots in Baltimore, an interesting thing happened at Orioles Park at Camden Yards when the Orioles hosted the White Sox in a matinee game with no fans allowed to enter on Wednesday. It marked the first time in the modern era that an MLB game was contested in an empty stadium with no fans in attendance.
11) Flash Gordon: Miami Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon is off to a red-hot start this season. Gordon leads the MLB with a .409 batting average and 38 hits while he's second in the NL with eight stolen bases. The Marlins (10-12) have won seven of the last eight games after a shaky start and are in third place in the NL East.
12) Houston, We Don't Have A Problem: The Houston Astros finished with a 70-92 record in their inaugural season in the AL in 2014, but they've bounced back to start 2015. After finishing in fourth place a year ago, the Astros are off to a 15-7 start and sit atop the division standings in the AL West. Houston has rattled off seven straight wins.
13) Chicago Fire: The Chicago Cubs appear to be legitimate contenders this season and after the exciting call-ups of Kris Bryant and Addison Russell, the team finds itself in second place in the NL Central with a 12-8 record, 2.5 games behind the Cardinals. Chicago has done this despite prized offseason acquisition and staff ace Jon Lester pitching to a 6.23 ERA.
14) Fit For Hollywood: Adrian Gonzalez got off to a ridiculous start for the Dodgers and he currently leads the entire MLB in total bases (64), slugging percentage (.790) and OPS (1.222) while leading the NL with eight homers and ranking third in the Senior Circuit in batting average (.383), RBI (19), runs (19) and hits (31).
15) Milestone Mayhem: Plenty of milestones have been reached just one month into the season. Three notable benchmarks saw Royals outfielder Paulo Orlando become the first player since 1900 to notch three triples for his first three MLB hits, Giancarlo Stanton become the Marlins all-time homer leader with his 155th bomb and Angels outfielder Mike Trout, 23, become the youngest player to reach the 100 homer, 100 stolen base plateau. On the mound, Blue Jays pitcher Mark Buehrle notched his 200th-career win and Brewers closer Francisco Rodriguez picked up his 350th career save.
It's been a memorable opening month for baseball and it will only get more exciting as 2015 rolls along.
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