Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical story to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
It didn’t take long for Jeremy Peña to be comfortable against major-league competition.
One day after a forgettable 0-for-4 effort at the plate in his MLB debut, the Astros shortstop battered the Angels pitching staff on April 8 en route to his first three career hits. He added a run scored and an RBI, with two of his hits registering over 102 miles per hour, per Statcast data. Peña saved the best for last, launching a seventh-inning homer as his parents began an interview on the evening’s Apple TV broadcast.
