Troy Tulowitzki says first Opening Day as a Yankee was especially memorable

Troy Tulowitzki has been through the pomp and circumstance of plenty of Opening Days in his career, but Thursday’s was especially memorable.

Tulowitzki, entering his 13th big-league season, missed all of last season recovering from surgery on both heels to remove bone spurs. Various injuries limited him to 66 games in 2017.

“Opening Day was always special. I’ve had quite a few in my career, but today was something different,” said Tulowitzki, who started at shortstop and batted ninth. He went 1-for-4 with a double. “The injury was tough on me and a lot of people doubted that I’d get back to this point. So definitely it had some extra meaning to get back out there.”

Tulowitzki, who lined a double to left in the eighth inning, wore No. 12 after wearing No. 2 from 2007-17 with the Rockies and Blue Jays in honor of one of his idols, Derek Jeter. He laughed about batting ninth, just the fifth time in his long career he started a game doing so.

“To be at the bottom of the order, that was different for me,” Tulowitzki said with a smile. “That just goes to show you how good [the Yankees lineup] is.”

Judge on base four times

Aaron Judge didn’t have the kind of game that creates headlines. No heat-seekers off the wall, no 450-foot-plus homers.

But the rightfielder still was a constant presence as he reached base four times. He was 2-for-3 with two walks and three runs, improving to 5-for-11 in three Opening Day games.

Judge and Luke Voit (1-for-1, two walks, HBP) are the first Yankees teammates to reach base at least four times on Opening Day since Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui April 3, 2006, at Oakland.

In honor of Mel

The Yankees will wear black armbands on their left sleeves all season in honor of former righthander and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, who passed away Jan. 13 at the age of 77.

“Just a really great guy,” Aaron Boone said before the game. “Obviously when I came here [as a player in 2003], he was the pitching coach and someone that just embraced you right away, made you feel a part of the team. So it’ll be an honor to wear that in his memory.”

Mo throws first pitch

Mariano Rivera threw the ceremonial first pitch from the pitching rubber and delivered a strike to Gary Sanchez that had a bit of heat on it. In the offseason, Rivera became the first player unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame . . . Reliever Adam Ottavino became the first Yankee to wear uniform No. 0 in a game and the first Yankee to wear a single-digit uniform number since Derek Jeter’s retirement in 2014.