After six long months of waiting, the 2024 MLB regular season is finally here! with this news we can all say Blue Jays baseball is back and the Jays get set to play the Tampa Bay Rays in their season opening series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Toronto will open their season with four games on the road against Tampa starting on March 28, then a three game series against the Houston Astros starting April 1. Toronto’s final road series will be against the New York Yankees starting April 5, then finally head back for the home opener on April 8 where the Jays take on the Seattle Mariners. For that opening series against Tampa, we already have some information on the pitchers for the Jays that will take the mound for the series. Firstly, we found out the Jose Berrios will have the job as the opening day starter marking the fourth time in his career he has been tasked with the role. We also learned that prospect Bowden Francis will have the opportunity to be the starter for the fourth and final game against Tampa, following his very impressive and dominant performances throughout spring training. With two of the four starters announced for the opening series, we can predict that Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi will be the other two pitchers in charge for games two and three. With that the pitching rotation for the opening series of the season should look like:

Game 1: Jose Berrios

Game 2: Chris Bassitt

Game 3: Yusei Kikuchi

Game 4: Bowden Francis

The fifth starter in the rotation who would be tasked with pitching the first game of the following series against Houston has not been confirmed, and the most likely option in Kevin Gausman may not be ready to suit up quite yet and take the mound. Gausman has been dealing with a shoulder injury throughout the spring, and though he has been making progress it is still too early to tell if he will be fully healthy and ready to go in time for the start against the Astros. If that is the case and Gausman will not pitch, there are still multiple options available to take his place. Alek Manoah could be a guy the Jays pick to replace Gausman, however he is also dealing with some injuries and does not seem to be quite ready to make a regular season start either. In my opinion, I think the most realistic option for Toronto to go with is Mitch White, who has had multiple long stints with the Jays in previous seasons and has had a respectable spring training. But enough talk about the games to come, it’s time to talk about and breakdown the Blue Jay’s first game of the regular season.

First pitch at Tropicana Field was set for 4:10 p.m. Est, and on the mound for the Rays was starting pitcher Zach Eflin who was ready to get the first game of the season under way against Toronto. As for the Blue Jays starting lineup, the batting order looked like:

RF: George Springer

1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

SS: Bo Bichette

DH: Justin Turner

LF: Daulton Varsho

C: Alejandro Kirk

CF: Kevin Kiermaier

3B: Isiah Kiner-Falefa

2B: Cavan Biggio

As per usual coming from last season, George Springer would take the first spot in the lineup for the Jays as he is by far the teams most effective lead-off hitter, holding the most lead-off homeruns among current active players in the entire league. One of the more surprising defensive positioning decisions for the team is having Justin Turner play the DH role and have Kiner-Falefa play third base. While there is no doubt Kiner-Falefa is more than capable of playing at third, it came as suprise to me since Turner is a natural third baseman and Kiner-Falefa normally plays at shortstop. Obviously IKF wouldn’t be taking over the shortstop position from Bo Bichette, so I can imagine the plan for Kiner-Falefa going forward would be to swap him back and forth with Turner between playing third base and DH depending on the day.

The game got under way and the Blue Jays offence was quiet to start, with Eflin retiring all three Jays in order to end the top of the first. Tampa on the other hand got off to a quick start, when Yandy Diaz homered to left field to put the Rays in front early 1-0. Berrios bounced back though for Toronto, allowing just the one run and keeping Tampa scoreless for the next four innings after. Toronto would strike back in the fourth inning, when George Springer launched the first Blue Jays homerun of the season over the wall to tie the game at 1-1.

Spring and a DRIVE 😤

Our first homer of the season is a #SpringerDinger! pic.twitter.com/FVpRzugfnh

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) March 28, 2024

After the homerun, the bats stayed hot in the sixth inning, when Cavan Biggio hit a solo homerun and so did Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with Guerrero’s homer being sent 450 feet to center field. A few more base hits with runners on from Kirk and Kiermaier made the score 6-1 Blue Jays, and chased Zach Eflin out of the game as the manager for the Rays called for the bullpen. The rays answered with another run in the bottom half of the sixth but had no more offence after that and Berrios exited the game in line for the win and turned the ball over to the bullpen as well. The Blue Jays bullpen was fantastic as Trevor Richards, Nate Pearson, and Tim Mayza came in for one inning each and shutout the Rays’ offence for the rest of the game. The final score came to 8-2 in favour of the Jays, with the final out coming from Mayza via a strikeout.

Toronto Notable Players:

Bichette: 2-4, 2RBI, 1BB

Biggio: 2-2, HR, 2BB

Berrios: 6 IP, 2ER, 6K

Tampa Bay Notable Players:

Diaz: 3-4, HR, 2RBI

Lowe: 1-3, 1BB

Win: J. Berrios (1-0)

Lose: Z. Eflin (0-1)

With game one of the regular season now officially in the books, Toronto was impressive showing the capabilities of the offence and the pitching staff being able to limit runs and be in full control of the game. This game definitely sets the tone to how the rest of the season hopes to be, with Blue Jays commentator Buck Martinez chiming in during the broadcast exclaiming “you can’t win them all if you don’t win the first”. Berrios was excellent this outing, showing much improvement from his opening day start last season where he only lasted 1/3 of an inning. Berrios showed much poise and remained calm when he got into a couple of jams during the game, regaining his composure and finishing each inning strong. Toronto aims to keep rolling and win back-to-back games, as they play game two of four in their series against Tampa tomorrow on March 29.