Thole opened up the scoring for the Jays with a solo homer in his first at bat of the season – Saunders lined a 2 run homer to dead center field for his first ever Blue Jay homer – Donaldson hits his first solo homer of the 2016 season.
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As a result, both Bautista and Encarnacion were ruled out, the runs were disallowed and the Rays were celebrating an unlikely win while the Blue Jays were steaming.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Sanchez goes into his windup during the first inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Jays have three more games against the Rays before their first home opener against the Red Sox on Friday. “He just wasn’t locating his fastball”, manager Kevin Cash said.
With Stroman under contract through the 2020 season, there’s no better pitcher in the Blue Jays organization to lead the charge for the foreseeable future. The 33-year-old slugger is set to become a free agent at the end of the season.
Cecil hadn’t allowed an earned run since June of last season, a span of 32 2/3 innings until Tuesday, and the home run kept him from getting the record for himself. Starting pitcher Marcus Stroman put together a solid outing by allowing three runs over eight-plus innings of ball, while only throwing 98 pitches.
This is thanks to Boston’s opening day rainout in Cleveland on Monday; otherwise, Wright would have pitched on Friday and Dickey would have countered David Price on Saturday.
Colome, pitching his second inning in his first test as the initial replacement for injured Brad Boxberger, gave up a couple of singles and a walk to Bautista.
It is believed that Blue Jays management and Encarnacion were never really close to an agreement.
Chris Archer’s start was shaky but settled in the third inning went his went on to strike out 9 batters in a row. Rays are 6-2 in their last 8 home games and the over is 13-5-2 in the last 20 games on Tuesdays.
“If they were going to do something, I was ready”, Encarnacion said. First pitch will be thrown out at 4:05 p.m. The lefty is 1-0 with a 1.32 ERA in two starts against Toronto. Jeurys Familia, who blew three saves in the World Series, threw a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. He had been told last week that he would not be on the opening day roster.
Odorizzi gave up two runs and four hits in 5 2-3 innings.
Edinson Volquez of the Kansas City Royals pitches during the first inning of a game against the New York Mets. Boston wasn’t far behind in fourth at 748 and Baltimore still cracked the top 10 at ninth overall with 713 runs scored.
It was 39 degrees when Liriano threw the first pitch of the year at sunny but frosty PNC Park.
“Crap, all that matters is we had a chance to win, we take the lead”.
Splits:Left-handed hitters went 1-for-6 with a walk and four strikeouts vs. Odorizzi while right-handers finished the evening 3-for-16 with a triple, a walk and six strikeouts.
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“He just got beat up by the long ball”. All things considered, if keeping only one of Encarnacion or Bautista is in the Blue Jays’ future, then it could be a very hard decision.
