Home opener lacks pop
Despite all the hoopla and excitement of a sold-out crowd, Rays steal Blue Jays’ thunder in dreary affair
R.A. Dickey emerged from the Blue Jays’ dugout a little before 4 p.m. Monday afternoon, still in his street clothes, to have alook at the Rogers Centre’s new artificial turf. He took a baseball and whipped it underhand, almost like he was skipping a stone on water, and watched the ball die in the weeds just beyond the infield.
“Real slow,” he remarked before descending back into the clubhouse.
True, the Dome’s plush new carpet — a striking shade of lime green — appeared to play slower than usual in Monday’s debut. But perhaps Dickey should have been more concerned about the edges of the strike zone than the length of the polypropylene blades underfoot.
The 40-year-old knuckleballer gifted the Tampa Bay Rays their only runs on a pair of bases-loaded walks and Dickey’s teammates did little to uplift a dreary home opener, managing just a pair of hits as the Jays fell 2-1 in front of a deflated sold-out crowd of 48,414.
“Good crowd, we just couldn’t get anything going offensively at all,” manager John Gibbons said of his team’s struggles against Rays right-hander Jake Odorizzi.
The Jays have now lost four straight home openers, the last three featuring Dickey, who gave up just three hits on Monday but walked five and also hit a batter. “I throw a knuckleball,” he said, shrugging at the pitch’s unpredictability.
The Jays’ bigger problem is they didn’t hit anything very hard.
This Rays club, moving forward without its iconic former manager, Joe Maddon, isn’t expected to contend in the impossible-to-predict American League East. But there’s a good chance they’ll be a competitive nuisance, nipping at the heavyweights’ heels all season. And as usual, they still have enough pitching to compete on most nights, as was the case Monday with 25-year-old Jake Odorizzi on the mound. The impressive righty, who has stymied the Jays before, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Kevin Pillar and Devon Travis combined to score Toronto’s only run, Odorizzi’s only blemish.
Despite the obvious letdown of a lousy opener, what this means for the season is relatively little. The Jays returned home after a solid start on the road, opening the season with back-to-back victories against division rivals in New York and Baltimore.
But there are some reasons for concern through the season’s first week. Jose Bautista hasn’t exactly torn the cover off the ball and Russell Martin is still looking for his second hit. Though, it should be noted that the Canadian catcher had just a pair of hits through his first 10 games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2013, perhaps evidence of the mental toll of learning a whole new pitching staff.
The bottom of the Jays’ lineup has shouldered more of the offensive load than expected, but small samples are deceiving and considering the long-standing track records of the team’s veteran hitters, scoring runs isn’t likely to be a problem. The rotation, however, could be. Going six innings while giving up just a pair of runs is usually a decent outing, but given Dickey’s five walks, it’s tough to spin his performance as a positive.
Monday began with its usual pageantry. A Canadian flag that spanned nearly the entire outfield was unveiled and the sold-out crowd sang the national anthem in unison. MLB’s new commissioner, Rob Manfred, accompanied Ben Sheppard, a 9-year-old Jays fan with cerebral palsy, to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Former Jay greats Carlos Delgado and George Bell presented Bautista with his 2014 Silver Slugger award as the top offensive right fielder.
But the game itself was languid and mostly uneventful.
Bautista, who drew three walks on Monday, worked himself aboard to lead-off the bottom of the ninth. The tying run aboard and none out, the crowd frantically waving their rally towels, Edwin Encarnacion swung wildly from his heels and whiffed, while Bautista — running on the fullcount, was thrown out trying to steal second.
Amicrocosm of the deflated excitement of the game itself.
Before the game, Gibbons said he was looking forward to playing in front of the home fans, but after enduring extended opening-day celebrations in both New York and Baltimore, he’s ready to return to the ordinary as well.
“We’re looking forward to it,” he said.
“But it’ll be nice when it’s over, I’ll tell you that.”