OPENING STATEMENT
Blue Jays send sellout crowd home happy in return to Rogers Centre
After all the pomp, circumstance and hyping up of what turned out to be a sellout crowd of 40,069 for Monday night’s home opener at the Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays came out in the bottom of the first inning and hit three routine ground balls to third base, going quickly and quietly against Mariners ace Luis Castillo.
It was a lousy start, and had the fans who were frustrated by the offence going back to last season — there was even a smattering of boos for hitting coach Guillermo Martinez during the introductions — rolling their eyes in anticipation of yet another quiet night for the bats.
To their delight, they didn’t get one in what wound up a 5-2 victory over Seattle, the fourth time the Jays have won their home opener in the last five tries.
New DH Justin Turner led off the second with a double off the wall in left field and came home two outs later on a single by Alejandro Kirk to open the scoring.
The next inning, an infield single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a Bo Bichette double and a walk to Turner loaded the bases for Davis Schneider, who poked a soft liner to centre for a two-out single.
In the fourth, it was a two-out double by Guerrero that scored Kevin Kiermaier, who had singled and stolen second base.
Two-out RBI hits haven’t been quite as rare around these parts as, say, a solar eclipse, but the three the
Jays mustered — including Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s eighth-inning single to score Daulton Varsho — were one more than they’d had over the past six games combined.
Playing the role of the offensively challenged were the visitors, dominated by José Berríos over 6 2⁄3 innings of four-hit shutout. Mariners not named Ty France went a combined 1-for-21 against the righthander, who improved to 2-0.
Manager John Schneider was booed lustily when he came to the mound to take Berríos out after France’s third hit, a broken-bat single with two out in the seventh, but the crowd broke into a huge ovation as Berríos came off the mound.
The win, finished up by Yimi García and Chad Green, moved the Jays to 5-6 on the young season.