What a Day!

What a day for a home opener.  I drove down from Ottawa and arrived in Toronto around noon.  I was listening to the local all-sports station on the radio and they announced that the Blue Jays had scheduled a press confererence for 3 p.m. to announce the signing of Alex Rios to a contract extension.  This was great news but totally expected as it has been rumoured for a couple of weeks now.  The bonus was that they locked up Aaron Hill as well.  Both of these guys are the real deal so I am all for locking them up long-term.

Now as for the home opener at Rogers Centre.  I had ten of my friends there with me but we were split up into three different sections in the .500 level.  The .500 level was very interesting last night.  It was mostly filled with drunken college/university students so it was a bit of a party atmosphere.  Of course having drunk students acting pretty much like idiots for seven innings tends to wear on people's nerves after awhile so it was no surprise that a number of fignts broke out come the seventh.  It took awhile for security to break them up which was a shame because the focus of many of the fans was on what was taking place in the stands than the ballgame.

But what a ballgame it was!  The Jays looked pretty sharp in their retro uniforms.  My wife thinks they look like pajamas but to each his own I guess.  I will admit that I think they should bring back the uniforms they wore in 1992 and 93 for the Friday night games but the powder blues will sell more jerseys. 

The pre-game ceremony to induct Roberto Alomar and Paul Beeston to the level of excellence was okay but the Blue Jays really need to look at how the Yankees hold pre-game ceremonies because there is something that is missing.  I can't put my finger on it.  I think it would have been good to have a few of Alomar's old teammates there and maybe have one or two of them speak before Robbie.  Where was Cito Gaston???  Oh well, it was good to see Roberto Alomar, the most talented Blue Jay ever, honoured along with the man who helped build the franchise into two World Series titles, Paul Beeston.

The game started off as a pitcher's duel with Sean Marcum mowing down Red Sox and Tim Wakefield baffling Jays hitters.  Matt Stairs (playing in the first game this season) broke the scoreless tie with a homerun to right to lead off the bottom of the sixth.  The Jays scored two more runs and were threatening for more but Greg Zaun (who was batting from the right side against Wakefield) grounded into a double play with the bases loaded to end the threat.

Marcum was cruising until the seventh.  A one-out walk to Ortiz started things off.  Marcum beared down and struck out Man-Ram but then gave up a bloop single to Mike Lowell setting the stage for a J.D. Drew homerun.  The homerun occurred just after I had leaned over to a friend of mine and said, "The Jays should be good here, no way Nancy is going to get a hit."  I was wrong! 

Thankfully, the Blue Jays did not do what they did in the previous series and cough up the game in the late innings.  Instead they put two more runs on the board in the bottom half of the seventh inning.  Eckstein led off the inning with a walk.  Shannon Stewart who was pinch-hitting for Matt Stairs pushed a single through the middle leaving runners on first and second for the 3-4-5 hitters in the lineup.  I thought to myself that if the Jays didn't score a run here, they didn't deserve to win.  Rios promptly fouled out and Wells followed suit.  I was not happy.  Frank Thomas then came through with a double into the left field gap putting the Jays in the lead for good.  The team scratched out another run in the bottom of the eighth before Accardo nailed down his second save of the season.

What can you say about the starting rotation thus far? Four quality starts in a row against two of the top teams in the American League.  If this holds up, Blue Jays fans can look to a very exciting season.  We'll see if Jesse Litsch can continue the trend today against the Sox.

Looking forward to the final two games of this series.  I'm hoping to catch the last game on Sunday before heading back to Ottawa.