Toronto Star Classroom Connection

Hit parade

Jays bats come through in opening win over Cardinals

GREGOR CHISHOLM

The Blue Jays have been claiming for a while that they intend to play a different brand of baseball this season, and on opening day that revamped style was on full display.

The days of sitting back and waiting for the home run are over. Manager John Schneider wants to prove his club can win in a variety of ways and there has been a push throughout the organization for more aggressive baserunning, improved defence and proper execution with runners in scoring position.

The Jays’ first game of the season featured each of those elements and just about everything else — except for quality pitching.

The Jays pounded out 19 hits, the most in franchise history for an opener, to overcome an ineffective start from Alek Manoah and an even worse performance from the bullpen in a 10-9 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday evening at Busch Stadium.

It wasn’t always pretty, but it was certainly effective as the Jays persevered through several blown leads and did a lot of the little things necessary to pick up a win. Poor pitching aside, this was the approach the Jays had been searching for and one they hope to carry throughout the regular season.

“It just lets us know that everything we’ve talked about, everything we’ve preached, it matters,” said Jays right-fielder George Springer, who went 5-for-6 to become the fourth player in franchise history to finish with at least five hits and four runs in a single game.

“Stuff like that doesn’t show up in a boxscore, but guys know it. It’s a long year. It’s hard to do it all the time, but that’s the style of game that everyone (in the clubhouse) expects to play.”

The Jays set the tone early with a three-run first inning off Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas. Springer and Bo Bichette started the game with a pair of hits, and off-season acquisition Daulton Varsho opened the scoring with an RBI double to the corner in right field. One batter later, Alejandro Kirk scored two more with a blooper into shallow centre.

That was the start of what would become a crazy back-and-forth affair that involved six lead changes, including four in the final three innings. The Jays were held scoreless in just three frames and broke the franchise record for hits, which previously belonged to the 1977 Jays with 16.

The Cardinals were equally efficient at the plate. Their 15 hits were one shy of the most allowed by the Jays during a season opener, and they were also held scoreless in just three innings. Manoah was charged with five runs, his most since Sept. 3, 2021, and 3 ⁄ innings matched 1

3 the shortest appearance of his career.

The bullpen wasn’t any better. Lefty Tim Mayza didn’t retire any of the three batters he faced in the sixth. Anthony Bass didn’t retire any of the batters he faced in the seventh, and top set-up man Yimi García blew another late lead with a two-run eighth.

Somehow, the Jays still managed

to pull off the win thanks to relentless offence and execution in other areas.

The defensive gems included a spectacular diving grab by Springer to save two runs in the second; a silky-smooth, around-the-horn double play started by Matt Chapman in the fourth; and a nifty fielder’s choice by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., which cut down a runner at the plate in the seventh. An inning later, Kevin Kiermaier came through with another sliding catch in the outfield.

Increased speed on the basepaths also factored into the winning rally. During the top of the ninth, Springer stepped to the plate with runners on the corners and hit a blooper to shallow centre. After Whit Merrifield scored easily to tie the game, Cardinals shortstop Tommy Edman caught up to the ball before instinctively turning and throwing to second.

The problem for Edman and the Cardinals was that Kiermaier was no longer there. He rounded second base and kept running, capitalizing on Edman throwing behind the runner. That put him on third base, and two batters later Kiermaier scored on Guerrero’s deep sacrifice fly to centre.

“I love it. We’ve been seeing him do that against us for however many years,” Schneider said of Kiermaier, the former Tampa Bay Ray. “He’s thinking a step ahead. It was thrown behind the runner there and K.K.’s sliding into third. Things like that. Like we’ve been saying from day one: How can you make your teammate’s life easier? It’s a whole lot easier hitting with a runner on third and less than two outs.”

Of course, not everything was smooth sailing for the Jays.

Bichette made a throwing error on the first play of the game, and a slight hesitation cost him the chance at turning a double play in the seventh. The pitching was downright awful except for scoreless innings from Zach Pop, newcomer Erik Swanson and Jordan Romano.

The Jays will need to clean up some of those mistakes in the coming days and weeks, but it isn’t difficult to envision the ways this club will be better than last year’s version — which had an impressive 92-70 record, but still finished a distant second to the New York Yankees in the American League East.

“Those guys have my back, and there are days when I’ll have their back,” Manoah said of his outing. “We’re going to continue to compete and grind. It’s a long year. It’s the first one and we have plenty more to come.”

The offensive explosion from both sides meant Major League Baseball’s new rules didn’t have that much of an impact on pace of play. Thursday’s game took three hours and 38 minutes, but the Jays won’t care much about that after picking up their fourth consecutive victory on opening day.

While one game doesn’t make a week, let alone an entire season, there’s still something to be said for making a positive first impression, and the new-look Jays did just that on Thursday evening. One down, 161 to go.

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2023-03-31T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-31T07:00:00.0000000Z

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