Blue Jays Showcase Winning Recipe In Home Opener Win

With five dingers, robbed homers, and more shaky starting pitching, the 2023 Blue Jays were on full display in a home opener win over the Tigers.

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

It's their brand of baseball. Tuesday's home opener was the 2023 Blue Jays packaged up into a neat, little, two-and-a-half-hour showcase.

Another shaky start, and a strong finish. More flashy outfield plays, rotation questions, and the offensive firepower we've seen all season, so far. The boppers bopped, the gloves robbed homers, and the Blue Jays clawed back for a home-opening win over the Tigers.

"The more talent the better," Kevin Kiermaier said. "And we got a lot of that in that clubhouse in there and we're gonna win a lot of games this year. We're gonna have a lot of fun."

In the first frame, Alek Manoah looked ready to dominate. The starter's nine-pitch first set the tone for an efficient outing to follow. Maybe the offense could give him two or three runs for a clean win? But that's not the '23 Jays style. Toronto's success so far this season has come from comebacks, bullpen battles, and big innings.

Whatever Manoah had going in his opening frame, he lost in the second. A Kiermaier robbed homer saved him one run, but walks, singles, and a hard-hit home run put the Blue Jays down three runs fast. Toronto's young ace was erratic, handing out five free passes with just 53 of his 94 pitches finding the strike zone.

"Tonight was kind of out of it a little bit, mentally," Manoah said. "[I was] thinking mechanically, trying to make pitches, trying to read the hitter's swings and the hitter's approaches, and just kind of struggling with all of that."

Kevin Gausman is Toronto's only rotation member who hasn't been hit hard at some point this season. The Jays have received a quality start (six-plus innings, three earned runs or fewer) in just three of eleven games, so far. 

It's "tough" to get into early holes, Manager John Schneider said, but the bats haven't seemed to mind. Rotation inconsistency didn't stop the Jays from posting a 6-4 road trip to start the year. And it didn't stop them from pushing that win total to seven on Tuesday.

The Jays clawed back a run in the second off a long Alejandro Kirk single, and then they brought out the big sticks. Toronto hit two collective homers in their first five games of 2023. On Tuesday, they hit five. Matt Chapman blasted his latest hard-hit monstrosity to right-center and then back-to-back jacks from Kiermaier and George Springer gave Toronto the lead for good. After a few more knocks, it wasn't even close.

KK didn’t even finish his celly before George went deep 😂 #NextLevel pic.twitter.com/P4CPV9nrSY

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 12, 2023

"That's kind of our M.O.," Schneider said. "One through nine we've got a chance to leave the yard, any of them."

The Blue Jays probably want to play clean, efficient, easy baseball. They want starters to go seven innings, the bats to deliver early leads, and nary a deep fly ball that must be robbed at the warning track. 

They'll get some of those simple wins this year. But, this team has proved they can get down early, withstand a messy start, and win big. It may not be the baseball they want, but it's a recipe that's working.