{"id":651601,"date":"2026-03-30T01:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651601\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T01:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:40:22","slug":"blue-jays-achieve-mlb-feat-not-done-in-126-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651601\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Achieve MLB Feat Not Done in 126 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> didn’t just sweep the Athletics<\/a> in their first series of the season, but they did it uniquely.<\/p>\n

They started with a 3-2 Opening Day win on Friday, and their pitchers totaled 16 strikeouts, 11 of them by ace Kevin Gausman. Conversely, Toronto struck out just three times. Shortstop Andres Gimenez sealed the victory with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays then won 8-7 in 11 innings on Saturday thanks to second baseman Ernie Clement’s walk-off single. Starting pitcher Dylan Cease tallied 12 punchouts across 5 1\/3 frames in his team debut, and the squad finished with 19 on the night. Meanwhile, the offense struck out just six times.<\/p>\n

Finally, Toronto won 5-2 on Sunday afternoon behind a shutout performance by the bullpen. Starter Eric Lauer fanned nine hitters over 5 1\/3 innings, and the pitching staff finished with 15 strikeouts. The Athletics struck out the Blue Jays just seven times.<\/p>\n

When Toronto reliever Tommy Nance retired pinch hitter Jeff McNeil in the top of the eighth, that set an MLB<\/a> record for the most strikeouts by a pitching staff in the first three games of a season since 1900 (47), per MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. It finished the series with 50.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays Start Revenge Tour on High Note\"Toronto<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Myles Straw, first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (center) and third baseman Ernie Clement celebrate a win.\u00a9 Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Toronto is looking to avenge its 2025 World Series loss after falling 5-4 to the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> in 11 innings in Game 7. Fans couldn’t have asked for anything more through the team’s first three games of 2026.<\/p>\n

In addition to effective pitching, the offense had multiple contributors. Gimenez had a two-run triple in the fifth before his walk-off on Friday, and the Blue Jays had nine players record a hit on Saturday. Designated hitter George Springer opened the scoring with an RBI double in the third before center fielder Daulton Varsho had an RBI single in the sixth.<\/p>\n

Star first baseman<\/a>Vladimir Guerrero Jr<\/a>. followed up with an RBI single in the seventh before left fielder Jesus Sanchez and Gimenez hit more RBI singles in the eighth. Finally, catcher Alejandro Kirk tied the game with a solo homer to left in the ninth before Clement’s walkoff in the 11th.<\/p>\n

Then, Springer opened the scoring again with a solo homer to left in the first on Sunday before Sanchez hit a two-run bomb in the third and rookie third baseman<\/a> Kazuma Okamoto launched a 420-foot solo shot to right center in the fourth. Right fielder Addison Barger added insurance with an RBI walk in the fifth.<\/p>\n

Up next for Toronto is a home series against the Colorado Rockies<\/a> before hitting the road to face the Chicago White Sox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Blue Jays Pitcher Receives Disappointing News 5 Days Before MLB Season<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays didn’t just sweep the Athletics in their first series of the season, but they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[6081,3426,2043,537,5,377,49,52,854,76,1497,6130,311,1332,4942,3685,389,57,4,3226,6082,1414,31700,70,93],"class_list":["post-651601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-athletics","tag-addison-barger","tag-alejandro-kirk","tag-andres-gimenez","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-daulton-varsho","tag-dylan-cease","tag-eric-lauer","tag-ernie-clement","tag-george-springer","tag-jeff-mcneil","tag-jesus-sanchez","tag-kazuma-okamoto","tag-kevin-gausman","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-athletics","tag-myles-straw","tag-the-blue-jays","tag-tommy-nance","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116315582641131925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}