{"id":652433,"date":"2026-03-30T13:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652433\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:17:15","slug":"after-opening-sweep-blue-jays-have-huge-opportunity-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652433\/","title":{"rendered":"After opening sweep, Blue Jays have huge opportunity ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 It would have been hard to fathom a better opening weekend than the one the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> just put together against the Athletics.<\/p>\n

Three wins, including two walk-offs, an MLB-record 50 strikeouts by the pitching staff and strong debut performances from newcomers such as starter Dylan Cease and sluggers Kazuma Okamoto and Jesus Sanchez, each of whom hit their first Blue Jays home runs on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As pitcher Eric Lauer said: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like we ever left.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s before even considering the near-sellout crowds on hand to unveil the 2025 AL Championship banner and start the celebration of the franchise\u2019s 50th season. Or Dub Gleed, an aptly named\u00a0acquisition<\/a>\u00a0for a team that’s still undefeated.<\/p>\n

Now 3-0 for the first time in 30 years, the Blue Jays have a chance to gain even more ground in the standings over the next week. A rare weak spot in the schedule brings the Rockies to Toronto for three followed by three in Chicago against the White Sox.<\/p>\n

\"MLBMLB on Sportsnet<\/p>\n

Watch the Toronto Blue Jays, Blue Jays Central pre-game, marquee MLB matchups, Jays in 30, original documentaries, the wild card, divisional series, championship series and entire World Series on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.<\/p>\n

Broadcast schedule<\/a><\/p>\n

On paper, it\u2019s as favourable a week as the Blue Jays will get all season. Of course, it\u2019s now a matter of executing on the field to ensure the opportunity doesn\u2019t go to waste \u2014 and after a weekend of dominant pitching, it\u2019ll be time for Cody Ponce to make his Blue Jays debut Monday (coverage begins on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ at 6:30 p.m. ET \/ 3:30 p.m. PT).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first outing is always cool,\u201d said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. \u201cCody fits in with what we\u2019re trying to do here, he understands how his stuff works. I\u2019m excited to see him pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we await first pitch against the Rockies, here are three more stories emerging from the weekend:<\/p>\n

Okamoto fitting in nicely<\/p>\n

Because Okamoto produced on the field, his teammates had plenty of moments to celebrate him, showering him with Gatorade and beer and dressing him in the home run jacket he’d previously admired from Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think this day would come,\u201d he said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. \u201cThat was an awesome feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the home run was his biggest moment of the weekend, Okamoto collected three other hits while making all the plays at third, where he started all three games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to have many problems adjusting,\u201d Lauer said. \u201cHe\u2019s very polished and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quietly, other aspects of Okamoto\u2019s game were tested, too. For instance: he found himself running at third base on two different occasions Friday, putting his communication skills to the test right away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interpreters like Oshima obviously aren\u2019t permitted on the basepaths so in those moments, it\u2019s on Okamoto to communicate directly with third base coach Carlos Febles about what to anticipate.<\/p>\n

As the Blue Jays saw in Game 7 of the World Series when Isiah Kiner-Falefa was thrown out at home on a close play, even a fraction of a second matters. Realizing the importance of communication, Febles worked with Okamoto throughout spring training, speaking in English and even a little Spanish. Now a few games into the regular season, the Blue Jays are encouraged by how well Okamoto can understand instructions from Febles and put them into practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fine,\u201d Febles said. \u201cHe knows baseball, and baseball has the same language. Like \u2018Attack,\u2019 or \u2018See it through here\u2019 or \u2018Go on contact.\u2019 He dominates on that, and we can also add in hand signals. It\u2019ll take a little bit, but so far so good. He\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider found a way to get every player from the roster into the opening weekend except for starters Ponce and Max Scherzer, who didn\u2019t appear for obvious reasons. Mixing everyone in wasn\u2019t the first priority \u2014 Job 1 is winning the games, of course \u2014 but it\u2019s a pleasant byproduct of how things unfolded.<\/p>\n

Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles earned his first big-league win in his MLB debut, an experience he described as \u201csurreal,\u201d while bench players Tyler Heineman and Myles Straw each earned starts and responded with hits.<\/p>\n

None of that fundamentally shifts how the Blue Jays are likely to use their roster, but Sanchez did make a strong impression by hitting a 417-foot home run out of the No. 2 spot in the batting order Sunday. With Tomoyuki Sugano slated to start for Colorado on Monday, that could be another chance for the Blue Jays to deploy Sanchez\u2019s power against a right-handed starting pitcher, often a favourable matchup.<\/p>\n

Lauer\u2019s impressive start Sunday showed that the Blue Jays have the starting pitching depth to hold their own even while the likes of Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios and Shane Bieber work their way back to full strength. The left-hander pitched 5.1 innings Sunday, walking just one while striking out nine.<\/p>\n

Eventually, there could be some tough decisions for the Blue Jays but no one\u2019s on the brink of returning, so for now there\u2019s no need to consider adjusting the rotation. That means Lauer will get more chances to prove he belongs, including over the weekend against the White Sox.<\/p>\n

With Lauer now in the rotation, it\u2019s less clear who the organization\u2019s next arm up would be, but a couple of pitchers on the big-league radar had notable performances over the weekend. Grant Rogers struggled in his first start of the season, allowing six runs in 2.1 innings, but Chad Dallas struck out five over three innings Sunday while allowing one run and throwing 58 pitches. Meanwhile, Adam Macko and Lazaro Estrada pitched well in multi-inning relief roles.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who\u2019s pushing toward the major leagues, there\u2019s rarely if ever any reason for a pitcher to fear for their rotation spot when their strikeout-to-walk ratio is 9:1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 It would have been hard to fathom a better opening weekend than the one the Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,4,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-652433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-toronto","13":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","14":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652433","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=652433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}