{"id":655118,"date":"2026-03-31T20:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655118\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T20:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:17:18","slug":"toronto-hopes-to-bounce-back-from-blowout-loss-in-series-opener-against-rockies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655118\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto hopes to bounce back from blowout loss in series opener against Rockies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue Jays Gameday (March 31): Toronto hopes to bounce back from blowout loss in series opener against Rockies<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s series opener against the Colorado Rockies didn\u2019t go so great for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.Through two and one-third innings, Cody Ponce was generating swings and misses left and right, as he had a whiff rate above 50%. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury attempting to field. The Jays tied it, the Rockies restored their lead, and the score was kept close until a seven-run top of the sixth. In the end, the Jays fell 14-5<\/a>.There aren\u2019t a lot of positives to take away from Monday\u2019s game, but Davis Schneider and Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez each hit their first home run of the season, while George Springer and Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> hit their second home runs of the season.<\/p>\n

Last night saw Tomoyuki Sugano start for the Rockies, going four and two-thirds innings while giving up just one run. On Tuesday, Ryan Feltner will make his season debut after posting a 4.75 ERA in six starts last season. His only full season in the big leagues came two seasons ago, where he had a 4.49 ERA in 162.1 innings pitched. Felter was better on the road that season, posting a 3.93 ERA.<\/p>\n

Also making his season debut in this game will be Max Scherzer<\/a>. The 41-year-old signed early in Spring Training, where he threw 13.2 scoreless innings with an 18.4 K% and 10.2 BB%. Scherzer\u2019s 2025 had its ups and downs, but he pitched great in the postseason.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays also made some tweaks to their batting order. Their top third of Springer, Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. remains the same, but there is movement elsewhere. Batting cleanup for the second time this season is Okamoto, as Addison Barger starts this game on the bench. With Alejandro Kirk also on the bench, Nathan Lukes bats fifth.<\/p>\n

Ernie Clement was elevated in the batting order, hitting behind Lukes. Daulton Varsho moved down a spot, batting seventh, while Tyler Heineman and Gim\u00e9nez hit eighth and ninth respectively.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays have an easy schedule to start the season and they need to take advantage of it. They can do just do that by winning the next two against the Rockies. Let\u2019s set up Tuesday evening\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Location: Toronto<\/p>\n

First Pitch: 7:07 PM ET<\/p>\n

Watch\/Listen: Sportsnet, S590<\/p>\n

Starting Pitchers<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays \u2013 Max Scherzer: 0-0 record, 0 ERA, 0 IP, 0 SO, 0 BB<\/p>\n

Colorado Rockies \u2013 Ryan Feltner: 0-0\u00a0record, 0 ERA, 0 IP, 0 SO, 0 BB<\/p>\n

Lineups:<\/p>\n

Blue Jays:<\/p>\n

George Springer \u2013 DHJes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez \u2013 LFVladimir Guerrero Jr. \u2013 1BKazuma Okamoto \u2013 3BNathan Lukes \u2013 RFErnie Clement \u2013 2BDaulton Varsho \u2013 CFTyler Heineman \u2013 CAndr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez \u2013 SS<\/p>\n

Rockies:<\/p>\n

Jake McCarthy \u2013 LFHunter Goodman \u2013 CWilli Castro \u2013 1BEzequiel Tovar \u2013 SSTJ Rumfield \u2013 DHTroy Johnston \u2013 RFBrenton Doyle \u2013 CFKyle Karros \u2013 3BRyan Ritter \u2013 2B<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Gameday (March 31): Toronto hopes to bounce back from blowout loss in series opener against Rockies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655119,"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-655118","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":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116325636192112592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655118","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=655118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}