MLB: Toronto Blue Jays at Tampa Bay Rays

Recap: Blue Jays 5, Rays 3; Stroman Dominates While Tulo Homers

Well that was fun, eh? From the get go, the Blue Jays made this an entertaining game to watch. Before Chris Archer could get settled down, the offense made him throw 34 pitches in the first inning and with Marcus Stroman on the mound, the two runs they scored was almost enough for the entire game. Stroman pitched a gem, going 8+ innings while allowing only seven baserunners and striking out five batters. It seemed like he didn’t leave a ball up the entire game until the ninth inning, and with the Rays swinging early and often, it was a breeze for him. Stroman had everything working today and is going to be a treat to follow this season.

Top Play of the Game by WPA

The Blue Jays got started early today, scoring two runs on a single by Edwin Encarnacion  in the first inning. That hit increased the Blue Jays’ odds of winning the game by 11.4%, the highest of any play. Pretty good for a batter who didn’t get an official at-bat this spring.

Bottom Play of the Game by WPA

The only time the Rays were threatening today before the ninth was in the third inning when they scored their first run of the game. After Evan Longoria got a base hit to score Logan Forsythe, Corey Dickerson reached on an error to put runners at first and second with two outs. Stroman used his two-seamer and got Desmond Jennings to ground out, lowering the Rays’ win probability by 5.2%.

Tulo Goes Yard

The Troy Tulowitzki that showed up to the Blue Jays last year was not the real Troy Tulowitzki, He struggled and had just a .258 TAv compared to his career mark of .291. If today is any indication, this season we’ll see the Tul that’s arguably been the best shortstop in baseball for a decade. He went 1 for 3 with a walk and a home run, and even threw in a few slick fielding plays

Marcus Stroman is Pumped

If you don’t like getting out, Logan Morrison, may I suggest playing better?

Strikeouts

As a power hitting team, one would think the Blue Jays would be prone to striking out a lot. That wasn’t the case last season as they had the 5th lowest K% in all of baseball at 18.5%. However, today, they swung and missed a whopping 16 times, 12 of which were against Chris Archer. Archer wasn’t on, and even though the Blue Jays missed his slider a bunch of times, that doesn’t mean it was working. He left it up in the zone a few times, and the Blue Jays still missed it. Let’s hope it’s just some first game kinks that need to be worked out, and not a sign of things to come.

Chris Colabello’s Wild Ride

Just go to the base next time, Chris.

Up Next

The Blue Jays are back at it tomorrow night for the second game of the season at 7:10 PM against the Rays. Scheduled to take the mound are R.A. Dickey for the Blue Jays and Drew Smyly for the Rays. In 2015, Dickey was 11-11 with a 3.91 ERA, while Smyly was 5-2 with a 3.11 ERA. You can read more about them in our series preview.

Lead Photo: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

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